Find Your Secret Formula for a Happy and Healthy Creative Introvert Life
If you identify as a creative, an introvert, an empath, or a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), if your Myers Briggs personality type starts with an ‘I’ or you’re an Enneagram Type 5, then you likely experience frequent bouts of energy depletion. You may struggle to keep enough emotional, physical, and mental energy to maintain your relationships and your health, meet your social obligations, and still do your best creative work.
It’s not your fault. There’s nothing wrong with you. Likely you’ve been given the wrong formula to manage life, much less succeed. The formula you were given is for extroverts and it looks like this: hustle+willpower+discipline= success. I’d argue it’s an ineffective formula even for extroverts, but every element of that formula will lead an introvert straight to burnout.
Hustle, willpower, and discipline drain your energy. (Even “success” equals something elusive, exhausting, and difficult to maintain.) So all it takes is an illness, a fight with your partner, a flat tire or sick kiddo — or all of the above, which can easily happen in any given week. Next thing you know, you’re in burnout, derailed from your best intentions on making progress toward your creative dreams.
We need a new formula, one crafted by introverts, for introverts. What might that look like? Maybe, play+persistence+inspiration= beautiful art. Or my personal favorite, meaningful relationships+self care+time to create= happy artist.
We’re so conditioned to believe that nothing powerful can happen without powering our way to it, but that just isn’t true! We creative introverts are at our most powerful when we are vulnerable. Vulnerability allows us to access our most human insights and share them with others. Vulnerability needs a safe space and room to breathe. It takes guts not muscle, strength not hustle.
So how do you find your new formula and how do you muster enough energy to follow it? You don’t have to muster anything. That’s the beauty of writing your own formula. You can find the right combination for yourself, and each variable will give you valuable energy instead of constantly draining you.
For example, instead of following mainstream advice for succeeding as a creative and forcing yourself to network with large groups of strangers (totally draining for introverts), allow yourself time to forge connections with people you really like, who are on a similar journey. When you spend time with these people, you have fun. They like and respect you and your boundaries. You feel better for having spent time with them, even if it’s only in small bits or only online. Before you know it, you’ll be an integral part of a supportive community that can help you reach your goals.
Another example, instead of spreading yourself across multiple social media sites to promote your work, choose one where you feel most comfortable, and make yourself at home. For my blog, it helped to imagine creating a space filled with beautiful things that feed my introvert soul. Flowers, cozy furniture, hot tea, a freshly sharpened pencil and a blank page. Everything I write and do on my blog is intended to invite in other creative introverts to join me in building a community around our shared interests. That feels good to me; it feeds me.
Find what feeds you.
If you have young kids at home, are struggling to make ends meet, or are coping with an illness, the idea of playing your way to your dreams might sound naive. Privileged even. And you’d be right. The playing field is not even for all of us. I wish it was. I do my best to play my position well and help those I can around me.
But you have a spark inside that’s leading you to something better than where you find yourself. You’ll need energy for that journey. Start with something small. Anything at all. Breathing is free and readily available for most of us. If breathing is a trigger or a challenge, close your eyes and get grounded in your body. Feel the ground under you. Listen. Be fully present for a minute without the worries or inner critic telling you what you can and can’t do. Listen for the other voice, the one who knows what you like and what you really want. Repeat as often as you can. Slowly, your own secret formula will take shape and the means to make it your reality.
There are no easy answers. It takes time, and this is hard work, soul work. Which is why it’s worth it, and why you might want help along the way. Get started with your free energy planner today, and check back here often for more inspiration, tools, and support!
