Creativity & Sanity

The speaker is the author of a NY TImes best seller Eat, Pray, Love. I have not read her book. It sounds too simplistic - how a woman post-divorce goes on a sabbatical and finds herself, God and the love of her life. Yes, I do believe in transformation and transcendence but it seemed too much of a New Age Western woman falling in love with Eastern mystics in India and Bali. But her compelling and authentic talk at Ted about the creative process made me rethink - maybe I should grab a copy of the book.

Anyways here she talks about how she has post success been bombarded by fear-based questions by people. Whether she is afraid that she will never have another best seller. Whether she is afraid that her best work is behind her. Whether she fears that spending all the remaining time writing and pursuing her craft would not yield another major success. She admits that she is afraid. But she says that it would be VERY dangerous way to think. It is very dangerous for her to entertain all these fears and become crippled. She says that she is very young - at 40 she has another 4 decades of work left in her. How does she continue doing the work that she loves without succumbing to such fears and anxiety that the popular media propagates?

How do you protect yourself from such fears and anxiety? How does one keep doing the work that they love? How does one delink one's worth from the results of your work? How do you create a safe distance between your work and your audience? A safety zone helps one stay focussed on our work, free from crippling anxiety. Or fear of failure. How do you manage the inherent emotional risks? She looks to the Romans and Greeks for guidance.

Romans believed that genius is a magical divine persona that comes out and helps a person or an artist. Greeks believed that creativity is a divine attendant spirit that came from far away. So creativity was mystery - it did not come entirely from the individual or self. The ancient artists were protected from extreme judgment of their creative work - if the work was bad the divine spirits were not assisting. If the work was good - alot of credit was shared with a divine source. So it distanced the artist from the work. It keeps the ego in check and protects the fragile psyche from the whims of success. So artists were not held up as the divine source of all great work/mystery. This pressure is what stifles many artists and true creative folks.

Why not think of great art as something that is not available on demand. That does not work according to rational timelines? How about reintroducing the ancient Roman idea of a genuis of creative fairy who comes to aid the artist at their own time and pace? How about recognizing that this fairy is not something within but something without? And to learn to have the patience and perspective to wait and watch for this fairy to show up? While as an artist you keep a schedule and work and work hard daily. And at all the time staying open to this creative fairy and being open to her showing up. And when she does to grab it and ride on that creative wave.

As she gets older she becomes calmer. She accepts that inspiration is elusive and tantalizing. She recognizes that one can take away the heavy anxiety from the creative process. What happens when you are deep into a project and then you get into this dark pit of despair? When thoughts like this is going to bomb. This is going to be a terrible failure. This is going to ruin me etc etc. How do you control these dangerous thought patterns? Commit to show up. Your part is to show up with commitment and total enthusiasm. The rest you cannot and more importantly should NOT control. Running disaster scenarios in your head although very common is something to be firmly resisted. I could not agree more.

She also talks about coming to terms with the post artistic highs. How all artists at certain moments become a vehicle for the divine. How God appears unbidden through artists and when the audience sees this they glimpse the divine in a mortal. But the next day the artist has to wake up and do laundry and face the mundane realities of life. How does one reconcile this she asks? By plodding along with faith and determination and doing the work everyday WITHOUT expecting genius work. If you brush up against genius - great. Be open to it. But understand that maybe the moment of artistic high is a rare treat. Not an entitlement. And one should continue doing what one loves for the sheer love of it. Even if no one is watching or applauding.