The Problem Isn’t Procrastination, It’s Protection

What looks like delay in creative work might actually be a survival response from your nervous system

Is your creativity impacted by your narrative around procrastination? Work with me in a 1:1 Creativity Conversation Session to change the narrative.

Some days, I want to make something and I don’t do it.
Some days, I know exactly what I want to write, and I do anything but write it.
Some days, I circle my own creative ideas like a hummingbird that can’t land.

It used to terrify me.
Now I know better.

It’s not procrastination.
It’s protection.

What We Get Wrong About Avoidance

We are taught to pathologize delay. To treat it like a failure of discipline, a character flaw, a productivity glitch. In creative spaces especially, procrastination gets labeled as laziness or fear. Something to beat. Something to conquer.

But here’s what I’ve learned in my own body and in the work I do with others:

Sometimes the thing you’re calling “procrastination” is your nervous system saying, “I don’t feel safe enough to start yet.”

That safety might be emotional.
It might be sensory.
It might be about past vulnerability.
Or current capacity.
Or a story you’re holding that hasn’t been spoken aloud.

Either way, the delay is doing something.
It’s giving you space.
It’s buying you time.
It’s protecting a part of you that still thinks starting will cost too much.

Procrastination Isn’t Passive. It’s Adaptive.

I’ve spent years working at the intersection of creativity, health, and psychology. I live with a mental health condition that has shaped every part of how I approach work. I also live with a drive to create that has never gone away, even when the path to it has been full of noise.

Here’s what I know with certainty now:

• You don’t freeze without a reason

• You don’t delay for nothing

• You don’t avoid your own art because you don’t care

• Something inside you is working very hard to protect you

That’s not weakness. That’s intelligence. That’s your body doing what it knows how to do.

The challenge isn’t to punish it.
It’s to understand it.

What Might Be Hiding Under “I’ll Do It Later”

Sometimes it’s fear of not being good enough.
Sometimes it’s overwhelm.
Sometimes it’s grief.
Sometimes it’s perfectionism, which is just fear in expensive clothes.

Other times, it’s a trauma response. You’ve made something vulnerable before and it wasn’t safe. You’ve shared too soon. You’ve been dismissed or misread. So now, your system stalls before you can be hurt again.

In Hook to Heal, I wrote about how crafting can create small containers for safe expression. That philosophy still guides me. It’s why I turn to slow, quiet, physical processes when the mental ones feel slippery. Stitch by stitch, I start to feel like I can approach the work again.

That’s not avoidance. That’s co-regulation.

That’s care.

Reframing the Inner Critic

If you’ve been beating yourself up for not starting, not finishing, not showing up “enough,” I invite you to try this:

Ask what part of you thinks this delay is helping.
Ask what it’s protecting you from.
Ask if there’s a gentler way to offer that safety, without silencing your creativity.

You don’t need to earn the right to begin. You don’t need to bully yourself into making. You need to listen. And then you need to make the first move that actually feels like safety, not shame.

That move might be:

• Opening the document and writing one line

• Touching your yarn and doing nothing else

• Naming the fear aloud to someone you trust

• Walking away from the thing you “should” do and doing something real instead

There’s Nothing Wrong With You

This is the truth I come back to again and again.

There is nothing wrong with you.
There is something right with your nervous system.
It has learned how to protect you.
Now you’re learning how to work with it.

That’s what I do with clients in Creativity and Wellness Sessions. We explore the parts of you that are trying to help and find ways to redirect them toward support instead of shutdown. It’s not about fixing you. It’s about making space for you to create with your whole self intact.

Book Your Session

Sessions are held over Zoom, with alternative formats available (email/text-based coaching for those who prefer it).

Don’t see a time that works for you? Send me an email and we’ll work something out.

ZOOM ALTERNATIVES NOTE: these are designed as hour-long Zoom sessions. However, everyone’s needs and communication preferences are different, and I am happy to work with you in alternative ways including via an exchange of emails or text messages. Email me to figure out what works best.

A Question to Sit With

What might your delay be trying to protect you from?

Write it. Whisper it. Stitch it.
And then see what soft next step becomes possible.

You don’t need to rush.
You just need to stay in relationship with yourself.

Not ready to book a session but want to keep getting tips?