Episode 8: Mental Health in the Shadows of Design

Behind every design file is a thinking, feeling, human—and sometimes, our biggest creative battles happen in the quiet spaces no one sees.

In honour of World Mental Health Day (10 October), this episode goes beyond the deadlines and deep into the heart of what we carry as creatives.

From prayer and the Bible App to tapping, the Emotion Code, Dr. Caroline Leaf’s thought rewiring, and Joe Dispenza’s meditations—I’m sharing the gentle tools that help me stay grounded, clear, and connected.

If your thoughts have been louder than your talent lately… this one's for you.

→ Show notes, 🖤 free Creative Reset Challenge, and links mentioned are waiting for you here: https://kunshuis.com/2025/10/08/mental-health-for-creatives/

Thanks for listening to BEYOND Design ✨

If this episode spoke to you, here are a few ways to keep the conversation going:

Website & Resources → kunshuis.com
Shop creative tools → The Kunshuis Collective
Show notes & blogs → kunshuis.com/blog

Free support for creatives:

• 21-Day Creative Reset Challenge
• Download: Asking Better Questions (Client Guide)
  
  

🖤 My favourite tools for life + business:

• The Playbook Planner
  — your creative sidekick for focus + flow
• The Playbook Desk
  — a Notion-powered space to run your freelance business with ease

Let’s connect & stay inspired:
📸 Instagram
Join the Beyond Design Room on Facebook

Because design is only 20%… the rest is life.
Thanks for being here, friend. You’re not alone in this journey—let’s design it together.

Transcript

The mental and emotional weight behind creative work

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Mental Health Day is around the corner, it's on Friday, and it got me thinking, what does mental health really look like in the shadows of our creative work? When the inbox is full, the to-do list is longer than your arm, and somehow your brain still says, You're not doing enough. In today's episode, I want to talk about the part of being a designer that really makes it onto Instagram, the mental, emotional, and spiritual weight we carry behind our work, and a few really gentle tools that have helped me along the way. If you've ever felt like your thoughts are louder than your heart, this is for you. So there have been moments in my career, many actually, where I've sat in front of a screen, heavy heart, absolutely no idea what I was doing. Not because the brief was hard or I lacked the skills to do what I needed to do, but because inside I was tired, emotionally flat, wired, but weary. You know that feeling, where your body's pushing forward but your mind is like just stuck. So I'm not a therapist and I'm not a mental health professional, but I am someone who has built an entire creative life while holding hands with anxiety, with burnout, and all the invisible bits of being human. Mental health has always been part of our lives. My mom has been a social worker her whole life, and she's specialized in mental health and substance abuse. She's retired now, but still serves on the mental health board of Namibia. Right now, they're rewriting the Mental Health Act for our country. So growing up in our house, we always talked feelings and emotional intelligence, and we knew what boundaries

Why knowing about mental health is not the same as living with care

SPEAKER_00 2:00

were before it wasn't trending everywhere. But even with all of that awareness, I've still had to learn over and over again how to tend to my own mind. Because the truth is just knowing about mental health isn't the same as living with tenderness towards yourself. Especially in this industry, especially as a creative. We as creatives feel everything very deeply. We overthink, we care, we obsess over the tiniest details. We're not machines, thank goodness for that. But it means that our thinking life often is where all our good and bad stems from. I've come to realize that if I don't tend to what's going up here, everything else starts to feel wobbly. My creativity, my energy, my confidence, my health, even how I show up in my work, it's sneaky because from the outside it looks like everything is being managed. Clients are happy, projects are out, invoices are paid, but inside it's not sorted. So how does mental fatigue for us as creatives show up? Number one, you're constantly tired even after you rest. You overthink every email, every message. You say yes when your body screams no. You lose your spark, you're creating but not connecting with your work. You're easily overwhelmed, a small change in the project derails

How mental fatigue shows up for creatives

SPEAKER_00 3:40

your whole day. You're numbing out with your phone, snacks, busyness. You keep working, but you never feel fulfilled. Does that sound familiar? It's okay. You're not broken, you're not weak, and you're just overloaded. And that doesn't mean you need to quit your dream. It just means your nervous system is asking for something different. Okay, so but now what? Here are a few things that have truly helped me over the years, not big dramatic, change your life overnight things. So for me, number one is prayer always. This is where I start. Before the overthinking takes over, before the tools that I use that are going to talk to you now, before the to-do list, a quiet moment to just say I'm tired. Please hold me now. Sometimes it's messy, but it anchors me in the prayer. It reminds me that I'm not doing any of this alone, that I don't have to do it all on my own strings. And if you're not sure where to begin, I would like to suggest the Bible app. It's been wonderful for me. There are short, beautiful devotionals on anxiety, fear, creativity, purpose, and sometimes the verse of the day land so deep. I I think they wrote it just for me. But I will share a few for creatives, the devotionals that are just wonderful. And number two is tapping, not the dance. Tapping or EFD. It stands for emotional freedom technique. I don't know if you've ever heard about it. It looks weird. You tap on gentle certain parts of your face and on your body while you're honestly talking about how you're feeling. Not to anchor in the feeling, but to acknowledge your feelings and then to let it go. I do this when I feel anxious or afraid, or my nervous system just needs a rest and a reset.

You are not broken, you are overloaded

SPEAKER_00 5:50

It regulates the nervous system. And it helped me extremely through anxiety, especially after the death of my father, just to calm myself down. But I will link this as well in the show notes. So do your own research and try it if you want. Even my children love it. They take that up and they go lie on their bed if they're afraid or scared or something is bothering them. It's just wonderful. Number three, the motion code. So this one is a beautiful and maybe a little woo woo, but stay with me. The idea is that we store trapped emotions in our body.

The gentle tools that have helped me most

SPEAKER_00 6:30

And when we gently acknowledge them and release them, it frees up energy, creative energy and emotional clarity. It's been a game changer for me, especially during seasons of stuckness. I will also link this in the show notes. Do your own research

Prayer and spiritual grounding

SPEAKER_00 6:50

on it. I love it. Number four is Dr. Caroline Leaf's work on thought management. She's South African, and I think that's brilliant. She lives in America. She teaches that thoughts are real things that take up mental estate and that you can literally rewire your brain by choosing what you dwell on. If you've ever gone down the spiral of I'm not good enough, she teaches you techniques to get out of that mental loop. And her books are great. Number five, Dr. Kim Dia Ramo, she has the Mind Body Institute in America, and she's all about how emotions affect our body and how stress shows up physically for us. So she goes deeper into teaching us how to breathe and soften and let your body be a partner in your healing. And as creatives who live in our heads so very much, this work brings us back to our bodies. And number six, Dr. Joe Dispensas meditations. These are deep,

EFT tapping and calming the nervous system

SPEAKER_00 8:00

not your usual quick fix type of medic meditations. But when I do them, and my husband do them as well, I feel like I'm rewiring not just my thoughts but my energy. Like I'm reminding myself who I really am behind the stress and the deadlines and the noise. And I highly recommend the morning and evening meditations. I think those two are free on iTunes. And on his website, he has a lot of meditations. But to start with those two, it's just wonderful to get into his work. But I'll link all of these resources for you in the show notes. They lifesavers for me, as I said, especially through COVID and especially when my dad died. Here's what I know. Mental health isn't one time fix, it's a relationship. It's asking each day how do you feel? What do I need? Where can I give myself grace? You don't need to wait until you crash to take care of yourself. You don't need to figure it all out before you take a breath. You can start small. One deep breath, one kind word to yourself, one boundary honored, one walk outside without your phone. Here's my art for you today. You are more than just your work, more than the to-do list,

The Emotion Code and releasing stuck emotion

SPEAKER_00 9:20

more than the feedback loop in your head. Your thoughts matter, your body matters, your rest matters. This design life is beautiful, but it can be brutal without the right support. So let's not do it alone. Let's name the shadows, let's bring light, let's choose softness, let's make rest part of our rhythm. And if you try any of these tools I mentioned, send me a DM or email me. I'd love to hear what worked for you. You're not alone in this. Thanks for being here. Design your life wherever you are. Have a wonderful day. Bye.