I hope people who need this book will find it. You may want to suggest it to someone you know.
Too often we imbibe notions that creativity is mostly for special people who create special things, and then the rest of us simply consume those things. This book says something different and more basic about what it means to be a human being. Creativity is central to each person, but it often goes unaccessed.
Norwegian author Hilde Østby offers practices of daydreaming (can’t every person learn to daydream — or simply allow themselves to do so?), meditation, or even giving yourself permission to be idle, even bored, because those are the moments when creative energy is given the space it needs to grow.
One of hundreds of examples of notable artistic creations that came from boredom is this one, offered in the Introduction: “[Lewis] Carroll’s legendary children’s book [Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland] was conceived on a beautiful July day while boating on a lazy river in Oxford.”
The author tells personal stories of learning these lessons, and they are helpful anecdotes that should speak to many readers and their own blockages with regard to finding creativity. Sometimes stories encourage readers to take bold steps, such as quitting a dead-end or life-sucking job in order to make room for a creative, more life-affirming, way of life. Always, Østby combines personal stories and examples from people exercising their creativity with scientific data and teachings of experts to support her conclusions.
Go Deeper:
Infusing Your Life with Creativity: An E-Course on reclaiming creative expression as a natural way of being.
