A perspective on emotion and empathy

Navigating the challenges that come with creativity

In 2017, the death of a particular singer rocked the world. His name was Chester Bennington and it was until this moment I got to know that he was the lead vocalist of Linkin Park. Now, I discovered Linkin Park through a song I heard in a movie as a young teen and this song struck a chord (pun definitely intended) with me. Inspite of never knowing the band members names until Chester's death, I have listened to and enjoyed some of their songs.

One of such songs is titled Numb and it comes to mind because that's how I had been feeling these past few days, emotionless and robotic. This feeling comes and goes but when it does, it stays for a long period and I don't feel anything or don't want to feel anything.

Now this is bad for me as a designer. Why? Because my job is not just about creating visually striking designs but also about understanding the needs and emotions of the audience the design is targeting and creating a project that addresses that. Now I can't feel that if I am numb now, can I? So because I want to feel things I went online to check how I could get through this phase as soon as possible.

A few minutes later, there's improvement. I move from feeling nothing to feeling frustrated because nothing online was working as soon as I wanted it. Progress, right? So I call a friend to discuss my dilemma and I am asked "Why do you think you feel this way". I reveal I couldn't quite figure it out and my friend starts to probe deeper with more questions. More than 30 minutes later, I discover why and it was gladly the start of recovery.

Were the methods I saw online good? Yes. Meditation, journaling, breath exercises and therapy are good stuff, only if you are patient to stick with them. It didn't work for me because I wanted a quick fix. Instead of acknowledging and working with my feelings, I just wanted to just get them over with.

Maybe you do this too. Maybe you gloss over every uncomfortable feelings and just hope it passes away. I hope we can learn to accept and work through our emotions, rather than trying to avoid or deny them. It pays in the long run to sit down and understand what's going with you rather than ignoring it. At the end of the day, Delay isn't denial but denial can actually delay.