Meet Brandi Lynn

We were lucky to catch up with Brandi Lynn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brandi, we are so appreciative of you taking the time to open up about the extremely important, albeit personal, topic of mental health. Can you talk to us about your journey and how you were able to overcome the challenges related to mental issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

My head isn’t quiet; it’s a stack of unbalanced plates—they are always about to crash. That’s the noise, the sheer, bright constant hum: the OCD looping the same panicked thought over and over until I’m dizzy, the anxiety vibrating right behind my teeth, and the absolute drain of fibromyalgia. For too long, I wasted everything I had trying to keep that stack perfectly still. It just made me ill.

I finally stumbled onto the secret, and it felt like cheating: you don’t fight the feelings; you find the fire escape. That same intensity that used to chew me up? When I deflected it elsewhere, it became this wild, unstoppable force. Art, poetry, photography—they are the fastest way to get all that pressure out of me and onto something I can see. I stopped trying to put the anxiety in a box and started handing it a job—a sketch, a poem, a photograph. I take the wreckage and I build with it.

This is what I know from being in the thick of it: The secret to staying present isn’t perfection; it’s just the grit to persist. My worth isn’t measured by a quiet mind; it’s measured by my refusal to be silenced by the struggle.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m an artist, writer, and literacy specialist, but the core of what I do comes from finally embracing the person who has always thought differently. Since I was a kid, if everyone saw red, I was already seeing blue. For years, I tried to mask that difference, hiding and pretending to be “normal,” which honestly just led me to lose myself. Finding my way back through art, poetry, and photography is the most powerful and special part of my work—it’s the physical proof that this unique perspective isn’t a problem. My obsessive over-analysis and detail focus—that came from the OCD—became the sharpest tools I own. If there’s one thing I want people to know, it’s that my creations are my journey of healing, showing that being your authentic self is the only way to truly thrive.

Now, I’m channeling this energy into something new for kids. I’m deep into developing a children’s book and creating some innovative literacy-based learning kits. My goal is to make reading feel as free and expressive as the art I create. On top of that, I’m taking the big, liberating step of trying to get my poetry and visual art published on platforms outside of my own site. It’s all moving forward, so keep an eye out—you never know where you might see my work pop up next!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The Relentless Dedication to Showing Up

It’s not about being perfect or even fully professional; it’s the absolute refusal to quit on yourself. That simple act of making a mark, even when things are messy, is the real foundation for everything.

Turning Urgency into Output

The power is in grabbing those intense, disruptive feelings—the raw anxiety, the sharpest pain—and deliberately forcing them straight into a creative, finished project. It makes the panic useful because you transform it into something visible and tangible.

Defining My Value by My Own Clock

I’m choosing to accept that my capacity is unstable, and I run on a completely different time than everyone else. This isn’t a flaw; it’s just my operating system. My value isn’t tied to some perfect, stable standard; it’s tied to the simple, impactful fact that I keep building things anyway.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When that stack of plates starts to really tremble, my strategy is simple and it’s always the same: Find the quickest way out, and move my body. I immediately stop thinking about the feeling. I shift to physical action that slams me back into the moment:

• Walk Until the Dirt Grounds Me: I hit the pavement or the trail. Especially outside. It just sucks that frantic, vibrating energy right down and out of me. Focusing only on my feet hitting the ground and the feel of the earth is an instant anchor.
• The Ugly Mark Strategy: I grab the closest pen and just make a horrible, ugly, messy mark on the page. I don’t wait for a vision. That immediate, physical action proves to my nervous system: I am still here, I have control of my hand.
• Give the Chaos a Box: I just name the feeling—”Okay, the anxiety is here”—and I immediately give it a deadline and a container. “I am giving you 10 minutes, and you are going into this specific sketch.” It creates a boundary so the pressure doesn’t leak everywhere.

My advice? Always start with the smallest thing. If you feel totally shut down, just grab a pencil, hum one note, or smudge one bit of paint. That small, stubborn action is where your power lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sent2medesigns.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/sent2medesigns
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/sent2medesigns

Image Credits

All images were photographed or drawn by me