Cross-Cultural Wellness: Insights From an Anxiety Therapist in San Francisco to Support Your Creative Life (Part three of a series)
Building Resilience and Connection for Creatives: Cross-Cultural Tips from an Anxiety Therapist in San Francisco
Creating often isn’t magical. Sometimes it flows, but sometimes it’s just you battling a blank page, canvas, or staff paper, wondering if you’ve lost it. Other times, it’s doubting you ever had it to begin with.
As an anxiety therapist in San Francisco, I’ve worked with countless creatives who are exhausted, burned out, or questioning everything. Whether you’re facing actual rejection, struggling with self-doubt, or just can’t seem to ‘get going,’ I want you to know something:
Although we generally create alone, resilience isn’t about pushing through only in isolation. It’s about finding support systems - internal and external - that will keep you grounded, especially when everything feels shaky.
Here are a few cross-cultural resilience practices that can help you refocus and reconnect with your own strength, your vision, and your creative self.
Sisu: Quiet Grit When Things Feel Rough
From Finland comes Sisu, a word that means inner strength, perseverance in the face of adversity, and continuing to take one small step forward.
It’s not about powering through or toxic productivity, ignoring your limits. Sisu is gentle and grounded, and therefore sustainable. It’s what helps you pick yourself up after rejection. It’s showing up - and showing up, and showing up. One small step, again and again, over time.
Try this: What’s one small action you can take today for your creative self? Just one. Sisu is built step by step.
Kaizen: Tiny Progress Adds Up
Like Sisu, Kaizen from Japan means making small improvements each day. It’s the opposite to the ‘all or nothing’ thinking that often paralyzes creatives and stops projects in their tracks.
Many creative clients come to therapy feeling embarrassed and ashamed that they ‘haven’t done enough.’ Kaizen turns this around and affirms: one brushstroke counts. Ten minutes of writing is progress.
Try this: Experiment with the idea that ‘small counts’. Real healing from creative burnout requires redefining success, and revisioning what your work looks like. Not every session will be or can be a masterpiece. Not every day will be prolific. Small counts. Small has value.
Jeong: Connection is Strength
In Korean culture, Jeong is a deep emotional bond that forms over time through small acts of care and kindness to others. A handwritten note. Sharing a meal with a friend. Sending text that says, ‘I’m thinking of you.’
When creatives feel isolated or stuck, connection can shift things immeasurably. Humans often have strong ‘herd instincts’; we weren’t meant to do this alone. Even though, or especially if, you work in isolation, all the more reason to pick your head up and look for your people.
Try this: Who in your life makes you feel more grounded or inspired? Send them a quick message of appreciation. Jeong nourishes both the giver and the receiver.
Mana and Aloha Spirit: You Are Energy, Not Simply Output
From Polynesian traditions, Mana is life energy, connecting people to each other and the universe. Aloha Spirit is the practice of leading with love, compassion, kindness, and peace. It fosters a way of life that includes humility, patience, and mutual regard.
When you’re burned out or feeling like a fraud, it’s easy to forget that your creativity isn’t simply a skill - it’s your spirit and life force moving through the world. It can be easy to get caught up in focusing only on yourself and what’s not working, but the danger is that you miss your connection to the rest of the world.
Try this: Begin or end your day by writing down one thing you’re grateful for - your health, sunshine, the way the fog looks in the trees, a good friend, your ability to create.
Ubuntu: Your Worth Isn’t Just About You
In many African cultures, Ubuntu speaks to shared humanity: I am because we are. It’s a gentle reminder that your value is not defined by how ‘impressive’ your work is, but by the fact that you exist and are part of something bigger. It encourages us to see ourselves as part of a whole.
Try this: What creative acts by others have made you feel personally seen or connected to other people, your community, or the world? Your own work might be doing that for someone else - even if you never hear about it.
What Therapy Offers When Your Resilience Feels Shaky or Out of Reach
The truth is, resilience isn’t always something we can access on our own. Sometimes it takes support, care, and consistency to rebuild what’s worn thin over time.
As an anxiety therapist in San Francisco, I help creatives:
Break through patterns of self-sabotage and perfectionism
Reframe perceived failure as simply part of the process
Develop gentle routines and structures that will support creative work over the long haul
Reconnect to your meaning and purpose—especially when you can’t find it
You don’t have to ‘tough it out’ by yourself. Real strength includes asking for help.
Let’s Rebuild - One Step at a Time
Resilience isn’t something you either have or don’t. It’s a set of practices, mindsets, and connections you can create, cultivate, and sustain. And you don’t have to wait until you ‘have it all together’ to start.
📞 Schedule a free 15-minute consultation
If you’re a creative in San Francisco feeling stuck, discouraged, or unsure what’s next, therapy can help.
Let’s talk about how to support your next chapter.
lisa@lisafrankfortmft.com
Lisa Frankfort, Ph.D., LMFT is an anxiety therapist in San Francisco who works with creatives of all kinds—writers, artists, performers, musicians—especially those wrestling with anxiety, impostor syndrome, perfectionism, or feeling like a fraud (despite evidence to the contrary). Her fully virtual practice offers a grounded, no-nonsense space where you can get real about what’s holding you back—without having to explain what it means to live inside a creative brain. Therapy with Lisa includes insight, warmth, as well as laughing —because healing doesn’t always have to be heavy.
Curious to see if it’s a good fit? Learn more at www.lisafrankfortmft.com.