Are you a Highly Creative HSP or Empath? How to let yourself be more creative.

I[image error]f you are a sensitive creative writer, photographer or painter or simply an HSP who uses creativity to express emotions, you already know how therapeutic creativity can be. For me, creativity is healing in more ways than one. It is cathartic, getting my feelings onto the page or on the canvas. It is a way to fill my heart, to nourish my soul. It is also a way to feel connected to something bigger. But I know that as a  creative INFP and HSP, I can be stopped in my tracks because of self-doubt. Creating something, anything, brings up fear. There are moments of emptiness, of going into the void.  There is all the struggle with yourself that makes creating something harder than it is, in itself. This week, I want to do a reminder post, both for you and me, about how we can let ourselves by more creative. 

One of the best ideas I have ever encountered about creativity is something that comes from writer Ray Bradbury’s work. It might help you on your own journey as a creative INFP or HSP.

Once upon a time, I heard this interview with Ray Bradbury in which he talks about something that felt revolutionary to me. In it, he talked about how thinking is merely a “corrective” in our lives. That’s all thinking is supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be the center of our lives.

That knocked my socks off.

What? Thinking was not supposed to be the center of my life? But I was always thinking and trying to control the outside world by thinking of all possibilities in my head (and then avoiding them.) I was constantly ruminating, something I learned later on is something HSPs are prone to, especially those of us who might have experienced trauma in the past. What was I supposed to do, if not think and try to maneuver my way through life. How was I supposed to live?

This is, in part what Bradbury says and I think it is one of the best interviews on creativity that I have ever heard.

“The worst thing you do when you think is lie — you can make up reasons that are not true for the things that you did, and what you’re trying to do as a creative person is surprise yourself — find out who you really are, and try not to lie, try to tell the truth all the time. And the only way to do this is by being very active and very emotional, and get it out of yourself — making things that you hate and things that you love, you write about these then, intensely. When it’s over, then you can think about it; then you can look, it works or it doesn’t work, something is missing here. And, if something is missing, then you go back and re-emotionalize that part, so it’s all of a piece.

But thinking is to be a corrective in our life — it’s not supposed to be a center of our life. Living is supposed to be the center of our life, being is supposed to be the center — with correctives around, which hold us like the skin holds our blood and our flesh in. But our skin is not a way of life — the way of living is the blood pumping through our veins, the ability to sense and to feel and to know. And the intellect doesn’t help you very much there — you should get on with the business of living.”

What else can I say, but wow! This is something I have both learnt a lot from and something I still struggle with – getting out of my mind and into feeling and being and creating.

You might be blocking yourself as a sensitive INFP or HSP by trying to follow someone else’s process.

If you are an intuitive, highly sensitive writer or other creative, the way you do things is probably different from the linear way you might have learnt in school. As an INFP writer, I have learnt that I need to combine the traditional step-by-step process with my own unique way of doing things. My process is not a straight line. It’s a spiral path. When I write longer pieces, for example, I may have bullet points as a guide but I don’t always stick to them. They are a jumping point. By the end of it, I keep some part of this original outline. I discard the rest. The way I write is also spiral, circling around the topic in tighter and tighter circles, till I get to the heart of it. I was introduced to a very practical way to do this circular dance through fellow HSP and INFJ writer Lauren Sapala’s work. In this interview with Lauren, we discuss how you can approach writing in a similar way to working on mosaic. While this interview is about writing, what Lauren talks about is also true for accepting our own style as highly sensitive and intuitive people.

Also, check out this piece I wrote on an alternative way to set goals, which might suit you better as a sensitive creative. The post discusses fellow HSP and INFP Amanda Linehan’s process of goal-setting, which looks very different from traditional goal-setting. If you like this post, you might also enjoy this interview I did with Amanda. If you are an INFP writer, you might also like this post on how including openness in our writing can help INFPs. 

So, think about this. What is your authentic process? How can you do things your own way? Are you feeling resistant because you are forcing yourself into doing things in a way that works for other people? How can you let yourself “Do you”? How could that help you be more creative? 

Resistance shows up in different ways for creative INFPs and HSPs and different kinds of resistance need different tools.

Resistance kicks in when we are trying to make some substantial change – whether pursuing a creative calling or launching our own business as HSP entrepreneurs. Are we sure? How do we know we are doing the right thing? How do you we know that it’ll be worth it? How do we know this is even what we want? A thousand-headed monster shows up as we step into the arena. Then, there is the deadly: How do we know this is even resistance and not healthy fear? Some of these are valid questions we have to think about. Some of these are just doubts. We need different tools to deal with each of these.

In this post, I talk about when to know that it is, in fact, resistance and not healthy fear.  As an INFP writer, one of the doubts that comes up for me is if I am original enough. Everything has been done before, said before. What’s the point of doing the same thing all over again. In this post, I talk about how I have dealt with this doubt, how I need to keep on reminding myself that authenticity is more important than originality.  This is something we need to keep telling ourselves as highly sensitive and intuitive people, especially when feeling self-critical.

What about those times when we feel stuck in the rut, when creative juices run dry? One easy way to switch into a more creative mindset is by listening to brainwave entrainment music. The great thing about this music is that it will work whether or not you make an effort, unlike meditation which takes practice. In this post, I talk about attending a concert by Steven Halpern, a Grammy-nominated musician considered to be one of the founding fathers of New Age music, which was my first taste of  this music that can alter our brainwaves so that we feel more relaxed and at ease.

Then, there are those other times that we feel resistant but don’t know why. Check out this post to see how the exercise of breaking can egg can help you break through resistance as a sensitive creative. Resistance also shows up once the work is done, when we want to share it with others. In this post, I talk about exploring my own doubts around this and the difference between self-promotion and bragging.

Another way in which we can block ourselves as creative INFPs and HSPs is by frittering away our energy. In this post, I talk about a very interesting idea that comes from Nancy Peacock’s work about how and why we lose our creative energy and how we can birth our creations.

These are just a few of the tools and mindsets that have helped me in my own creative journey as an INFP writer and a highly sensitive person. I hope you found something here to help you in your own creative journey.

What about you? What things work for you? What helps you be more creative?