Big Magic- Creative Living Beyond Fear

I’ve never thought of myself as a creative person. Growing up, I felt jealous of my friends who could draw or paint, or even of my mom who’s a true artist at heart and always helped me out with any art-related school projects since I was just hopeless when it came to those things.

Many years a go, I had to do a presentation for school and my idea was to just glue some pictures on a card board, and really kill it with my speech/presentation. I asked my mom for help and next thing you know, I’m carrying a big-ass 5 feet wide dinosaur cut out of cardboard to school, completed with colorful and almost 3D-like details: eyelashes, claws, teeth, etc. I always wondered why I wasn’t creative like my mom, and if, perhaps, I’ll get a bit more creative as I get older (this is really weird but I used to think that all adults just “know” how to pain and draw, I was convinced that once I reach my 20s, I’ll be able to easily create amazing watercolor portraits). What I didn’t know, was that I was born a creative person.

You might have heard of that “little” book released back in 2006: “Eat Pray Love”? Big Magic- Creative Living Beyond Fear is written by the same author, Elizabeth Gilbert. If you don’t already know this, I’m a total self-help book junkie, and even though you will find Big Magic in the self-help section, it’s not your typical “self-help” guide. Actually, I don’t think of this book as a guide at all; you will not find the author saying “okay, now you need to do this, in order to get that” it’s more of an inspirational read that will ignite that sparkle, but it will be up to you to decide what to do with it.

Big Magic is written in six sections: Courage, Enchantment, Permission, Persistence, Trust, and Divinity. Each one of them is written in a very fun, playful conversational tone but at the same time, the author also has that no BS attitude, which I loved. Everything she talks about, makes complete sense. She also shares some really interesting, inspiring and in some cases truly magical stories that made this book even more fun to read.

As you have probably guessed, Big Magic- Creative Living Beyond Fear is a book about creativity. When we think of “creativity” we often think of artists, creative professionals. In Big Magic, Gilbert explains that it doesn’t matter who you are; a lawyer, a store clerk, a stay at home mom or a construction worker- you are a creative being. You can be creative in the way you dress, the way you raise your kids, the way you show someone how much you love them, in the way you cook, in the way you work. Big Magic teaches you that regardless of what you do or where you come from, you were born to be free to create and free to explore, free to embrace your curiosity. It teaches you how to deal with fear, how to think big, how to be courageous and how to use your skills (and we all those!) to bring new interests and things to your life.

It’s not the type of book that will encourage you to quit your job to pursue some sort of career in a creative field- quite the opposite, it will encourage you to find that sparkle, that magic in your day-to-day life. I, for one, found this book to be incredibly inspiring and helpful with the creative process of blogging. I think that anyone would enjoy this book, but I can’t help but think it’s an especially appropriate read for bloggers- it definitely made me see all of my blog-related work and process in a different light.

If you feel like you’re stuck in a rut or if you’re just in need of some inspiration and want your life to be a bit more magical, I definitely recommend you read Big Magic. Even though I’ve just finished reading it, I’m planning on reading it again, this time, highlighter and post-it notes in hand.