Hello
For this week’s newsletter I thought I would take a break from the challenging circumstances of my personal life and return to classic Gentle Creative terrain.
Let’s talk about why we experience so much fear when we go about our creative pursuits.
This idea was prompted by
from The Anxious Writer. Helen has chosen Big Magic by to be her non-fiction book of the month.Published in 2015, this book soon became a creativity “bible” for me. Even if you are not a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert’s other books (such as Eat Pray Love) I still heartily recommend reading Big Magic. I promise you it will address all the hang-ups and barriers you might have around your creative process and dreams.
Three years ago, I recorded a series of conversations about this book with fellow Liz Gilbert groupie, Lesley Pyne. In each episode, we discussed a chapter of the book.
The first chapter is about Courage and Fear and contains my favourite quote in the whole book:
“When courage dies, creativity dies with it. Fear is a desolate boneyard where dreams go to desiccate in the hot sun.”
Let’s say that again – fear is a desolate boneyard where dreams go to desiccate in the hot sun! What a beautifully written sentence of despair. Hats off to Liz Gilbert, writer par excellence!
In the episode (which is around 20 minutes long), we discuss the following:
What is creative living?
Is it just about art with a capital A?
Why does fear accompany creative pursuits?
Two types of fear.
Feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
Creativity means showing our vulnerability – and this creates fear.
Is creativity selfish, or does it make us better people?
You can watch the video here:
Or listen to it here:
Please leave a comment. What resonated with you about creative fear? And how do you get over it?
If you liked the video you can watch the next episode, on the Enchantment chapter, by clicking here.
A quick note about Lesley Pyne
Lesley and I met at the launch event for Big Magic and formed a lovely creative friendship. She is a blogger and author of Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness: Inspiring Stories to Guide You to a Fulfilling Life.
She used to think she wasn’t creative, however ‘rediscovering’ her creative side was the key to coming to terms with not becoming a mother and of losing both parents. And now she finds that she can’t stop creating.
She lists Big Magic as one of the small number of books which changed her life. Even though she’d read it twice before, discussing it with Cali lead to several ‘a-ha’ moments.
If you find yourself suffering because of childlessness, then do check out her book and website www.LesleyPyne.co.uk
Keep plodding gently
Cali x
Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev on Unsplash
I need to pull that book back out! Thanks for sharing this.
Sounds like I need to read that book.