A few weeks ago I luckily found myself at Alternatives, Creative Living Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. I desperately wanted to go last year but the event had SOLD OUT and rescheduled. The universe or my friend Beth gifted me with a spare ticket. Normally when I go to these types of talks, I come away a little deflated, feeling less than, a little more lost – Hosts stand of stage and talk of how they healed themselves and sold XXX amount of books. This talk was different – Elizabeth was totally real, not having all the answers, speaking with vulnerability and honest truth with every word!
She hit the creative spots hiding deep within. The excuses, the things we think and feel but often don’t say. Her talk was gently focused on women’s creativity and modern day womanhood…
The main topics covered are listed below:
- Priorities
The ‘no time’ excuse we all use. Her wisdom handed down from elders, explained that this is no excuse.. You have to sacrifice, say no to things you don’t want to do and even worse say no to things you do want to do! We all sighed with relief when she talked about the embodiment of relaxing as females are constantly anxious, worrying and trying to fix everything. Make space to embody the relaxed woman and watch creativity start to flow.
2. Boundaries
We are all aware of Kali – The female force of anger. She burns down everything, dissipates illusion and makes way for the ultimate truth. You won’t be aware of what she is doing, but she is destructing to create boundaries, she is your ultimate voice of truth.
3. Mysticism
Allow space to receive from grace. This world right here is not enough, we need a connection to a voice – a connection beyond ourselves. We all laughed as she said God was in the bathroom as most of here crisis moments seem to happen there. She gave permission to stop impaling ourselves.. Forces are at work that are so ancient and wise. We dream of the Amethyst butterfly, but this vision can’t exist, its a dream. You have to smash it into 200 pieces to bring it into reality. There are limitation sin the material world – You have to shatter the ideal and only then you can being and end.
She went on to discuss the elusive search for balance. I loved her response to an audience member ‘Balance is bo**ocks‘ – Life is a s**t show!! Don’t be beating yourself up with the balance stick! She admitted she constantly depletes herself. I can connect to this and I will now stop beating myself up for the process – When creative moments flow I drain myself into a heap!
I love this woman for her sheer resilience and open hearted, often chaotic approach to a creative life – referring to life at a sh*t tornado, it’s messy and magic!
And for all the seekers of wisdom out there, it’s a journey of destruction…..
Nicky Duffell (a nutritional therapist and mama) attended her workshop on the Saturday and I asked her to write a bit about putting the creative process into action (the toughest bit, right?)
‘I used to love being creative as a child, I painted, I drew, I knitted, I quilled, I wrote. The list was pretty endless. Then somewhere along the line I lost it all. And then a few years ago I heard myself saying “I’m not very creative”. I didn’t realise what I was saying at the time, it was a fact that I believed. Then things started to happen, I started to write my blog which reignited my passion for writing, I started taking photos of my food (I’m a nutritional therapist) which allowed for more creativity. And then I found Big Magic in my hands. I’ve long been a fan of Liz Gilbert, following her much loved story of Eat, Pray, Love but Big Magic was different. Elizabeth talks about creativity in a captivating way, we’re all creative of course. So when I saw that Elizabeth was in London and running a work shop I jumped at the chance (even thought it was the same day as the Royal Wedding and the day before my first wedding anniversary). It’s hard to put into words how wonderful this day was. For me it wasn’t about creativity, for me it was about coming home to me. We wrote 5 letters to different parts of ourselves and they spoke so clearly to me about who I was and what bought me joy or as Elizabeth says enchantment. But it was the energy that Liz bought that was the most powerful, showing up, inspiring us all, creating an energy in the room that was phenomenal all whilst dealing with her own grief. If you haven’t read Big Magic I’d definitely recommend it. And if you ever get the change to see Liz Gilbert, you’d find it hard to be disappointed.’
So go on mamas, make some magic!!! xxx
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