People who feel like impostors will often play it safe by not even attempting a creative project, out of a self-limiting belief of being incompetent.
Tilda Swinton admitted, “I certainly never set out to be an actor, and I still find it embarrassing when I hear myself referred to as an actor. I expect real actors to stand up and protest: She’s a fraud.”
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated, which made The New York Times best-seller list, once commented, “I can be very hard on myself. I convince myself that I’m fooling people. Or, I convince myself that people like the book for the wrong reasons.”
Comparing ourselves to others can sometimes suffocate our creativity. "A person needs a healthy self-respect to pursue novel ideas, and to make mistakes, despite criticism from others. Self-doubt there may be, but it cannot always win the day." Margaret A. Boden, PhD. Follow link for more quotes in post: We Need Healthy Self Respect to Be More Creative: http://thecreativemind.net/187/
The reputation you have with yourself - your self-esteem - may be the single most important factor for a fulfilling life.
Meredith Vieira on an abusive relationship: "I consider myself a pretty smart woman, and I got into this situation… It all worked out. I can look back and go, Where was my respect for myself?”
Psychologist Ellen Langer says “self-respect is not contingent on success because there are always failures to contend with. Neither is it a result of comparing ourselves with others because there is always someone better.” She adds that people with “self-respect are less prone to blame, guilt, regret, lies, secrets and stress.”
"I've battled depression for most of my adult life. I don't discuss it much but when I do, like now, it's to encourage someone suffering from depression."
"What's interesting is that some of the smartest people with the most developed minds suffer the most at the hand of their own high analytical ability when it comes to having happiness and meaning in their life." - Laura Berman Fortgang from her excellent The Little Book On Meaning. http://vsb.li/PbGtWW
The Mental Health Telesummit MP3 recordings package is now available. "Our 12 speakers have done the work necessary to heal their own lives. They KNOW what it takes to Heal and Return to Wholeness. They are absolutely passionate about sharing with you the real scoop on how they did it and how you can do the same!" http://talentdevelop.com/MHT
"In her memoir, Susannah Cahalan writes about the month she descended into madness, experiencing seizures, paranoia, psychosis and catatonia. As Dr. Souhel Najjar put it to her parents, "her brain was on fire." She had anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, a rare autoimmune disease that can attack the brain."
Susannah Cahalan's memoir: "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness" http://vsb.li/Jaz968 ~~~ My related post: Creativity and madness: High ability and schizophrenia - with quotes by Elyn Saks a college valedictorian, Oxford scholar, Yale law student, USC legal professor – and a person with schizophrenia. Her book is "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey through Madness." http://highability.org/61/high-ability-and-schizophrenia/
Psychiatrist Jeffrey Kahn reveals that angst ultimately results from our transformation, over tens of thousands of years, from biologically shaped, almost herd-like prehistoric tribes, to rational and independent individuals in modern civilization. Kahn looks at five basic types of modern-day angst--Panic Anxiety, Social Anxiety, OCD, Atypical Depression, and Melancholic Depression.
by Dr. Judith Schlesinger. "For those interested in the continued rumors about bipolar geniuses and mad musicians, here's the latest installment of my campaign against those popular myths."
HBO Documentary: The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia
"Though up to 20% of students are dyslexic, many pass through school unidentified, misunderstood and performing below their potential. Paradoxically, these disorders are often found in highly intelligent, creative minds, and can also be seen as a gift, because many people with dyslexia naturally think outside the box and see the big picture, finding alternative solutions to problems that others might not see."
"Featuring interviews with notable dyslexics, including investment pioneer Charles Schwab, business magnate Richard Branson, high-profile lawyer David Boies and California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, the film reveals how an individual’s unique strategies for coping can help lead to success in life.
“I sit down religiously every morning. In the course of a working day of eight hours, I write three sentences, which I erase before leaving the table in despair. The effort I put out should give birth to Masterpieces as big as mountains, and it brings forth a ridiculous mouse now and then.”
That is a quote by novelist Joseph Conrad (1857-1924, “Heart of Darkness” and other acclaimed works), from an essay by Stephanie Stone Horton.
In her 2010 paper, Horton writes: “Composition research has largely ignored the affective disorders – depression and bipolar disorder..."
Many people experience trauma, which can hold us back from living a fuller and more creative life.
In her radio show podcast, Michele Rosenthal interviews Dr. Cheryl Arutt, and comments Dr. Arutt "was so knowledgeable about why you’re not present, and so full of information about how a habit of dissociation gets put in place, plus its usefulness (yes, you read that right: usefulness)..."
"The 30-year-old singer - who completed a 30-day stint in an in-patient facility for stress and anxiety in late September – insists she is ready to begin a new chapter of her life and feels fortunate to have been given another chance to do so."
Audio interview with clinical psychologist Cheryl Arutt, Psy.D., specializing in creative artist issues and trauma recovery.
Dr. Arutt urges creative people to “allow permission to be thriving and healthy. To be able to go out and dare to write or embody all that the artist wants to do, really starts with learning how to settle down” and quiet the mind and body.
“The sensitivity and the ability to go there, to create – wherever ‘there’ may be – is a gift and a talent. But getting stuck there is no fun for anyone, and is not required in order to do good work. If you can take good care of yourself, and then visit there, everybody wins.”
#1 New York Times bestselling author Brendon Burchard talks about the value of paying less attention to our limiting beliefs, doubts and mental health challenges. He thinks that "a focus on squelching limiting beliefs should be secondary to amplifying strengths, virtues, values, and that which makes us remarkable."
Creative expression can transform our painful reactions to traumatic situations, providing a way to give voice to difficult feelings.
Charlize Theronas a teen saw her mother shoot and kill her father in self defense.She said in a 2004 interview that her work has helped her deal with it: “I think acting has healed me. I get to let it out. I get to say it and feel it in my work and I think that’s why I don’t go through my life walking with this thing, and suffering.”
Cloud Atlas co-director Lana Wachowski is breaking her silence on her traumatic childhood. In a funny, honest and deeply moving speech delivered Oct. 20 at the Human Rights Campaign’s gala fundraising dinner in San Francisco, Wachowski revealed painful details related to growing up transgender.
~~~
Related post with more examples of a number of highly talented creative artists who have experienced trauma:
The tortured artist myth is an enduring notion: that art comes from suffering. But a number of artists say that is a false and destructive idea.
Colin Farrellsaid he is finding that he is more creative being sober and happy. “I was terrified that whatever my capacity was as an actor would disappear when I got sober,” he admitted.
“I think I’ve spent my adult life dealing with the sense of low self-esteem that sort of implanted in me. Somehow I felt not worthy.” Halle Berry - about suffering from childhood abuse.
Creative expression helps many people heal from sexual abuse, emotional abuse, PTSD and other forms of trauma, and the therapy technique EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is being used by a number of therapists.
Creative people are thought to be more likely to suffer from mental illnesses. How true is that idea?
Video: HuffPost LIve program segment: A Brilliant Sacrifice - “A new study confirms that certain mental disorders are linked to creative genius. Can this change the treatment of patients and our perception of brilliance?”
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