I love audio books. Especially since I travel often and find myself sitting in traffic (a lot)! When the list of unplayed podcast shows 0 I can always rely on Audible for a good read.
Since I love learning new things my Audible playlist (and podcast for that matter) are entirely comprised of psychology, health, business, fitness, or memoirs. Currently, I’m almost through this incredible book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
As I am near the end of the book I am grateful Elizabeth reads the book herself. There is something about hearing the emotion, investment, experience, the living proof of how this book came to be through hearing her words.
There was a pivotal moment in the book I couldn’t have been more grateful for. Actually two pivotal moments that truly struck me. And of course I took these two moments as a reminder to my own self and took my own interpretation* which you can find below.
First, she mentions her dear friend Rob Bell and how he refers to liminal moments as beautiful moments that should be cherished. Whether it’s the time after rejection, failure, loss, any period of time you wish were over… Rob asks that you truly enjoy this time.
“Don’t rush through the experiences and circumstances that have the most capacity to transform you. Don’t let go of your courage, the moment things stopped being easy or rewarding, because that moment? That’s the moment when interesting begins.”
This is the beautiful, most interesting points in our lives that people often grow from, become different human beings even! So, remember, whenever you’re in what seems like a hard period in your life… take the moment to see this moment as a defining period of your life and ask yourself the question, “What can I learn from this? How will I let this define me? Where do I want my trajectory to go now?”.
Secondly, Elizabeth talks about INERTIA. That moment when you want to stop everything because you don’t know what to do next, or the moment you can’t solve a problem and everything seems bleak… Elizabeth urges you not to stop the movement. To keep doing something to keep the energy flowing.
And I love that. I love that she breathes new energy into those situations where you feel beat up, lost even, and all you want to do is forget whatever it is you thought you wanted. And oftentimes when we do stop, we kinda wait for inspiration to hit again. But what if we didn’t stop? What if we went to go see the world? Picked up a new hobby? Started cooking more creatively? Who knows what old or even NEW inspiration can come at you, all because you never stopped moving? You never stopped believing?
If there’s something in your life that is giving you doubts, if there’s something in your life that seems bleak… ask yourself, “what is this trying to teach me?” and then.. keep moving.
Love & Peace friends.
*These were the ways in which I interpreted two moments in the book and it decided to take new meaning, inspiration even, in my own life. I encourage ANYONE, creative or not, to take a good read of this book as I believe we are all creative souls at heart.