Manage Your Anxiety

Each stage of the creative process is characterized by its own kind of anxiety. The hungry-mind anxiety associated with the original wish to create is different from the chaotic-mind anxiety of working, and both are different from the critical-mind anxiety and attached-mind anxiety that make it so difficult to declare a work finished. In its negative aspect anxiety blocks the writer, causes her to limit her scope or create second-rate work. In its so-to-speak positive aspect, anxiety is like the itching that companies the healing of a wound: horribly uncomfortable, but proof that creativity is happening.


There’s a basic remedy for each stage of anxiety. The remedy for each is not only doing something, but doing it appropriately:


STAGE ANXIETY SOLUTION

1. Wishing - hungry mind - appropriate feeding
2. Choosing - confused mind - appropriate clarity
3. Starting - weakened mind - appropriate strength
4. Working - chaotic mind - appropriate order
5. Completing - critical mind - appropriate appraising
6. Showing - shy mind - appropriate performing
attached mind appropriate detaching