2025 has tested all of us (unless of course you’re one of the select few Oligarchs with billions of dollars and a healthy dose of narcissism to get you through your day). Every headline feels heavier, every scroll through social media more draining. As a highly sensitive person, the world's injustices resonate on a deep level, pushing my stress into overdrive and crushing my creativity.
By late January, I pulled the plug on social media—deleting apps from my phone in both protest and self-preservation. The constant noise was infiltrating my headspace and my ability to stay present, and worst of all—causing me to spiral into thoughts of helplessness and despair. Four months later, I can attest to the immense impact it’s had on my overall outlook and mental capacity.
As humans, we have a few unique powers that other animals don't (at least that we're aware of): empathy, existentialism, and the conscious ability to create or destroy. Our lives are built upon a series of constant choices to generate or deconstruct. Creation isn't always positive (consider the environmental cost of AI development) just like destruction isn't always negative (pruning a rotten branch can save the whole tree).
The difference is in how we align our personal moral values to how we choose to create or destroy—because it's always our choice.
Leveraging choice is the defining moment between feeling like the world is happening to us and feeling like we're happening to the world.
You might feel like engaging in doom scrolling isn't outwardly destructive, but what are you sacrificing in doing so? Are you destroying your creativity? Your time? Your energy? How are you relinquishing control over your ability to create when you let the world take over your nervous system?
For those of you who need more than just my opinion (1s + 5s)
When our nervous system hits overload, the brain shifts into survival mode. Scientists call this an "amygdala hijack," which is essentially when the amygdala takes over to respond to a perceived threat, bypassing slower cortical routes that support rational thought. When this happens, the amygdala sends emergency signals that trigger the sympathetic nervous system's fight/flight/freeze response, effectively "overriding" the frontal lobes that are the basis of critical thinking and decision-making.
Not only that, chronic stress impacts our working memory performance, and our memories are required for us to plan for the future and dream up new worlds (I'll have a whole separate article on this later).
Put simply, when we let hate, fear, or overwhelm take over and rule our nervous system, we rob ourselves of our mental bandwidth to create.
We're giving away our control.
Taking Back Control Through Small Daily Acts
I'm not especially religious, but the Serenity Prayer always comes to mind when I'm feeling stuck, confined, helpless, or like there's nothing I can do about the atrocities in the world:
"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference."
Reclaiming your control doesn't require grand gestures. When your nervous system is in overdrive, the first step is returning to baseline. No matter your enneagram type, this can typically be accomplished with breathing exercises and/or meditation. Even starting with a simple 2-3 minute practice daily can work wonders on your body's regulation when feeling overwhelmed. Apps like Headspace and Calm are great for beginners with guided prompts and courses, and apps like Opal and Forest can help reduce screen or social time if you find it hard to escape the external world.
Beyond nervous system regulation, here are some recommendations for daily practices you can try to help you feel more in control based on your type:
Note - these practices aren't specific to writing, but will still help you reclaim some of your brain space for more creative endeavors.
Type One:
Tackle a tiny organizing or improvement task right before your writing session (e.g., alphabetize one shelf, create your to-do list for tomorrow). Seeing immediate, measurable order can clear mental clutter and your mind for a more focused, inspired writing or brainstorming session.
Type Two:
Feed into your giving drive with gratitude practices: Each day, craft a 2-sentence note or text to thank someone, pay it forward when you buy your next coffee, or let someone go ahead of you in the checkout line. Small gestures like these let you give and regain control by choosing that the energy you're putting into the world is positive.
Type Three:
Rapid-fire highlights: At the day's end, write a 2-line "win reel" of your accomplishments to turn your reflections into proof of your progress. At the end of each week, combine all of the sentences into a paragraph of how you worked toward your goals for the last seven days.
Type Four:
Clip or photograph one image that resonates with your feelings each morning or evening. If you don't have a printer or other mediums, you can even write a 3-line poem about your emotional landscape that day, honoring and anchoring your presence in the world and need for self-expression.
Type Five:
Spend 5-10 minutes researching something you're curious about or interested in each day. Take your learnings as "fun facts" and translate them into one sentence on index cards to post on a memo board or into a running document. Seeing the accumulation over days, weeks, and months will show you how much autonomy you still have over your input and output.
Type Six:
Reflection ritual: at the same time every evening, spend five minutes reviewing your day. Specifically note one thing that went as expected and one thing that didn't, and how you responded. Reflecting on both steadies your mind by normalizing unpredictability and reminding you of your capacity to change and adapt.
Type Seven:
Bring yourself back to the present by performing a quick 5-4-3-2-1 exercise. Name five things you see, four you can touch, three you hear, two you smell, one you taste to tether your mind to the here and now and generate a sense of calm amidst all the excitement.
Type Eight:
Do something for the sake of doing it, not for the sake of efficiency or getting it done. Use 5 minutes to sculpt clay, chop ingredients in a specific pattern, write a poem (dare I say...with feelings?), or pick up a paintbrush without any true purpose other than the act of doing it. Give yourself 5 minutes to slow down and, similar to sevens, be present with the moment.
Type Nine:
When you wake up in the morning, write a 3-word intention for your day (e.g. "Focus on presence," "Speak my truth," "Take a nap"). Add it into your planner or stick it by your workspace to anchor your day around a conscious choice rather than drifting through it. Reflect each night before bed in ways you showed up for your intention that day as a reminder that YOU steer your own course.
Just remember: you always have a choice about where you invest your energy. You can't control every atrocity on the news or every troll online, but you can decide how to show up in your own world. Every small act you take toward asserting your own power can rewire your brain toward building new neural pathways that favor positivity and agency over reactivity.
How will you reclaim some of your ability to create today?
Note: I’m not a licensed therapist (though I’m in school to become one). This post is for informational and creative inspiration only, not medical or therapeutic guidance.