On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity

by Ellen J. Langer

Book Overview

"All it takes to become an artist is to start doing art."
-from On Becoming an Artist

On Becoming an Artist is loaded with good news. Backed by her landmark scientific work on mindfulness and artistic nature, bestselling author and Harvard psychologist Ellen J. Langer shows us that creativity is not a rare gift that only some special few are born with, but rather an integral part of everyone's makeup. All of us can express our creative impulses- authentically and uniquely-and, in the process, enrich our lives.

Why then do so many of us merely dream of someday painting, someday writing, someday making music? Why do we think the same old thoughts, harbor the same old prejudices, stay stuck in the same old mud? Who taught us to think "inside the box"?

No one is more qualified to answer these questions than Dr. Langer, who has explored their every facet for years. She describes dozens of fascinating experiments-her own and those of her colleagues-that are designed to study mindfulness and its relation to human creativity, and she shares the profound implications of the results-for our well-being, health, and happiness.

Langer reveals myriad insights, among them: We think we should already know what only firsthand experience can teach us. . . . In learning the ways that all roses are alike, we risk becoming blind to their differences. . . . If we are mindfully creative, the circumstances of the moment will tell us what to do. . . . Those of us who are less evaluatively inclined experience less guilt, less regret, less blame, and tend to like ourselves more. . . . Uncertainty gives us the freedom to discover meaning. . . . Finally, what we think we're sure of may not even exist.

With the skill of a gifted logician, Langer demonstrates exactly how we undervalue ourselves and undermine our creativity. By example, she persuades us to have faith in our creative works, not because someone else approves of them but because they're a true expression of ourselves. Her high-spirited, challenging book sparkles with wit and intelligence and inspires in us an infectious enthusiasm for our creations, our world, and ourselves. It can be of lifelong value to everyone who reads it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345456300
• ISBN13: 9780345456304
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

considering your life as a work of art

I discovered this book at a public library, and then bought a couple of copies as gifts, and then went back to Langer's earlier titles to get insight into the development of her positions on mindfulness. This book is not by any means aimed toward people who have a "mindfulness practice", but nonetheless, I think it is a particularly good book for meditators and contemplatives, as an adjunct to their practices, as it takes mindfulness out of the realm of calm silence and into the hurly burly of "the world" - where we have to act/do/create, and deal with others' responses and opinions of us, etc. A high point of the book, which perhaps deserves to be developed into a whole other book in its own right, is the last chapter - called "The Mindful Choice" - a remarkably succinct summary of strategies for decision making. This is again an area where many of us are confused and burdened by conditioning. Langer tellingly brings guesses, predictions, choices, and decisions into the same arena of human experience, but along a sliding scale of perceived importance, and gives us immediately practical guidelines for moving along more freely in our lives, by bringing the dimensions of meaning and significance and creativity all together into one comprehensive exercise in wisdom development.

Inspiring

I read this book 3 years ago and I credit it with finding my way towards more creative expression through painting. The book completely inspired me to try new things and the insights have helped me through many daily situations. Not sure what some people here expected, but I venture that they might not have understood some of the gist of it. This book is not about how you become a commercially successful artist, quite the contrary; it is about how every "normal" person can reinvent him/herself to use more of those buried creative abilities. To me it was more than a inspiring read, it was transformational.

Doctoral Student, Music Education

There is so much fear associated with performing, creating, or expressing any artistic endeavor. Langer holds up a mirror to these fears by describing many scientifically based experiments that reveal where the real problems lie: 1. Being critical of others prevents us from being vulnerable enough to be moved by something unique and wonderful. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable makes artistic expression more meaningful. 2. Assumptions about "prodigies," "talent," and "real" art, are often based on one experience, or one comment we may have overheard. The people we compare ourselves to may not claim to be any more of an expert than we are. I am completely inspired by this book! Perhaps if enough people let go of their critical, doubtful selves and begin expressing themselves artistically, they would begin to understand how invaluable the arts are. Rather than talking about the arts as a core subject in schools, books like this convince me that "the basics" and all of general education would gain tremendously by learning from the arts.

Just go ahead and create

The word 'someday' can be another word for 'never', when prejudices, unproductive thinking patterns, and negativity get in the way of creativity and artistic expression. All it takes to become an artist, psychologist Ellen Langer maintains, is to start doing art. Her insights on preconceptions and barriers to producing art encourage readers to just go ahead and create.

Mindful clarity once again

Ellen does it again! Possibly the most practical and impactful advice ever given by a scientist, psychologist, or artist. Backed by decades of research, which she makes very approachable, and anecdotes from her own experience as an artist, she shows us how we are all very creative - every single one of us. The only thing limiting the life-enhancing benefits we can enjoy from this free-flowing creativity we all have is our own mindless perception of it, and Ellen shows us a proven, very easy way to get there - be aware of new things, "it is seeing the similarities in things thought different and the differences in things taken to be similar." While simple, the elegance runs deep and the huge implications for our creativity and how we experience life are proven. Think of the wonders humanity could produce in the next ten years if we each realized this and used this practical advice, shifting how we see ourselves and others and the contributions we can uniquely and creatively make to the world, once we are more mindful.