How to forgive yourself for being an ordinary human?
By: Edith Sam
Tags: Creators, Artist, Life, Writing, Creative

Creative Process

Why the ancient artists use their “Genius Spirt” to free themselves from public judgement?

Photo by Dori Bano on Unsplash

The few gifted humans

We eat, we sleep, we wake up to do it all over again. Life was like this for most of our stone-age ancestors. However, there were a few gifted humans who saw something out of their humdrum existence.

They saw pebbles as a hunting tool, bird bone as a flute and animal fur as a jacket. With these ideas, they start to educate their tribe. Tribes began to form. Civilization began to develop.

“I live on Earth at the present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process — an integral function of the universe.” R. Buckminster Fuller, I seem to be a verb

Introducing the Genius spirits

The ancient Greek believed that their personal spirits were divine messengers who mediated between the gods and mortals. They were known as “Genius Spirits”.

“When she was growing up in rural Virginia, she would be out working in the fields, and she said she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. And she said it was like a thunderous train of air. And it would come barreling down at her over the landscape.” Elizabeth Gilbert, Your Elusive Creative Genius

I remember having the same sudden palpitation feeling during a writing contest years ago. My heart was pumping wildly. My fingers stretched open, trembling in anticipation when the idea flashed into my mind. Words start to pour out in torrents across the screen. My grammars and syntax were on point. Nothing was blocking the flow of the story.

After one month, I received an email from the reviewers. They will be awarding me a “Special Award” certification. Everyone was congratulating me. But I felt that I just got lucky during the competition.

Probably, my Genius Spirit was hanging around in the room and choose to convey the story to me.

The appearance of Genius Spirits throughout history

Beethoven

Beethoven started to experience ringing in the ears when he was 28 years old. As an upcoming music composer, this was detrimental to his career.

He decided to take control of his life by writing down on staff paper when he heard the melodies in his head. This action has forever changed the course of classical music.

Shakespeare

Shakespeare uses the sights and sounds of London as a muse for his plays. He wrote 37 plays in his life, which were still playing after 400 years.

J. K Rowling

Rowling created “Harry Potter” on a delayed train from Manchester to London’s King’s Cross station, which will make her a millionaire.

Fortunately, there was a delay in the train that day.

Disney

Walt Disney created his famous cartoon Mickey Mouse in 1928 while sitting on a long train ride.

Currently, the famous mouse has been bringing in $1 million a year in merchandise sales for Disney.

Before they were famous, they were just ordinary human like you and me.

What makes them stand out among their peers? They show up every day in their profession, dedicating their lives to their work.

Beethoven loved to write down his ideas in his notebooks and took his time to try out different versions of them before releasing his work to the public.

Shakespeare used 3 years to write Romeo and Juliet, which would go on to become one of the famous play in the world. J.K rowling took 5 years to write Harry Potter and is now one of the world’s highest-Paid author at $92 Million.

Walt Disney was fired from a Missouri newspaper for “not being creative enough”. He set up Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy in the early 1920 and went on to be nominated for 59 Academy Awards, winning 32, all for his unparalleled animations.

The ancient artists are protected from 3 things.

The Artist’s Ego

In this article, the word “ego” is the Latin word for “I.” Literally translated, ego means “I.”

Imagine you have clinched the top writer tag at Medium, people start to take notice of you and your articles. Readers clap for you. You felt great.

Your ego index level shoots up. Every morning you wake up, you felt like you have created a mark on Medium.

One day, you wake up to notice that the tag was gone. You felt the world go quiet in that instant. Your ego came down shattering from the top.

“In ancient greek time, if there was a painter and the painter was like painting great art. He would bring and show it to the public and the public would say, “ Oh, he has a Genius Spirit living in the walls!” Shawn Mendes, Talks Wonder, Writing Process & New Album

The ancient writers never put all the credit on themselves. They give praises to their Genuis Spirit, who they believe had assisted them with their creative process.

2. The Artist’s Narcissism

Mayo Clinic stated that Narcissism behaviour is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others.

Vincent Van Gough is a perfect example of a Narcissistic artist. He has painted over 30 self-portraits of himself between 1886 and 1889. New evidence suggested that van Gogh cut off his ear when he heard about his Brother’s marriage. A typical Narcissist who need full attention on him to gain validation of his own existence.

“ He was also exhausted from working hard and the high standards he set for himself. He was uncertain about the future and felt that he had failed, as a man and as an artist.” Van Gogh Museum

The ancient artists understood that all their creations were work of arts by their Genius Spirit. Instead of asking people to admire them, they thank their Genius Spirit for stopping by and transmit the creative information to them.

3. The Artist’s fatigue

All writers have a similar mannerism. They will fuss on every tiny detail in their paragraph to make sure that their article is perfect to be published. Content fatigue will slowly set in, which might lead them to feel burnt out by their own expectation.

“If your work was brilliant, you couldn’t take all the credit for it, everybody knew that you had this disembodied genius who had helped you. If your work bombed, not entirely your fault, you know? Everyone knew your genius was kind of lame.” Elizabeth Gilbert, Your Elusive Creative Genius

The ancient artists are not fearful of public judgement. By freeing themselves up from their responsibility to their works, they can focus on their next creation.

How to forgive yourself during an unfruitful day?

“My muse is here. It’s a she. Scruffy little mutt has been around for years, and how I love her, fleas and all. She gives me the words. She is not used to being regarded so directly, but she still gives me the words. She is doing it now. That’s the other level, and that’s the mystery. Everything in your head kicks up a notch, and the words rise naturally to fill their places.” Stephen King, “The Writing Life” (2006)

If you are lucky enough to catch the message from your Genius Spirit, say a big thanks and do a little dance in your room.

There will be days when your Genius Spirit might take a vacation elsewhere. Just show up anyway. Be open. Create your stuff. If your work comes out quite uninspired, do kindly forgive yourself. Your Genius Spirit was not in your walls that day.

Freed yourself from your own expectation. Keep showing up every day. You never know when your Genius Spirit would drop by uninvited into your walls again.

Final Takeaway