ask me anything: how do you deal with preserving your energy in your work life as someone who is very sensitive?

It’s taken me years and years to work through the shame and guilt of not being productive enough, not working hard enough, and not comparing my capacity to others. These days, I (mostly) accept my body’s needs and rhythms and have built my schedule around them. 

For some context, in high school, I was on the swim team, the flag team, in the local youth orchestra, national honor society, the editor of my school newspaper, took two languages, and worked part time. As I transitioned to college, my drive to achieve shifted into working towards a career in orchestral classical music. It was normal to practice my instrument alone in a small room for three or four hours a day in addition to a full course load, homework, rehearsals, and as always, a part time job. After grad school, I worked in various jobs as a performing musician, arts administrator, and public school teacher.

I was always stressed, I was always tired, and I never felt like I was doing enough. Aside from the cultural conditio…