How can choosing to push ourselves beyond what is ‘safe’ and comfortable help us be more creative?
The caption for the photo above is “Do whatever it takes.” It is by Chase Jarvis, from the Facebook site of the online course platform he founded: CreativeLive.
“Being an artist is about living in the uncomfortable zone.” Mihaela Ivan Holtz, Psy.D., LMFT.
“I want to continue to grow…and the only way to do that is to keep stepping outside of your comfort zone.” Vanessa Hudgens
While many of us may not like being uncomfortable physically or emotionally, a number of actors and other artists talk about embracing discomfort such as fear.
“I don’t do anything anymore that feels safe. If it doesn’t scare the crap out of you, then you’re not doing the right thing.”
I’ve always liked that comment by Sandra Bullock – but fear, which we may experience at times as anxiety, can both motivate and disrupt creative expression.
For many of us, I suspect, being a worrier, feeling some level of discomfort and anxiety much of the time, may almost be a personality trait.
See more in article Fear and Anxiety Can Help Us Be More Creative.
Playing uncomfortable characters
In ‘I Care a Lot’ Rosamund Pike plays Marla Grayson, a “ruthless hustler who takes advantage of the elderly by becoming their legal guardian and bleeding them dry of their retirement funds and assets.”
Pike compares her experience of playing Marla to her character Amy Dunne in “Gone Girl.”
“I find it a very uncomfortable place to sit in,” she says.
“I remember shooting ‘Gone Girl,’ and Amy chilled me being in her skin. Some of those moments were a very uncomfortable place for me. Marla, similarly.
“We all think we like being made to feel comfortable, but we don’t actually. From the safety of our own living rooms we can enjoy a bit of being made to feel uncomfortable.
“It’s exciting for me to think of all the fans of Amy Dunne, who really got behind that performance and loved Amy and want to see more women like that. I hope this delivers something of what they’re looking for again. You don’t get a whole lot of characters like Amy and Marla.”
From article Rosamund Pike embraces her despicable, fascinating con artist in ‘I Care a Lot’ By Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times Feb. 21, 2021.
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Deborah Ann Woll is such a compelling and dynamic actor in the series “True Blood” (2008-14).
An interviewer asked her when she knew that she wanted to make a career of acting:
“I was never really a good enough pianist or dancer to take that to the professional realm.
“But, I remember I was working on Madea, which I was way too young for at the time, and it was a character that was so unlike me and so out of my comfort zone and type, but yet I could still find something to say with it and have an experience with this woman, who I really had nothing in common with, except our humanity.
“That was a moment where I went, ‘Wow, I really seriously, honestly felt something there and, if I can find that with this character, then it should be easier with someone who I’m a bit more akin to.’
“So, I started to really take it more seriously, at that point.”
[TRUE BLOOD Interview with Deborah Ann Woll, Oh No They Didn’t, June 11th, 2009.]
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On her official site, Fiona Apple wrote, “As you may know, I am a girl prone to low-days.
“I don’t know how many times I got to soundcheck, in a grumpy nasty, teary rut..”
In her album ‘Extraordinary Machine’, the lyrics include:
“But I’m good at being uncomfortable so I can’t stop changing all the time…”
From my article Depression and creativity: Fiona Apple – good at being uncomfortable.
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Finding Comfort in the Uncomfortable
Mihaela Ivan Holtz, Psy.D., LMFT helps creative people in TV/Film, performing and fine arts.
She also writes about the pleasures and emotional challenges of being creative on her site Creative Minds Psychotherapy.
Here is an excerpt from one of her related articles:
Over and over again, you find yourself having to get out of your comfort zone and embrace the uncomfortable.
Yes, being an artist is about living in the uncomfortable zone.
You don’t know how your art will be received in the world.
You invest all your resources in developing the skills that you need to express your art.
You bear the unknown, having no idea when you will get an assignment, a show, an audition, if your book will sell, or if your script will be the one…
You perpetually have to go out in the world to open new doors and create possibilities for yourself.
And, if someone tells you it’s easy to be with the uncomfortable day after day and year after year… it’s not!
Sometimes it feels like you’re wrestling with the uncomfortable, getting dirty and messy, falling and getting up, resisting it, or crawling…
But, you must go through the wrestling, the fighting, or the crawling to discover your own comfort in the uncomfortable.
By being with and doing the uncomfortable you find your freedom from getting stuck in in the uncomfortable.
Read more in her article
How to Find Comfort in the Uncomfortable So You Can Live Fully As an Artist.
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More actors on the values of going outside our comfort zone
“I don’t like being stagnant.
“I want to continue to grow and just be better at what I do, and the only way to do that is to keep stepping outside of your comfort zone.”
Vanessa Hudgens – in article Living and Creating: Fear Is Not A Disease.
“Something I really pride myself in is breaking out of my comfort zone and I’m always up for a challenge,” she said of her choice of roles.
(‘We’re all in this together’: Vanessa Hudgens sings to ‘High School Musical’ track in first TikTok video, ABS-CBN News Mar 17 2020.)
(Photo from her imdb page.)
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Julia Stiles said in an interview some years ago that she chooses projects based on “ways I need to be stretched as an actor.
“I wouldn’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again, which is one reason I wanted to do this play [Fran’s Bed].
“I wanted go back onstage in a way that’s different from anything I’ve ever experienced before.
“That’s the way I look at movies, too. I think you can get into a comfort zone as an actor and I try to break out of that.”
Embracing fear and discomfort as an artist.
(Photo: Julia Stiles in Riviera TV Series 2017–.)
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Actor Rose Byrne expresses a similar perspective:
“I just want to continue being able to get roles that scare me and make me better and I think I can only grow as an artist if I do things that are scaring me and making me uncomfortable because that’s the only place you’ll learn anything.”
From article Rose Byrne on fear and focus.
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Going outside our comfort zones can arouse insecurity
Many, perhaps most, artists are highly sensitive people – a personality trait that can enhance creativity, but also come with emotional health challenges – such as increased vulnerability to stress and discomfort.
(Nicole Kidman has commented “Most actors are highly sensitive people.”)
Julie Bjelland, LMFT is a psychotherapist and author specializing in the trait of high sensitivity, and a highly sensitive person (HSP) herself.
She finds, “Many highly sensitive people (HSPs) struggle with feeling overwhelmed when things are changing.
“We often try to plan ahead, prepare a lot and settle into a routine to try to feel more stabilized.
“Changes can make us feel out of control, increasing stress and anxiety.
“Here are some responses I received that you may relate to when I asked a group of HSPs the question: ‘Do you find upcoming life changes hard? What about it is hard for you? Why do you think HSPs might have a harder time adjusting to change?’
She lists some of their responses, such as:
“We get into a comfort zone because it gives us a level of certainty. That is where we can relax.
“I feel if we have a level of control over the change that is about to happen, or to what suddenly happens it will not throw us off too much. Having control means being as prepared as possible but without being a perfectionist so we can learn to enjoy surprise and delight when it happens.”
Bjelland adds, “Fortunately, there exists a part of your nervous system that can give you feelings of peace and calm: the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).
“One of the most remarkable moments in my life was learning that I could intentionally activate the PNS, calming part of my brain.
“When I did that, I would automatically deactivate the stress centers, because they cannot be activated at the same time. This was truly a life-changing discovery! It meant that I finally had a sense of control and could live my life without anxiety taking over.”
From her post Train Your Brain to Adjust to Life Changes.
The image is from a related post: Activate Calming Centers That De-Activate Stress Centers.
Find both in the January 2021 section of The HSP Blog section of her Sensitive Empowerment site – where you can also learn about her podcasts, books and courses.
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Working when stressed or insecure
Helen Mirren has portrayed many confident, even imperious, women in her long and successful career.
But personally, she has experienced insecurity throughout her life.
She emphasized in an interview that it should be called “experienced” rather than “suffered” – a helpful framing of what is often perceived as a negative feeling.
“I’m beginning to get a bit fed up of all this ‘suffering’. But yes, I have experienced insecurity all my life, and I still do on a daily basis.”
See much more in article How to build your confidence as an artist.
Comfort zones and stress and growth
In an article for Fast Company, Lisa Evans notes:
“Executives and entrepreneurs often say the times when they experience the most personal and professional growth are when they’re pushed out of their comfort zone, situations in which stress levels are high and the brain is flooded with an endorphin rush.”
She quotes stress researcher and author Heidi Hanna:
“Stress can be to our advantage. We don’t want a world without stress, because we need that stimulation for growth.”
From article Is Your Brain Chemically Dependent on Stress? by Lisa Evans, Fast Company 02.03.14.
Heidi Hanna, PhD is Executive Director of the American Institute of Stress.
See more quotes and videos and learn about her online course in article: The Stress Mastery Program for Emotional Health by Heidi Hanna.
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Another related article :
How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety When You’re Creative and Highly Sensitive – As highly sensitive people, we may experience many positive aspects of the personality trait, such as being more creative. But we can also be more reactive and vulnerable to stress and anxiety.
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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