Most creatives are highly sensitive people. They react to certain physical, emotional, or social situations with strong emotions. The way you feel, the way you experience life isn’t wrong. It’s part of who you are and why you are creative. But that extra sensitivity can create obstacles for you as well. Highly sensitive creatives often get overwhelmed when emotions run high. And let’s be honest, emotions are high everywhere right now. Particularly fear. Yes, I’m writing this from an American perspective, but there are wars and threats across the globe (and not just the ones coming from the current administration in the USA). In this time of overwhelming crisis after crisis, the world needs creatives.
Creativity is our most powerful tool to shape the world we want to live in.” —Isra Hirsi
Let’s look at what your creative self needs when fear triggers your brain and body.
What Fear Does to Your Body and Brain
Fear prepares us to react to danger. It is a basic survival mechanism built into our brain and mostly out of our conscious control.
Once your brain perceives danger, it slows or shuts off functions that aren’t essential for survival. For example, it will slow your stomach and gut down. It will also sharpen senses and functions that will aid our survival. Your heart pumps faster to send more blood and adrenaline to your muscles so you can fight or run or freeze.
The emotional reaction to fear is individual, based on the sum of each person’s experiences and physiology. Fear can interrupt processes in your brain. When that happens, you cannot regulate your own emotions, or read non-verbal cues, or process other information, or think before acting, or choose to act ethically. This leaves you susceptible to intense emotions and impulsive reactions, which can make you unable to act appropriately.
Symptoms of fear include:
- Chest pain
- Chills
- Dry mouth
- Nausea
- Rapid heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Upset stomach
Some common triggers of fear include:
- Certain specific objects or situations (spiders, snakes, heights, flying, etc.)
- Future events
- Imagined events
- Real environmental dangers
- The unknown
Right now, many people are experiencing fears/anger/outrage around all of those triggers all at once. It is a powerful and overwhelming mix.
The effects of long-term or chronic fear
Long-term or chronic fear can affect our physical and emotional health.
Fear weakens our immune system. It can cause heart damage, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, and decreased fertility. Also, fear can speed up aging and even cause premature death. Long-term fear includes fatigue, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
It’s important to do what you can to break the cycle of fear. If recent events triggered a fear response in you, try to create some safe moments for yourself.
Yes, these safe moments won’t make the fear go away. It’s real. And we have to be aware. But there are things you can do.
How to Decrease Fear’s Hold on You
Don’t push through it. More often than not, that will cause you to bottle up emotions unhealthily; it can cause you to make mistakes, and it can cause your brain and body to double down on that fear or anger. But your body and brain also need frequent moments of respite.
Life is a hard battle, anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me.” ―Sojourner Truth
Take Stock
First, take stock of how you feel. Label your feelings and make I statements like I feel afraid or I feel angry. Most likely you’re feeling more than one thing, and that’s okay. It’s human. List them. Identifying your feelings helps you be aware when those feelings are being triggered. That awareness can help you overcome or reduce the symptoms that emotion triggers in you.
Second, figure out where your emotions are blocking you. What is it you want to do but cannot because of an emotion you’re experiencing. This is an important step. It tells you where you need more support or perhaps more self-care tools.
Sometimes you may find this first step overwhelming. That’s okay. Take a break. Sit with both feet on the ground. Feel the ground beneath your feet. Breathe. Nice and slow. It might be difficult to do this at first. That’s normal. Keep practicing. It will get a little easier.
Take Care of Your Physical Being
Get up, shower, and get dressed for a good day—every day. Even when it doesn’t feel like a good day. When you physically take care of yourself and feel better physically, you fortify your emotional self.
Pay attention to your diet. Eat healthy. Eat enough. Without proper nutrition, it will be much more difficult to feel strong.
Get regular exercise. Figure out what kind of exercise you would enjoy or hate the least. Decide what time of day you can work in your exercise. Strive for a minimum of ten minutes a day. But remember, even just a few minutes can be beneficial.
Get enough sleep. How you ask? Make your sleep environment one of your “safe” places. No social media or new. Make it comfortable, whatever that means to you.
Take Care of Your Mental & Emotional Self
Choose to be around supportive people. People you feel safe with. If you can’t live with supportive people, there are many ways to connect with those you find supportive. You can use the telephone, messaging, or meet virtually.
At least once a day, practice deep breathing techniques, progressive muscle relaxation, or visualizations (happy places, peaceful places).
Take a break from the news and social media. Make one room or one area of your home a safe-zone that you protect from those endless replays and re-hashes of the horrifying and terrifying things that are going on. Maybe you choose to make the dinner table a no news/no social media zone. Or your bedroom. Make certain that you make the area physically safe. Put your television, phone and tablet, and computers more than two arm’s lengths away from you at the least. Better if you put those things in another room.
Reframe thoughts about how afraid you are or what you can’t do. Reframing doesn’t mean ignoring thoughts or feelings. It means being aware of what you are feeling emotionally and physically. It means changing something like I’m so angry and afraid I can’t create into something more like “I am angry and afraid but, I will use those feelings to power my creativity,” or your activism, or whatever it needs to be for you.
Journal if it is a safe place to record and let go of those fears. If journaling makes you more anxious, make a gratitude list. Even the most basic things can be on that list. Things like: hot water for a shower, or that you took a shower, or the clothes you wear, or the love of a family member or friend. There is no rule for how big or important something must be in order to make your gratitude list. The only guideline is that you list something you can genuinely be grateful for.
Find moments of joy and beauty. Even if you feel they are too small to be important, make note of them. You can draw strength from tiny moments.
Be Creative
Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.” ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
Find your hope. Step into your creativity. Use it as a pressure valve for all those emotions. Allow yourself to just do it. No expectations. No judgments. Know that just using the smallest amount of creativity you have is an act of resistance. An act of affirmation. An act of self-care.
Take care of yourselves, creatives. The world needs you more than ever.
Find more tips on taking care of yourself in these posts:
Do You Have a Mental Health First Aid Kit?
Give Your Creative Self Grace When You Need It
Resources
Image Credit
Featured Image by Hello Cdd20 from Pixabay
Beautifully said, Lynette!
Thank you, Lisa. I appreciate your taking the time to read this.