Being creative – curse or gift?

I listened to the TED talk of Elizabeth Gilbert the author of “Eat, Pray, Love”.  She talks about the moment you have reached a peak in your creativity and how the question is…

“How can you top that?”

There have been many tortured creative geniuses who have suffered from poor mental health.  Often the reason is the same as Gilbert describes, constant anxiety about how you can better your last achievement.

Creativity comes into everyday life and everyone has the same levels of anxiety.  The report you produced last week that everyone loved, will you be able to get that response again.

Fear and anxiety can prevent us from thinking logically.

The sensible way of managing a gift is not to attach too much responsibility to it.  You turn up and you work hard everything will fall into place.

In ancient Greece and Rome they believed creativity was a divine entity that lived in the walls not in a person.  This all changed with the Renaissance where they recognised individuals for their creativity.  Gilbert questions this shift in responsibility, she says that it puts too much responsibility on the individual.

To manage our own talents and our own mental health, it may well be advantageous to talk  out loud to it. Take the lead and tell it that you have showed up and you are working hard, and they need to do their bit.

We often have our best ideas in the shower or while driving, maybe the ancient Greeks and Romans were onto something, and it does live in the walls.

We can all be creative and always see it as a gift, never let it freeze your thinking.

Please do get in touch for a workshop on Creativity  bev@nuggetsoflearning.co.uk