I’m sharing the chill-shivers from Elizabeth Gilbert’s amazing TED talk about creativity, anguish, and the divine spark.  She beautifully walked the fine line between being open to receiving inspiration and passively expecting genius to magically land on you.  To me, her talk was ultimately about releasing the self-judgment that comes along with any creative exercise.  It clogs the mind, and we would be so much better off without it.  But man is it hard to let go.

As for the psychological cost of creativity, the modern artistic script which casts creative types as tragic, anxiety-ridden, self-abusing train wrecks, I am compelled to send you over to our Beliefnet blog sister Therese. Over at Beyond Blue, she has explored this topic in a number of amazing posts.  Check out:

One Artist’s Way Out of (Mild) Depression

Writers as “Ex-Suicides”

Kay Redfield Jamison on Madness and Creativity

Does creativity hurt you?  Or are you Gilbert-ian in your ability to keep the muse from infiltrating your body and soul?  Looking forward to hearing from you.