Anxious or just very Creative?

Catalyst News Issue 66- February 5, 2010 http://www.catalystonline.co.uk included a wonderful piece about anxiety and creativity:

Being anxious about creating anything is very natural because anxiety is an emotional condition and producing something from your inner self, the most deep and private part of you is both highly emotional, and often challenging.

But just what brings up that anxiety? One theory was that was caused by a chemical imbalance or distorted thinking, but new evidence seems to show it is caused by having a creative intellect. In general this means having the mental facility to generate, both consciously and subconsciously, complex scenarios in the creative area of the brain. It seems that every anxiety sufferer has this mental resource which can be utilized consciously to produce creative ability or subconsciously by the autonomic nervous system to identify potential risks and initiates the flight or fight response if needed.

This means that under stress anxiety levels rise the anxiety response releases a series of thought processes which provide a 'risk assessment' asking 'what if?' and uses the sensory organs to collect data and respond with the appropriate course of action. When we are anxious we have physical signs such as breathlessness, or 'butterflies' for actors it manifests as stage fright, for writers it can be seen in writer's block or displacement activity.

Anna suggests embracing the anxiety; seeing it as a validation of how creative you are, and choosing to use that energy in a productive way. Fear and excitement have the same physical responses in the body. You are going to experience the same symptoms, so choose to be excited and use it to inspire you to create.