Katy Bowman

I just spent pretty much all day listening to Elizabeth Gilbert's Magic Lessons podcast. I highly recommend checking it out. Especially episode 12 where she talks with Bréne Brown. I listened to that one twice. Although I learned a lot from all of them. It was interesting hearing from the different women about where they are with their creativity and what was blocking them from doing the work that they felt they needed to do.

The guests she talks with are amazing, too, and each one provides a different perspective on life and how to incorporate creativity. Cheryl Strayed talked about creativity and motherhood and how one of the most important things you can model for your kids is pursuing your passions "like a motherfucker." Rob Bell talked about being present in everything you do and realizing that life is what is happening right now and that you need to pay attention and find the wonder in even the most boring places. Ann Patchett talked about just diving in and doing the hard work you need to do. Rayya Elias talked about making things for yourself, just for the joy of making things. John Hodgeman talked about being free to change directions and take your creativity to new places. And Bréne Brown, of course, talked about how to counteract the shame and fear that keep us from being our most creative selves.

I will confess to not always being a huge Elizabeth Gilbert fan. I've never read Eat, Pray, Love. I liked The Signature of All Things, but didn't love it. But I did love her TED talk about creativity and, after listening to the first two episodes of this talk, I did go out and buy a copy of Big Magic, her latest book about creativity.

The podcast is well done and she covered a lot of issues that I've found myself dealing with lately with regards to my writing. A lot of what she and her guests said had me thinking about what I do and how I do it (and why I do it) in new ways and got me all excited about writing again. I've been in a rough place lately, both inspiration and discipline have been severely lacking, and although I love the book I'm working on, to be honest the writing has been a bit of a slog. I've actually been avoiding it a lot lately. But after today, I'm actually excited to get back to work on it.