Inspired Magazine

MAGIC LESSONS PODCAST
Elizabeth Gilbert
new
Inspired
feature
A follow-on from Elizabeth Gilbert’s
amazing book Big Magic: Creative living
beyond fear, this podcast is part of Gilbert’s
quest to help more people do the stuff that
makes them feel good, that lights the fire in
their belly. It’s about conquering fears – fears
that you’re not good enough, that someone else
already did it better, that you won’t be respected.
Gilbert invites people struggling to live
creative lives to share their pain, then provides
advice on overcoming their obstacles through
offering her own wisdom and that of big-name
creatives.
In Gilbert’s words: “The universe buries strange
jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to
see if we can find them. The hunt to discover those
jewels – that’s creative living. The courage to go on
that hunt in the first place – that’s what separates
a mundane existence from a more enchanted one.
The often surprising results of that hunt – that’s
what I call Big Magic.”
“It is what
you read
when you
don’t have
to that
determines
what you will
be when you
can’t help it.”
Oscar Wilde
WILD – A JOURNEY FROM LOST TO FOUND
Cheryl Strayed
Wild recounts the personal and physical
journey of Cheryl Strayed as she trekked the
Pacific Crest Trail on the West Coast of America.
She started the 1800-kilometre hike as a battered
26-year-old, struggling with personal demons
– the loss of her mother to cancer, the break up
of her marriage, sexual promiscuity and drugs.
She had no experience of hiking, or wilderness
survival, and the trek would test her physical and
emotional strength in ways she could never have
imagined.
But as Strayed walked – and battled weather,
physical strain, loneliness and her inner self – she
found hope. She discovered that she could put
her life back together. She realised she had it in
her to be the promising girl she once was. She
found the strength to give up the cycle of selfdestruction.
Strayed portrays her journey with
searing honesty, recounting scenes so anguished
you want to cry and others laugh-out-loud funny.
PLAYING BIG
Tara Mohr
This book is based on the notion that there are
all these amazing, talented, wondrous women out
there who don’t live their full potential because
they don’t consider themselves worthy, or an
expert, or capable enough. They are too ‘nice’ to
strive for their dreams, too concerned with pleasing
others to unleash their magic on the world.
Tara Mohr aims to give readers the tools to step
up and be their best selves. She says “this book
was born out of a frustration and a hope. The
frustration? Brilliant women are playing small. The
hope? That the world could be changed – for the
much, much better – by our greater participation.”
Her advice ranges from tips to overcoming selfdoubt
and not listening to your inner critic to, my
favourite, listening to your ‘inner mentor’ – that
wise internal voice that’s unconstrained by fear.
I feel like Mohr wrote this book especially for me
and so many of my friends. I can’t recommend it
highly enough.
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