Are you finding it challenging to deal with negative emotions, such as heightened anxiety, worry, or fear in response to COVID-19? 

If so, how is that impacting your desire to create art?

Are you feeling more motivated or less?

Are you feeling more stressed or less? 

Is it harder to find time to engage in your creative pursuits… or easier?

[Watch today’s video on this topic, where I go into depth on this topic, and what to do about it]

There may be a wide range of responses to this new situation during social distancing, but as artists, we all face the same challenge: what do we do when we’re experiencing a lot of “negative” emotions, and that starts to negatively impact our artistry?

These days, it’s almost like there’s anxiety and worry “in the air”, and everyone is being impacted by it, consciously or unconsciously. Because everyone and everything influences everyone else – directly or indirectly.

This is why it’s so important to pay attention to how things are affecting us, and then to have a solution that will help us shift our mindset so we can transmute that energy into really great art!

Do you find that you tend to react to the news or events around you with a startle pattern / fight-flight-freeze response, or do you find yourself responding with a conscious decision to open up with compassion and to share positive energy, instead?

If you’re in a startle pattern, that will absolutely have a negative impact on your artistry, because when your mind-body system is tight or compressed, full of fear and tension (to any degree), that will block your creative flow, and your emotions won’t be able to be as fully and easily expressed.

One of the greatest gifts of art is that we can express ALL of our emotions through our art, which is healing for us and our audience. Art is ESSENTIAL!!

If you’re finding that you’re getting stuck in a negative mindset, the solution is first to notice this by REALLY paying attention to what’s happening in your mind and body, get curious about your mindset, and get the tools you need to be able to do that easily, and consistently.

Fear or Love?

We’re either looking at things through the filter of fear and “negative” emotions (anxiety, worry, hatred, etc.) OR through the positive filter of curiosity, wonder, and… LOVE. So, it’s really important to know which filter you’re using most of the time! And when you find yourself using the “fear”-filter, what if you could “flip the switch” and switch filters?

I know… that’s often easier said than done!

So, I find that CURIOSITY is the most valuable key to initiate that switch. Just start wondering….and open up to asking…….

Ask yourself, “Is there a different way I could look at this situation? Can I show up differently and think differently? Can I make a change in myself so that I can respond differently and react in a more positive way to this situation? Can I control myself in a more conscious, constructive way?

By the way, when I use the word “control”, I’m not talking about pushing ourselves around – that’s neither wise nor compassionate. I’m talking about increasing our awareness, because true control comes through awareness. 

Curiosity is KEY!

If we can just flip that switch, AFTER giving ourselves compassion and acceptance for how we feel… and get CURIOUS about seeing things differently…. anything is possible. It’s then possible to aim ourselves in a different direction…up and out instead of down and in!

Fearful energy is self-sabotaging, and you just CAN’T make truly great art and fulfill your potential with that kind of fearful, compressed energy.

What if you could stop judging the situation and yourself for your feelings?

Emotions are neither good nor bad; they’re just comfortable or uncomfortable… above all, they’re just ENERGY. 

Emotions are ENERGY.

We have a human responsibility to ourselves and everyone else – and our environment – to become aware of our emotions and accept them, AND then… express them by transmuting them into something beneficial.

You have to learn how to overcome your fears, and to do that, it’s really important to have a system to manage your mindset effectively, so that we can approach everything with a child-like “Beginner’s Mind” – open to curiosity, change, wonder, LOVE and JOY!

This is what you can learn in my mindset training.

Watch today’s video, or just dive right into the mindset training with my Mindset Toolkit – not just for musicians!

This week, I’m offering 25% off of this mindset training, with the coupon code: GREATMINDSET25. The offer expires Friday at midnight Eastern, so make sure to check it out here now, , so you can get to work immediately to make that shift OUT of fear, worry, and anxiety… and into constructive self-care, with Love!

https://aofmusicians.mykajabi.com/musicians-mindset?fbclid=IwAR12lzxWz_2aBJNs0InNJcvv4wQCPBeCMxrkLCJPl_uM1IxVpLd9VsnZCeA

If you have any questions about the Toolkit or my work with the Alexander Technique, feel free to contact me and ask!

Or, if you can already sense how important this is, and you want to learn this approach more depth, ask me about my online group program or private coaching. I’d love to share more with you, because this is just the first step in a whole WORLD of incredible, amazing self-knowledge and skills that can dramatically improve both your artistry and your life. That’s what happened to me! 🙂

With Love, and in good Health,

Jennifer