Adults and Irrational Fears

Previously, I wrote about phearnik!® and how to use it with kids. In addition, the little plush also helps adults overcome irrational fears and anxiety.

In the US, nearly 20% of adults deal with irrational fears and anxiety. Treatment often involves exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which helps individuals gradually confront their fears and learn coping mechanisms. These include relaxation techniques, exercise, support from friends or professionals and practicing mindfulness. [Google AI]

Shows a black and white illustration of a young girl looking stressed — Icon by Soni Sokell

The phearnik!® plush provides a way to practice mindfulness. Also, I didn’t make it for kids. I made it for an adult…me!

Fear Of The Blank Canvas

As an artist, I often dealt with a “fear of the blank canvas.” It’s like the “fear of the blank page” or “writers’ block” that some writers experience.

While it’s impossible to know the exact number of writers in the US who experience writer’s block or fear of the blank page, it’s a common experience, even for those considered successful.

The same is true for artists. It’s impossible to put an exact number on how many artists in the US experience “blank canvas syndrome.” Still, it is recognized as a common experience among artists from newbies to seasoned professionals.

Overcoming Fear of the Blank Canvas

For years, I studied what I could do about my irrational fears and anxiety of the blank canvas. I read books like Art and Fear, Affirmations for Artists, and The Artist’s Way. But none of these helped me break through my debilitating fears until I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear.”

Gilbert’s “… Road Trip”

In the book, Gilbert offers a new way for artists to confront their fears. Instead of trying to ignore it or get over it or get rid of it, she suggests we accept and acknowledge fear. In a vignette titled, “The Road Trip,” Gilbert uses the metaphor of taking a road trip as a lesson in acknowledging fear.

A picture of a man driving a car with a girl holding her doll in the backseat with a phearnik! strapped in beside her. The phearnik represents fear sitting in the back seat as explained in "The Road Trip" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

On the trip, you bring fear along, but it must sit in the backseat. And it doesn’t get to control anything. It doesn’t get to drive, and it definitely doesn’t get to control the radio.

This idea of acknowledging fear but not letting it take control was, for me, revolutionary. I immediately embraced this new way to deal with my irrational fears. I liked the idea of embracing fear. It makes sense because it’s always there. But it needs restraint. It needs to be kept in its place, restricted, tamped down.

The Birth of phearnik!®

An illustration from the "Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears"children’s book that helps kids overcome their fears.

I wanted something to represent this fear in “the back seat,” an actual “thing.” This “thing” would remind me to practice the skill of keeping fear “small” or in its place. It is how and why I created phearnik!® – my “little fear.” And it works.

phearnik!® Works

My phearnik!® helped me with, not only my fear of the blank canvas, but as a way to practice mindfulness to overcome fear in other areas of my life. It has helped me do what I have needed to do to bring this concept to others. I believe artists and others who struggle to overcome their irrational fears would benefit from a reminder to keep their fear under control. I believe this could help them live more fearlessly while experiencing new things and adventures.

Get the Free “5 Steps to Help Anxious Kids Build Courage”

How About You?

Are you an adult dealing with irrational fears? Have you struggled with letting your fears get the best of you? Maybe you’re artist or writer that has experienced fear of the blank canvas or page? Or are you someone who would like to make art but you are afraid of what people would say about it?

If this is you, do you think a phearnik!® could help you remember to keep your fear “small” and in its place? Do you think having the little plush around could help you fight your fears? Tell us what you think about it in the Comments.

Want To Know More?

If you would like to know more about phearnik, join the phearnik! Campaign.

Help bring the plush to all who could use its subtle power!

Join the phearnik! Campaign and support Kids’ mental health

If you’re inclined, give this post a “Like!”

Share this post. You may help someone overcome their fears.

* Sources: Blank Canvas and Writers’ Block

My 2020 and 2021 collages, “Sunrise in the Preserve” and “Sunrise near Bellacina” are currently showing in the Venice (Florida) Art Center’s new “Near and Far” show (running now through February 11, 2022). The two works together in a series of three (including “Sunrise on the Bay”) tell the story about how creating art during the confines of the covid19 pandemic helped me maintain and, possibly, strengthened my mental – social and emotional – health.

Isolated in the first many months of the pandemic in 2020, I found solace in my small studio. The unassuming, demure space provides me with plenty – the secure comfort I desire for my creating. Ever since I was a little kid, I have always enjoyed the confines of small, big-enough-for-only-me spaces. The enclosed spandrel (the space underneath the stairs leading up to the second floor of our house) was my indoor playhouse. Every morning after breakfast, I couldn’t wait to play under the stairs with my dolls, in my own private, cozy representation of my family’s kitchen, complete with a 1950’s toddler sized white metal kitchen sink, stove and refrigerator. It was the safe sanctuary that my natural introversion craved.

Like the enclosed spandrel, my two, small, big-enough-for-only-me studio spaces (one in upstate NY and the other in Venice, Florida) provide me with the safe and secure calm I desire for my creative focus. In this soothing space, I relax and, along with my collage practice, destress. It was in my Venice studio where I “got through” the early pandemic months (and the later ones too) with peace and relaxation.

Creating collage – the cutting and securing paper or fabric to a ridged surface – helps me manage my mental wellbeing. Scissors and X-Acto knives (slim, small knives with similarly slim razor blades for cutting my materials) are, for me, therapeutic. The concentration and attention required to accurately slice fabric or paper flows through my body. It calms my arms, hands and fingers down into a focused peacefulness. Again, the concentrated practice allows me to exhale my stress and tension.

Collage also satisfies my desire for a challenge. It provides me another way to take care of my mental health. Stimulating our brain with challenges and problem solving helps to improve our mindset. This helps to make us feel more positive about the future. It helps to build confidence and gives us something to focus on. Problem solving takes our minds off the things that cause anxiety. Creating a picture that represents a story with Impressionistic-like simplicity is my challenge and goal. But the pandemic in early 2020, created an additional challenge. The challenge of trying to find materials needed for my collaging (remember, at first, stores closed completely)!

One of the reasons I made pictures of a sunrise was because the only ridged surface I had at the time to build my collages on was a piece of florescent orange cardboard leftover from another project (I totally can’t remember what that was)! The bright orange became the perfect background to represent the dramatic streaks and peaks of the morning’s rising sunlight. Another challenge was obtaining colored paper to cut and collage the sky and foreground. Again, the only thing I had on hand were magazines. Even though magazines are not the best choice when considering a picture’s longevity and its archivalness, the “Venice Magazine” about Gulf Coast living, provided me with a broad selection of colors; the heavier cover paper becoming my favorite choice to weave into my sunrise representations.

Many artists relate their practice to helping them with strengthen their mental health. During the scariest early days and months of the pandemic, my “art saved me” (as it often does). It provided me a way to escape from the worries of what the virus. My secure and safe studio gave me focus. It illuminated a silver lining to my isolation – that of creating three related collages. Even the show’s opening night helped me grow my social health. My husband and I met another artist and his wife who also live in Venice. The four of us closed the reception down. We were the last to leave. We enjoyed a conversation of getting to know each other, exchanging numbers and promises to get together again.

How about you? Did/do you find solace during the pandemic creating art and or crafts? How does art or craft making affect your mental health? Have you noticed ways art helps to strengthen your social and emotional health? I would love to hear from you in the “Leave a Reply” below.