In this episode we continue our discussion of Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. This week we're talking about Enchantment and the concept that ideas are "an energetic life form". Key concept from this section: Creativity can be seen as magical in not just the figurative sense of the concept, but the literal interpretation of inspiration and creation as "the supernatural, the mystical, the inexplicable, the surreal, the divine, the transcendent, the otherwordly . . . a force of enchantment -- not entirely human in its origins." The power and nature of inspiration and the way it works are magical as well. How Ideas Work As Elizabeth says in the section on How Ideas Work "I believe that our planet is inhabited not only by animals and plants and bacteria and viruses, but also by ideas. Ideas are an energetic life form. They are completely separate from us, but capable of interacting with us--albeit strangely. Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made manifest in our world is in collaboration with a human partner. It is only through a human's efforts that an idea can be escorted out of the ether and into the realm of the actual." Ideas are looking for partners So in Elizabeth's view, ideas will come and visit you in an effort to be made manifest. You can disregard them if you choose (most people do), or you can decide to "hear them out" and then decide if you want to enter into this partnership. If you decide not to pursue the idea, Elizabeth suggests using your "most gracious manners when sending an idea away; you don't want word getting around the universe that you're difficult to work with." Her suggested approach is to "cooperate fully, humbly, and joyfully with inspiration." You are "neither a slave to inspiration or its master, but something far more interesting--its partner--and that the two of you are working together toward something intriguing and worthwhile." I believe that inspiration will always try its best to work with you--but if you are not readily available, it may indeed choose to leave you and search for a different human collaborator. Ideas may visit more than one person at the same time In this section Elizabeth writes about "multiple discovery--a term used in the scientific community whenever two or more scientists in different parts of the world come up with the same idea at the same time." This applies to artistic or business ideas as well. Perhaps inspiration is just "hedging its bets." "When the time is ripe for certain things, they appear at different places, in the manner of violets coming to light in early spring." Elizabeth sums it up by saying "Work with all your heart, because--I promise--if you show up for your work day after day after day after day, you just might get lucky enough some random morning to burst right into bloom." Work diligently and thank the process It's important to continue the work diligently because that is what you must do to live a fully creative life. She says "I work steadily, and I always thank the process. Whether I am touched by grace or not, I thank creativity for allowing me to engage with it at all." "I don't need to know why an idea visited you today and not me. Or why it visited us both. Or why it abandoned us both.
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