Monday, April 25, 2011

Creative Anxiety

     Being afraid to proceed with the next step in a project is a frequent occurrence among my friends and myself.  But what if I ruin it? is a common  lament. I recently listened to a podcast of Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinki on http://toginet.com/ (March 16, 2011 show) in which Eric Maisel was a guest. Eric is a creativity coach and psychotherapist (http://ericmaisel.com/). Eric's latest book is: Mastering Creative Anxiety.

     Creativity requires one choice after another ( red or blue? border or not? embellish? quilting motif ? ?????)  and choosing promotes anxiety.  We must learn to embrace the anxiety and not try to avoid it or our creativity will be stifled. We buy good materials to make our art and then the feeling of trying to make something excellent promotes anxiety. We need to use both physical and cognitive strategies to cope with our anxiety. Deep breathing cleansing breaths helps physically and the use of affirmations helps cognitively. The book contains 24 lessons to overcome the paralyzing fear that leads to inaction. 
    
     Another one of the reasons that we accumulate a stack of UFO's is because of the fear of putting it out into the world and incurring criticism. I plan to download this book onto my Kindle and I promise that my stack of UFO's will get a bit smaller in the next few months.

     Want to join me in conquering the anxiety?
    

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