The new 'F' word
Tuesday 19th May 2009 | No comments
It's easy to be fearful at the moment - the media are full of stories about hard times, doom and gloom forecasts abound, and lots of things we took for granted only a year or so ago are no longer givens.
When you're anxious, it is very difficult to think clearly (this is a scientific fact, check it out by Googling 'flight or fight'). You can't make sensible decisions about small things, let alone real dilemmas, and your perspective on things can become quite distorted. The ability to be creative or innovative is badly compromised when you are frightened, and if fear (or even low-level anxiety) persist over time, your whole being can suffer.
Fear or anxiety may be a natural response, but it's not useful....
So, what to do? Try these ideas:
- Set aside a time for worrying then put it out of your mind til that time arrives. For chronic anxieties, you may need to give yourself 10 minutes every day at the same time. For worries like the dentist, set aside the 5 minutes before you are called into the dentist's lair (why waste the 3 weeks before the appointment, when there is nothing you can do about it...).
- Decide whether in fact there is something you can do about the issue - if so, do it, and if not, get on with those parts of your life that are working for you. Render order from chaos in some corner of your world, even if it is not the corner where your current dilemma is lurking.
- If your anxiety is of the 'anxious because I don't know if things will work out OK' type, the 'sitting with uncertainty' and 'not knowing' that is inherently part of the creative process or any times of change, then try some (or all...) of these ideas:
- take small steps, baby steps, towards your destination.
- be aware that you are not alone; anyone who has trodden the creative path or navigated turbulent waters has dealt with at least some of these issues.
- read accounts by writers and painters and artists and chefs and scientists and explorers - anyone who has tried something new - it's reassuring to see the recurring themes, and such accounts are often full of ideas about dealing with it.
- never ever ever ever give up. (This doesn't mean you can't pause, so long as sooner or later you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again...)
- don't burn your bridges all at once - keep at least a foothold in your safe, known world.
- keep balance in your life between the new and the familiar, the safe and the dangerous, the known and the unknown.
- find a mentor, someone who has been where you are now and can be living proof that there is a way though it all...
- make a list of what you DO know - that almost everyone goes through this, that you have courage, that you will survive even if your job/novel/current lifestyle or belief system does not, that you have - or can develop - the skills needed...
If you'd like more tips, contact me http://workincolour.com.au/contact-us/ with the words 'Worry and Doubt' in the message.
Tags: creativity, failure, fear
