We have already talked about anxiety in a previous article. This time I’d like to address how anxiety or excessive concern can stop our creativity or artistic expression. Here are some ways anxiety shows up:

1) Fear of something bad that might happen to us.

2) Fear of rejection, or pain.

3) Fear that something will disrupt our calmness, balance or routine, or enjoyment.

4) Physical symptoms like OCD, skin rashes, IBS, headaches, migraines, stomach aches, fainting…

5) Procrastination, self-sabotage, not charging enough for our art.

Where does anxiety originate from?

It starts in our mind with an innocent thought, ‘What if?‘ For example, we might imagine that if someone does not like our artwork or our performance, this will hurt us, and so we avoid showing our talent.

As we entertain that thought our brilliant mind conjures a 3D photo-realistic image of that event in all its details. The more we think about it, the more real it becomes. Our body responds to it with physical symptoms. This is because our mind cannot tell the difference between reality and imagination. This is the reason why we might cry or become excited when watching a movie that causes certain emotions. Aren’t those just pixels? Yes, but boy, how they influence our heartbeat!

As this image becomes more solid in our mind, we realise that our heart is going faster, or maybe we feel butterflies in our stomach; we also subconsciously record this reaction to our thoughts… and next time, when the original trigger happens, our neurons already know where to go and fire the same response. Neurons that wire together fire together, thus when we repeat the initial thought, which is negative, we recreate the negative reaction, all at subconscious level, and then physically.

The neural connection becomes stronger and stronger until all we need is the tiniest trigger to fall into a vicious circle of anxiety, procrastination, self-sabotage, or even jelly legs, racing heart, sweating and panic attacks, not to mention skin rashes etc.

This phenomenon is quite common in experienced performers, singers, artists, actors, dancers and anyone who is at some point concerned about being put on the spot, or not been seen as good enough.

Is there a solution or a way of relieving this stressful situation?

Yes.

First, challenge your thoughts. That is the core issue. Anxiety is your mind telling you that you are going to be in pain or in trouble soon. Therefore you need to challenge your habit of thinking and turn things around.

So next time you think, ‘If I show my composition to that agent, he will laugh at me’, challenge that thought! Ask yourself, ‘Is he really going to laugh at me?’ I don’t believe it. And then take that step, call that agent, show him your new song, and say to yourself, ‘Here we go, I have done it and he is not laughing!’ Chances are, even if your song is incorrectly composed, the agent might give you some good tips on how to get started or improve.

Then take the second step. The moment we challenge our thoughts they start to crumble. Repetition will eventually destroy the old neural connection and replace it with a new, healthier thought. Look at all the good things you love doing and you want to share with the world – and you are not sharing because you fear rejection or not feeling enough. Is it singing, dancing, acting, drawing, sculpting, craft, painting, making stained glass…or anything else that is an art? Writing books, creating poetry, carving wood, making mosaics…sewing theatre costumes, painting backgrounds, embroidering silk? The list is endless.

Now think about this wonderful hobby or passion you have and ask yourself, ‘What is stopping me from sharing this part of me with the others? ‘ List all the reasons. And instead of asking yourself, ‘What if my novel fails?’ Smile and ask, ‘What if my novel is a success?’. Then observe the reaction of your mind and body to this!

With practice, we can all learn to be more positive in out thinking and change our mindset by correcting our negative thoughts every time they surface.

However, there are times where these thoughts are too deep to be accessed with out logical mind. When you ask yourself the questions you give the ‘good replies’ – you know you are good at your craft – and yet you don’t seem to be able to share it, or to do something about it – what is stopping you?

This is when we can use RTT – a blend of CBT, NLP, coaching, psychotherapy and hypnosis, which addresses the subconscious mind to remove the problem from its root. In a Rapid Transformational Therapy session, I help you to gently enter in a state of deep relaxation, and using the techniques I just listed, we find out the core of that negative thinking, which is causing issues in your life.

We process those concepts, work out how, where and then you built them, we change them and install a new belief.

For example, many teens loved the arts from music to dance, drawing and singing, but were told ‘Jenny is much more graceful than you’, ‘You are so out of tune’, ‘You’d better not take art in your exams and concentrate on maths’. Subconsciously, they all told themselves, ‘Okay, I need to calm it down, I am not good at this, I will stop doing it because when I try, it hurts.’

Let me tell you the truth.

Art doesn’t hurt. Being yourself doesn’t hurt. Rejection and criticism hurt. This is the core reason why many creative people have abandoned all hopes to ever make it in the arts – fear of pain and rejection and of not being good enough. Or is they have no fear of making it, they keep their prices so low they can’t make a living because they are terrified of charging the current prices of professional artists.

You can imagine that during an RTT session, you will have many A-HA moments. You will finally see how, when and why you created the conviction that art is not available to you. We will eliminate it, erase it, evaporate it and you will be freed of that idea.

How can we get rid of a deeply ingrained, negative thought?

During the session you will listen to a soothing, calming voice that introduces you to a new belief. It describes you in a dignified, fresh, new way as a vibrant person with good qualities that can be safely shared with others. In the end of the session, I will calmly and gently take you out of hypnosis, and I will send you an MP3 file with the recording of that final script.

I will ask you to listen to it for a couple of months, which will literally re-wire all those bad connections and creates positive ones. It’s simple and effective. You will be transformed like a butterfly and fly off with energy and self belief.

How do I know that this works? First, I used to be overly concerned about many things and I have overcome my fears with RTT. Second, I trained to become a Clinical Hypnotherapist so I can see the same results in everyone.

The first part of our amazing journey consists in accepting that it is possible to get rid of fear and anxiety. Just accepting that idea allows the initial healing by creating a beautiful image in our mind of the new state of mind we want to achieve, which is based on the present and not on the past. By creating a picture where we achieve success, we start taking baby steps towards the realisation of our goals, and as we improve in our skill, gain more confidence, and share this with others, our creative self becomes detangled from the old, dusty thoughts that had hindered us for years.

There is a meme I saw months ago which sums this up. It says something like this, ‘When the negative committee sitting in our mind starts to talk, tell it to shut up! ‘ This can be done at conscious and subconsciously level – and continued after your RTT session.

If you wish to get rid of your negative thinking habits, and let the artist inside you shine, contact me today and you will get a free discovery call when I can show you how can I help you.

Get in touch today!

Contact me – Facebook.com/franzsidneytherapy

Radiantly yours,

Franz