Sensory Anchors for the Messy Middle
The world is a chorus of pings and alerts, and, for a creative, that noise is more than a distraction—it’s erosion. We spend our days building rich, emotional, sensory worlds for our characters, but we often leave our own souls in a sterile, gray "To-Do" list environment.
If you’ve ever sat down to write and felt your energy vanish before you typed a word, that’s not a lack of talent. It’s probably decision fatigue.
Decision fatigue is a common ailment in our modern world. There are only so many decisions a rational human being can make in one day. Some are common: What am I going to wear today? Coffee or tea? Carbs or protein for breakfast?
Others are more stressful: Which of those emails am I going to answer first? Is that a scam? My favorite software just changed and now I hate it. What am I going to switch to?
When decision fatigue steps in, your nervous system is resisting the weight of the world, not the work of the story.
Building Sanctuary in the Senses
In my own office—my sanctuary—I’ve started surrounding myself with things that ground me: a warm blanket, a fountain, and a wax warmer for lovely scents. I’ve added plants because seeing something grow reminds me that creativity has its own seasons.
When life gets loud, we need breathing room. Not a retreat to a cabin in the woods (although... I wouldn't turn one down), but a "reset" we can trigger in thirty seconds.
The Five-Minute Reset
Try these sensory anchors to tend your spark when the room feels crowded:
- Touch: Keep a "talisman" at your desk. It could be a smooth stone or a favorite figurine. When the inner noise gets too high, hold it. Let your body remember it’s safe.
- Sight: Look for an ember of joy: a shift in the light on the floor or a sentence you wrote that lands "just right." A pet. A picture of a friend. Surround yourself with things that make you smile.
- Sound: Mark the threshold of your writing time with a specific song or the sound of a fountain. It tells your brain: Here, we create.
Play in the Sandbox
We often treat technology and publishing like a final exam: stressful and judgmental. We must succeed or… what? What terrible thing do you imagine happening if you don’t succeed? Or is that just me?
What if we approached our industry as play? Play removes the pressure to succeed and invites discovery. It keeps your creative spark growing because it removes the "test" mentality and replaces it with curiosity.
Your job isn't to save the world today. Your job is to shine in it. When your spark burns steadily, you become a point of clarity in a crowded world.
What is one sensory "anchor" at your desk that helps you feel grounded? If you don't have one, what’s one small thing you could add today to make your space feel like a sanctuary?
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About Lisa
Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not hanging out with her family, writing, or teaching, she can be found wandering the local beaches.
Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of No Stress Writing Academy. She also runs Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.
Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her school, No Stress Writing Academy, where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!
Her next book, The Work of Joy is now available here.
Top image from depositphotos.
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18 comments on “Sensory Anchors for the Messy Middle”
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Wonderful post, Lisa!
I love your 5 minute reset. Perfect!
We all need them these days, Ellen!
I'm surrounded by crystals, special rocks, and pendulums. And inspirational memes that get changed as needed.
Beautiful, Diana! These things help us stay grounded and encouraged.
When I feel blocked for a moment, I turn around. The screen is not freeing. The shelves of books behind me tell me it can be done and then my subconscious is free of the glare of the words I'm not writing. The answer is always there when I turn back.
Oh, Debbie - this is my favorite so far. We are all surrounded by books, I suspect, if we are here on WITS. I want to remember this... every one is a sign that it can be done. Perfect!
This is fantastic, Debbie.
THIS --> "Decision fatigue is a common ailment in our modern world."
So much, this. With ADHD brain, all those on-the-fly decisions feel like a five car pile up on the freeway that has to be sorted out before the creativity can flow.
I clear my brain through walking in nature or reading a book. Any book. It's even more clearing if I'm knitting while I read.
Jenny - now I need to know how you knit and read at the same time. That's an old-school version of the two-screen problem (doing two things at once...) and I LOVE it. I want to be able to do that. Audiobooks?
No, I had to learn how to knit without looking because I get car sick if I look down too much in a moving car. So, I perch my Kindle on my right knew and then I knit on the other side of my lap. It's glorious. Totally relaxes my mind.
That is impressive, Jenny!
Ooh. Good idea, Lisa. I have things I love in my office but I hadn't thought about bringing in a candle or scents.
I use instrumental music to help me focus but if I'm having trouble I turn the lights down, light a candle and sit in silence for ten or fifteen minutes. Usually that's enough. If my brain is "noisy"- I write down every thought I have--a brain dump of all the things my brain says I must and must not do. Then I take a brisk walk for 10-15 minutes. By the time I finish that I'm ready to go back to work.
I like your system, Lynette! And candles totally work, although for me part of it is the smell of the match. I have a vanilla candle that I use only for writing sessions and when I smell the candle and the match, my writer's brain upens wide. 🙂
Jenny - I think you're right about the smell of the match being a part of it. Like a signal to our senses that peace is coming.
That is a beautiful and powerful routine, Lynette!
A candle or one of my heart items.
Beautiful, Denise! And now I'm very curious about heart items!
I have a glass heart box, some little metal scatter hearts, and soapstone carved hearts.
Those are just on my desk. Hearts are my symbol, and I have hearts throughout the house, but not like a teenage girl--that just shows up around Valentine's when I pull out everything I've collected over a lifetime. 😉