What does the author of “Eat, Pray, Love” have to say about creativity?

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Creativity: something inherent to human beings or a privilege of a few people?

Published on August 21, 2015, the book “Big Magic – Creative Life Without Fear” by Elizabeth Gilbert, the same author of the bestseller “Eat, Pray, Love”, breaks paradigms about building a creative life and shows that anyone can experience the magic of having creativity by their side.

The book, composed of 6 parts (courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, confidence and divinity) brings reports and lessons from the author herself that serve as inspiration, advice and guidance for those who wish to open space for creativity but who, for some reason, hold themselves back, among other reasons, due to fear .

Read the review we produced below and hope it is useful not only to spark interest in reading the book, but also to gain the courage needed to live without restrictions.

About the Book
“A creative life is a wider life. It is a bigger, happier and chinese america data much, much more interesting life. To live in this way – continually and single-mindedly – ​​bringing out the hidden gems within you – is an art in itself.”

This excerpt is a fragment of the book's prologue. This already allows us to see the importance and greatness of creativity in our lives. This is because, for the author, it is not necessary to be a poet, a renowned artist or anything like that to “live creatively”. Creativity is much greater than that. Being creative is living motivated by curiosity instead of giving way to fear . When you give creative life a chance to be by your side, that is when you encounter the Great Magic .

Part 1: Courage
And it is from the dichotomy between Curiosity X Fear that part 1 of the book, called “Courage”, begins. It is at this moment that the author asks the million dollar question: What does it mean to live creatively? For her, it is having the courage to bring to light the treasures that are hidden within each one of us.

We all have a story and a treasure hidden within us, and the magic, the creative process, lies precisely in this endeavor of venturing into this treasure hunt, being willing to want to discover yourself.

However, one of the greatest enemies of creativity is fear. We often lack the courage to be creative , and there are a number of reasons for this, including:

Fear of not having talent;
Fear of being ridiculed, rejected, criticized;
Fear of not being taken seriously;
Fear that your work is not important enough to someone;
Fear of not being able to produce something good.
And what do we gain by letting fear prevail over everything? Nothing! As the author herself states, fear is boring , because “there is nothing particularly appealing about being afraid of the unknown.” Letting it take over everything will only make our lives limited.

Of course we don't need to (and can't) ignore this feeling, it serves as a filter for reality, because “creativity is a path for the brave, but not for the fearless.”

Despite being dichotomous, it is worth emphasizing that fear and creativity will always go hand in hand, you just need to balance each of the two in the right way.

Part 2: Enchantment
In chapter 2, called “enchantment,” the author details the great magic that is the creative process. For her, ideas and creativity are more linked to something mystical, transcendental, magical, than to something strictly scientific . And her position is based on the principle that “our planet is inhabited not only by animals, plants, bacteria and viruses, but also by ideas .” Ideas are “wandering” around, waiting for someone who is willing to use them. They are driven by the impulse to manifest themselves, it is as if there were a flood of possibilities ahead of us, just waiting for the occasion and the perfect partner to finally cause that powerful insight . In the author’s words: “when an idea believes it has found someone – let’s say you – who might be able to bring it into the world, it pays you a visit. It tries to get your attention.” And when this happens, you have two paths to follow: say yes to the idea or say no to the idea.