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anxiety, creative jobs, creativity, eat love pray, elizabeth gilbert, external focus, healthy writing, mental instability, poets, psychological illness, stories, ted talk, writers, your creative elusive genius
Anne (visit her blog if you haven’t already! She’s a brilliant writer) sent me this video the other day. I love TedTalks, many of you may know as this isn’t my first TedTalk video I’ve shared.
I wanted to share this one with you all because Elizabeth Gilbert (the author of Eat, Love, Pray) talks about creativity. Without spoiling her talk, she discusses perspectives on where ‘creativity’ originates: from within or as an external source. The reputation writers, actors, and other creative professions have created, has been one where mental instability is often a common theme. Since creativity requires so much emotional involvement, this may be part of the explanation. Gilbert investigates another way we writers can perceive our creative genius, a way that may be more healthy for those of us who get anxious.
Regardless of whether you are a writer/poet or not, I really recommend this talk. She’s a fantastic speaker! Enjoy. 🙂
For those interested for some fiction too, Anne wrote a story that was inspired by Gilbert’s  talk: Guiding Light. Check it out!
So, where do you think our creativity originates? Where do you get your creative ideas from? Are you a genius or do you have a genius?
– Ermisenda Alvarez