How Creative Introverts Are — and Aren’t — Like Bitcoin Mining Machines
My teenage son built a bitcoin mining machine last fall. His room was three degrees hotter with it running, and I worried for our electric bill. (No, we aren’t millionaires yet.) But what a great analogy for creative introverts:
We’re constantly mining for value in obscure corners of the universe most don’t think to look. And we’re plugged in all the time, receiving information, burning up and radiating energy. No wonder we need so many naps!
Many creative introverts have a high sensitivity to stimuli and an intuitive understanding of the world. It’s a gift, but it doesn’t always feel that way. Often, we just feel tired, easily overwhelmed, and filled with uncharacteristic, suppressed rage. (If only everyone would leave us alone for a few hours or days or…forever!)
The good news is that the bitcoin mining machine isn’t a perfect analogy for creative introverts. For one thing, machines are logical. Creativity is suprarational. Machines have to stay plugged into an energy source to work, but introverts are energy powerhouses. And while machines follow their programming, we can overcome ours.
For many creative introverts, our reprogramming begins with recognizing how it feels in our bodies to be overwhelmed, depleted, and stretched thin. We can spend our entire lives ignoring and pushing through the body aches, the anxiety, the flu-like symptoms, believing the lie that it’s all in our heads. Once we recognize the symptoms, we can start to notice them coming. We can recharge before it’s too late, avoiding burnout altogether. With time, those same symptoms become a compass, pointing us in the direction of our true North.
This is part of the gift of being a creative introvert. When I was a young freelancer I took any paying work, because I didn’t really know what I wanted outside of getting paid. I learned a lot — mostly, what I hate doing. The problem is that once you take work, you become known for that kind of work. You can get stuck doing a lot of projects you don’t enjoy and that don’t put you closer to your big goals.
Now in my 40s, when I consider new work, I check in with my body. If I feel tired when I think of the job, if I feel a sense of dread (not related to performance anxiety, which is different), if I don’t feel a spark of joy and excitement about the project, I don’t take it. I know that in the end, the cost of doing something not in line with my dreams is too high. My body simply won’t let me. The cost can come in the form of anxiety, insomnia, or low energy. I used to resent the limitation. Now I’m grateful for it. Checking in with my body has prevented me from chasing every shiny little thing and kept me on track.
But I’ve found in my own experience that there’s a tool that’s even more important to have in our creative introvert belt than awareness: Acceptance. Accepting that our intuitive gifts come with a physical cost takes time. And, perhaps, grieving. To become someone new, you first have to let go of who you were.
For me, I care deeply about my people. I want them to be happy, and I have too often made them happy at my own expense. When I started to recognize how depleted I was living and how much care I needed to live fully awake and alive, I had to let go of some ingrained people-pleasing habits. I released unhealthy relationships and learned to honor my own needs first. I’m still learning it.
So no, we aren’t computers or brains in a jar. We’re creatives, and we can reprogram ourselves. Slowly. One day at a time. Using body awareness tools like yoga, meditation, and journaling. I hope you start today, right now, here.
Mine on, friend!
Christa Hogan is a veteran freelancer and kidlit author, and a yoga and meditation teacher.
