Are you creative, sensitive—and anxious?

My clients come from all over the world, and from a variety of professions. I’ve worked with musicians, teachers, entrepreneurs, program managers, consultants, finance experts, administrators, social workers, students, massage therapists, yoga teachers, students, and more.

What could such a diverse group have in common? We—and I say “we” because I was my own first client—share two key life experiences:

We are creative, sensitive—and anxious

We’ve tried a variety of ways of dealing with our anxiety, but have not found the relief we seek

In fact, it may be because you are sensitive that you have not yet found relief from anxiety.  To make sense of this, read on. You’ll learn how the formidable strengths you possess as a creative, sensitive person can contribute to the anxiety you experience.  And you’ll learn what kind of support can help you reclaim those strengths so you can use them in a positive way.

Your strengths

Vision—You have high standards for yourself, and you work hard to live up to those standards

Creativity—You are a deep thinker, and you count on your mind as your key resource for insights, ideas, and solutions

Empathy—You are keenly attuned to the feelings and needs of people around you  

Your challenges

If you are a sensitive person, your wonderful qualities of vision, creativity, and empathy are aspects of a genetic trait that includes three other key characteristics:

1—You take in a great deal of physical and emotional information from your environment

2—You process that information in a deep way.

3—You often have intense emotional reactions to all you have processed.

Is it any wonder you are prone to overwhelm and anxiety?

Here’s the good news: this intensity can be successfully managed. But you need skills and self-understanding to do that, and many of us neither learned those skills nor developed that self-understanding as we grew up.

On the contrary: if you felt different and didn’t understand why, you may have coped the way I coped, and the way many sensitive, creative people I’ve worked with have coped: you used your strengths of vision, creativity, and empathy as weapons against yourself.

You have a vision of who you want to be…but you beat yourself up with it

• Life feels like a burden, and on top of that, you feel ashamed for not feeling grateful
• You dread coming off as critical, impatient, or irritable with friends, family, or colleagues, because you are a deeply kind person at heart
• You get burned out and exhausted, pushing yourself to keep up with the demands of work and family

Your creative mind can spiral into negative thinking

• You are harsh with yourself when things don’t go the way you think they should be going
• Your get overwhelmed, brooding over past mistakes and worrying about the future
• You put off making decisions, because you are worried you’ll make a mistake

Your relationships feel like minefields

• You feel others’ disapproval so keenly that a harsh or critical comment knocks the wind right out of you
• You agonize over how to respond to conflict, fearing you’ll hurt the other person or make things worse
• When others let you down, you hold in your anger and disappointment…and the resulting the stress takes its toll in the form of headaches, back pain, frequent colds, or even missed work

Are you getting the support you need?

Sensitive anxiety has its own specific causes, challenges, and solutions. In your search for relief, you need a skilled guide, teacher, and mentor—someone who:

• Is highly knowledgeable about your sensitive trait
• Knows the unique pitfalls and potholes on this path
• Is comfortable with your intense emotions and can teach you practical skills to manage them
• Helps you recognize and celebrate big leaps of insight.. and small increments of improvement

Sustainably Sensitive programs could be life-changing for you if you

• Need practical, usable support to manage your intense emotions
• Seek lasting relief, even if it means making changes in your life
• Are ready to make your relationship with yourself a top priority