Overwhelming Anxiety
I know we’re suppose to be exploring ‘overcoming anxiety” at this year's Celebration – but right now I’m filled with ‘overwhelming anxiety.’
It’s that feeling of tenseness, nervousness – inability to relax. “Anxiety is having
a sense of dread, or fearing the worst. feeling like the world is speeding up or slowing down.”
Fear, anxiety, doubt are really such unnecessary emotions. And yet they are hard to ignore.
Last night I dreamt I found a map of a place I had been looking for so I enlarged it, and made it into a wall hanging. I was so delighted! Then I found out it was a map of the wrong place. I woke up and my heart was pounding!
Clearly my dreams are revealing that I am anxious!
Anxiety comes when we are faced with an unknown.
I’m always doing something new. I love newness - because in the face of something new – we need to be creative. But the act of creativity can be anxiety provoking - in and of itself.
Creativity requires us to face an empty screen or blank canvas, literally or figuratively. Because creativity means doing something that has not been done before, there are no roadmaps. And we never know how will others react to our ideas or creations.
The main reason for the connection between anxiety and creativity is imagination.
The problem is that the same brain that conjures up inventive paintings, poetry, novels and music can also get trapped in repetitive thoughts and dreadful worries.
Another problem is that creativity can also help us fight overwhelming anxiety.
Apparently creative ventures help to fight anxiety because they activate the parts of your brain that process emotions. Music and art, for example, help to calm brain activity and allow the individual to feel a sense of emotional harmony.
It is a dilemma we need to explore.
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
https://www.facebook.com/events/362944562730637/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[]%7D
It’s that feeling of tenseness, nervousness – inability to relax. “Anxiety is having
a sense of dread, or fearing the worst. feeling like the world is speeding up or slowing down.”
Fear, anxiety, doubt are really such unnecessary emotions. And yet they are hard to ignore.
Last night I dreamt I found a map of a place I had been looking for so I enlarged it, and made it into a wall hanging. I was so delighted! Then I found out it was a map of the wrong place. I woke up and my heart was pounding!
Clearly my dreams are revealing that I am anxious!
Anxiety comes when we are faced with an unknown.
I’m always doing something new. I love newness - because in the face of something new – we need to be creative. But the act of creativity can be anxiety provoking - in and of itself.
Creativity requires us to face an empty screen or blank canvas, literally or figuratively. Because creativity means doing something that has not been done before, there are no roadmaps. And we never know how will others react to our ideas or creations.
The main reason for the connection between anxiety and creativity is imagination.
The problem is that the same brain that conjures up inventive paintings, poetry, novels and music can also get trapped in repetitive thoughts and dreadful worries.
Another problem is that creativity can also help us fight overwhelming anxiety.
Apparently creative ventures help to fight anxiety because they activate the parts of your brain that process emotions. Music and art, for example, help to calm brain activity and allow the individual to feel a sense of emotional harmony.
It is a dilemma we need to explore.
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
https://www.facebook.com/events/362944562730637/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[]%7D
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