To create we need high energy - not anxiety
There seems to be an enduring mythology about creative inspiration and performing as an actor, for example, that it benefits from an “edge” of nervous tension or even anxiety.
Creativity coach and writer Eric Maisel, PhD comments in our interview Ten Zen Seconds (about his new book) that this really is a false and distorting idea: “It isn’t at all clear that tension or anxiety is what’s needed for peak performance and lifelong creativity,” he says.
“They may be unavoidable by-products of the difficulties that we face as we try to do large things and connected to our fear of failing, fear of making messes and mistakes, and so on, but they are not beneficial per se.
“You want enthusiasm, passion, love, curiosity, interest, and so on to inform your work and to exist right in the moment, in the performance moment or the creative moment, while at the same reducing (or eliminating) your fears, worries, anxieties, and so on.
“Creating is not an energy-neutral state: it is a high energy state, with, at its healthiest, enthusiasm and not anxiety driving its engine.”
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April 25th, 2007 at 4:39 am
I’ve been on stage as an actress as well as an instrumental performer. I have always struggled with terrific stage fright. These ideas are very useful and needed for performers. Thank you both.
Janet Grace Riehl, author “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary”
April 25th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Douglas, Excellent questions (and answers, Eric). As an artist and actor, I can relate to every one of your questions through personal experience. I once told a casting director that I was so familiar with “the edge” that I could shave with it!
Creative people have long been given too many clichés to fall back on, to rationalize and justify negative or martyr-type behavior. Creativity should be about “living in the solution, not the problem.”
Ray Smith
Publisher, “Bernadette’s Pages: An Intimate Crossroad”
September 7th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Reading over this post made me think of the way I feel when I’m on a vacation. I remember a cruise to alaska. Around the 3rd day of the cruise I had become very “settled”. I felt to far away from home to do any thing and I felt free. It seem to be during these times when I can become so inspired. The life I had just left a few days earlier is suddenly filled with woderful opportunities, and blessing. All this arising from a changed perspective and energy. Good post. Thanks.
October 29th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Reading this post affirmed my belief. I would like to share my thoughts on the same subject. Keep up the excellent word!
Love & Gratitude,
Tina
Think Simple. Be Decisive.