Elizabeth Gilbert and the Creative Ignition
Where does creativity come from?
By Diana Rivera | Posted 4/12/09 | Updated 1/19/21
Where does creativity come from? How can we manage our flow of creativity in the face our own self-defined 'successes' and/or 'failures'? What happens to our creativity when our audience must critique — and sometimes harshly — the work that we are propelled to do?
These were a couple questions that came to mind as I mused over Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love's discussion on nurturing creativity. Her international success loomed with a sense that her greatest work may as well just have passed, frames for us the struggles that a creative mind faces — even the internationally renowned!
In all that potential anxiety, she offers a positive perspective by suggesting that our creativity may come from a greater source. In fact, she hails back to the Greeks and their understanding of creativity to calm us all in considering that our work may be coming from a greater universal force that is uniquely yours. What is in your power, at all times, is to show up and do the work you were meant for!
Points to Ponder:
In this discussion, I encourage us to think about how you find yourself present or not present when creativity is being channeled through you and into the world.
Using the metaphor of an ocean to color our senses: Are you diving into your creative potential head first? Heart first? Are you tip-toeing? Do you back away? Flee the scene? And in relationship to Gilbert's speech, who might your creative god/goddess be that is catapulting you?
©2009 Diana Rivera. All rights reserved.
Diana Rivera is a performing artist, producer and facilitator of drama, arts-integration in the classroom and creative empowerment coach. more