I got to know about this book from an interview between Marie Forleo and Elizabeth Gilbert in MarieTv on October 14 and I was pretty much curious about this book. As my birthday was on 22, I was really expecting someone to ask me about which gift I wanted and I would reply “Big Magic”. No one asked me anyway (missing the childhood!!!). But, later, I managed the book and started reading on 26 and finished by 28. The journey of reading this book was just amazing.
This book is all about creative living. How to live a life driven by your curiosity instead of fear. Liz suggests five essential ingredients for creative living i.e. courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, and trust. She discusses how she deals with these in her way of creative living and how others she knows handles these. She answers how did she keep herself moving after receiving rejection letters for years after years? How did she manage her massive success of Eat, Pray, Love? How did she see her creative process? and many more.
Liz says fear is necessary for protecting us from actual danger but in case of creative living it’s forbidden. And creativity will always trigger fear because you are choosing an unconventional path and your fear can’t really differential between which uncomfortable path in good and which one is bad. It just keeps giving you warning, stop, stop, stop and when you respond to that you’ve the same result “nothingness”. Therefore, creativity is a path for the brave who show up for work regardless of the fearful outcome and one must learn to travel alongside fear for creative living.
Creativity is not full humanly in origin, therefore, can be said as a force of enchantment. Liz believes ideas are an energetic life form having no material body but consciousness and want to be manifest by human collaboration. They seek the person who is serious about his business and pay a visit if find one and try to get his attention. If you are not found be them in time, you should not be waiting for indefinite period of time for their arrival. Do anything. Keep yourself busy every day and one day you might suddenly cross path with inspiration saying “Do you want to work with me?”
Human beings have been creative for such a long time that it has become a birthright to be creative. Believe that as you are here, you already have the permission to have a voices and a vision of your own. You don’t need anybody’s permission to live a creative life. And you’re not required to save the world with your creativity and rarely your work will end the world also. Do what brings you alive and does revolution in your heart. You need not to justify your work to anyone but you and your own reasons to create are just enough.
Liz says creative living is not always easy, but always possible. One should know and accept that this is a world, not a womb. Most people never have enough resources and yet they persist in creating because they care. Let yourself fall in love with your creativity. Don’t think of it as burdensome, think of it as sexy and present yourself as if you are somebody worth spending time with. When creativity is not showing up, give your mind a job to do and, on the way, if creativity stumbles upon you let it catches you at working hard. As the right moment is unknowable, you must maximize your chances by putting yourself forward in stubborn good cheer again, again, and again.
In creative living, you should decide on love over suffering or suffering over love. You can make your creativity into a killing field or a cabinet of curiosity. Either way, it’s a delusion. But why not choosing a delusion that is helpful? Believe that as you love your creativity, your creativity also loves you and always wants to work with you. It doesn’t come here to destroy you. The works wants to be made through you. Do it lightheartedly. The more lightly you can pass the time, the brighter your existence becomes. After that, put forth your work anyhow and never apologize for it, never explain it away. You were invited, you showed up and you simply can’t do more than that.
On the way, you will not always feel inspired or passionate about doing things but you’ve curiosity, always available. When you are stuck, ask Is there anything that interests me? Just pick one of your interest and keep working on it steadily. Cheerfully toss a ball out into the cosmos, wait for the ball to return, catch it anyway, and toss it back again. It just a game- a big, freaky, wonderful game.
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