“Christina, I can literally feel the anxiety radiating off of you.”
A friend said this to me years ago while we were camping during a wind storm. And when I say camping, I mean glamping. We were in one of those canvas tents with a wood frame, and the gusts were so strong that I could literally see the structure swaying back and forth above the bed.
I barely slept because I was convinced the whole thing was going to collapse on top of us.
At some point in the middle of the night, Lydia looked over at me and said:
“Christina, I can literally feel the anxiety radiating off of you.”
It’s one of those comments that lodged itself in my brain and stayed there for years.
At the time, I remember feeling confused by it more than anything else.
But now? I understand exactly what she meant.
The Energy We Bring Into Our Work Matters More Than We Think
Over the last few years, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by the idea of heart coherence, nervous system regulation, and the way emotional energy affects the people around us.
Your heart is the strongest magnetic field in your body.
The heart is 60 times stronger electrically and 5000 times stronger magnetically than the brain.
And it works both ways – with anxiety and alignment. Two sides of the same coin.
When you’re in that full gratitude moment, that electromagnetic field radiates outside of your body.
When you’re truly genuinely excited about what you’re creating, you feel magnetized. You feel aligned. You feel unstoppable. You create literal fucking magic. That magnetism calls in others. And when they can mirror it back? That’s such a freaking beautiful thing. That’s why what we do is so important, not just as creatives, but as leaders in the spaces we serve.
Our Clients Feel Us Before They Ever Hire Us
Especially as designers, photographers, artists, writers, or creative business owners.
Our clients feel us long before they officially work with us.
They feel our confidence.
Our burnout.
Our excitement.
Our hesitation.
Our resentment.
Our passion.
Our self-trust.
And I think sometimes we underestimate how much of that gets woven into the work itself.
When we’re creating from pressure and survival mode, it changes the experience. Even if the final product still looks “good.”
The process feels heavier.
The communication feels different.
The work starts becoming about proving instead of expressing.
Survival Mode Changes the Way We Create
I think a lot of creatives have spent the last couple of years operating from survival mode without even realizing it.
Trying to keep up.
Trying to stay relevant.
Trying to sound more professional.
Trying to optimize every single thing.
Trying to survive slow seasons, algorithm shifts, oversaturation, financial stress, burnout.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, a lot of people lost touch with the reason they started creating in the first place.
Because survival energy creates differently than alignment does.
When you’re creating from fear, the work often becomes reactive.
When you’re creating from grounded excitement, curiosity, trust, and genuine connection to what you’re making, the work becomes magnetic.
That’s the best word I can think of for it.
Magnetic.
What Magnetism Actually Means
I don’t mean “magnetic” in an influencer-marketing way.
I mean the kind of work that makes people feel something.
The kind of brands that feel alive.
The kind of websites, writing, photography, or art where you can tell there’s an actual human being behind it.
People are craving that right now.
I think we’re entering a season where personality matters more again. Humanity matters more again. Realness matters more again.
Not perfection.
Not polish at all costs.
Not sounding like everyone else in your industry.
Leading From the Heart Changes Everything
The more I think about that moment in the tent years ago, the more I realize how true it was.
People can feel us.
And I think the goal isn’t to become perfectly healed or perfectly calm all the time before we create something meaningful.
But I do think there’s a difference between constantly creating from panic versus creating from presence.
When we lead from the heart, when we feel connected to what we’re building and why we’re building it, the entire experience shifts.
The work feels lighter.
The clients feel more aligned.
The impact feels real again.
The dream feels possible again.
