On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity

by Ellen J. Langer

“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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Art, Psychology, Nonfiction, Self Help, Writing, Personal Development, Memoir

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Ellen Langer, Yale PhD, Harvard Professor of Psychology, artist. Among other honors, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and three Distinguished Scientist Awards, the World Congress Award, the NYU Alumni Achievement Award, and the Staats award for Unifying Psychology, and has authored eleven books and over 200 research articles on the illusion of control, perceived control, successful aging, decision-making, to name a few of the topics. Each of these is examined through the lens of her theory of mindfulness. Her research has demonstrated that by actively noticing new things—the essence of mindfulness—health, well being, and competence follow. Her best selling books include Mindfulness; The Power of Mindful Learning; On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity; and her most recent book, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.

In addition to other honors, she has been a guest lecturer in Japan, Malaysia, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Switzerland, and Argentina.

The citation for the APA distinguished contributions award reads, in part, “…her pioneering work revealed the profound effects of increasing mindful behavior…and offers new hope to millions whose problems were previously seen as unalterable and inevitable. Ellen Langer has demonstrated repeatedly how our limits are of our own making.”

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't have a self-help bookshelf designated but if I did, this book would sit on that shelf. It's about the roadblocks that stand in the way of our natural creativity and how we might remove them. Langer, a Harvard academic and researcher, is known as the mother of mindfulness, having researched and written about the subject from a Western, scientific perspective long before the eastern definition became popular in this country. She asserts that "mindfulness does not involve achieving some altered state of consciousness through years of meditation." Rather it requires that "we give up the fixed way in which we have learned to look at the world."

The book can be tedious to get through because she cites many of her research studies and goes on a bit in an academic sort of way. That said, there's good information here. She makes strong points about the tyranny of evaluation (by ourselves and others), our fear of making mistakes, and the idea that a chosen few are born with creative talent. Most of us believe that "either you have it or you don't" when it comes to painting, drawing, or playing music.

"The truth is that much of what we ascribe to talent arises from a set of skills that can be learned."
"The gap between the talented and the not talented is usually in the particulars, not in some inherited quality that's inaccessible to the rest of us." (the particulars being a learned skill set)
"Mistakes show us what else we might learn,"
"Depression, suicide, or just feeling bad all result in whole or in part from a comparative evaluative stance." (There it is again - Comparison is the thief of joy).

Langer encourages us to take up a new creative pursuit for the pure fun of it and perhaps notice how it makes us more mindful in other areas of our life. I took her advice and launched into painting the base of a ceramic lamp that I didn't like but didn't want to throw away. Having never attempted a project like this before I was a total novice, but I felt I had little to lose since I didn't like the lamp anyways. I was surprised how much fun it was and I ended up really liking the finished result. Now I'm looking around to see what else I can paint! And then there's the piano...

[Chris Pelzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although personally I am in agreement with this book's arguments, and feel that the author is mindfully creative both in her painting and in her profession as a psychologist, I think the message could have been presented in a stronger manner. My first suggestion would be for it to be presented as an article, which I think would have been very powerful. The second would have been to perhaps present it more as a workbook with examples of increasing your mindful creativity. I kind of feel like the advice is like the advice the 2,000 year old man gave the woman who couldn't stop shredding paper: "Stop shredding paper!"

[Sdb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked from the beginning. I am an artist and a student of social psychology so it wasn't much of a stretch. The ideas presented are not all new but were backed up with Langers form of experiment which sets out to illuminate the edges rather than re affirm the common results. I have no doubt this is not for everyone but if you are interested in examining behavior you will find a lot of clear examinations and revealing results in this book.

I went on to find the British tv special which recreated the counterclockwise experiment. Heck my house is all 70's as it is I just need to turn off the computer a while and watch tv land.

The parts in the book which expose the doubts and fears of the artist are particularly gratifying. I am leaning toward a complete rejection of any type of exposure as a positive influence on creative output.

As an added note I bought this book used but subsequently bought the kindle version to facilitate note taking. Here are some of the highlights from the book which compile on the web after highlighting on kindle on my ipad.

In traditional notions of the unconscious, we do not see certain things because we are motivated not to—to do so would be too painful for us. Mindlessness, instead, typically comes about by default, not design. When we live our lives mindlessly, we don’t see, hear, taste, or experience much of what might turn lives verging on boredom into lives that are rich and exciting. We are essentially “not there” to notice much of the world around us. Beginning an artistic activity is one way to help us move from excessive mindlessness to a more mindful life. If we fully engage this new activity, we will come to see how enlivening mindfulness is. Aware of the phenomenological experience of mindfulness, we can let an internal bell sound whenever we feel otherwise, signaling that mindlessness is creeping in.


whatever we engage with becomes engaging, whether or not someone “official” calls it art. If we put evaluation aside, the world almost instantly becomes more available for mindful viewing. If we stop judging ourselves, creating art becomes more possible. The difficulty lies in convincing ourselves to refrain from judgment.

What attracted me was less art itself than the artist’s life and all that it meant for me: the idea of creativity and freedom of expression and action. I had been attracted to painting and drawing for a long time, but it was not an irresistible passion; what I wanted, at all costs, was to escape the monotony of life. PIERRE BONNARD6


Complete, creative engagement in all that we do is the natural response to our world; it need not be extraordinary at all. It is, in fact, the experience we have when we are at play. Whether it’s at play or in a more serious pursuit, if we approach the opportunity at hand creatively, we will experience such engagement. In the best of all worlds, a life of total engagement would be the norm, although in reality too many of us don’t see the opportunity before us. What’s more, we seem to do everything possible to prevent it from happening.

Creativity is not a blessing some special few are born with or receive from above. Our creative nature is an integral part of our daily lives, expressed through our culture, our language, and even our most mundane activities. “Art,” wrote the painter Robert Henri, “when really understood is the province of every human being.”


participants to look through an apparatus at an unfocused image for either a short or a relatively long period of time before the image was brought into focus. Participants simply had to report what the stimulus was as soon as they recognized it. Those who were shown the unfocused image for a longer period took longer to identify it correctly even as the image became focused. Uncomfortable with the uncertainty, they made predictions— they guessed at what the image was—then tended to stick to those incorrect identifications even as the image became clearer.


Researchers have shown how poor our predictions are when we engage in “affective forecasting,” predicting how we’ll feel in response to future events. Their studies have demonstrated that we frequently are wrong about how we are going to feel after we relocate to another city, break up with a romantic partner, learn we have a serious illness, or fail to secure a promotion. We tend to overemphasize how a negative outcome will affect us. In reality, people are much more resilient than they realize, and “bad outcomes” often are not nearly as bad as people thought they would be. In short, we can take more risks knowing that our “mistakes” (if that’s even what they turn out to be) won’t be as negative as we imagine they will be.


Once we realize that we can control our psychological experience of events, negative outcomes all but disappear.

“The patient who comes early is displaying anxiety, he who comes late is offering resistance.But if he regularly comes on time, he is compulsive.” 1537


Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot find it in anything. EUGÈNE DELACROIX 1545


Our world has been fashioned largely by people. People create the products we use, make the laws we follow, write the books we study in high school. Despite all of our efforts to perfect ourselves, the truth is that people have limited knowledge, mixed motivations, biases, and any number of other limitations. Many of us know this conceptually, even if we don’t think very often about how it affects our approach to the world. And so we experience our world, more often than not, as if it exists independent of human involvement. We take the things we use, the rules we follow, and the information we rely on as if they are true in some absolute sense, regardless of context or perspective. We have become oblivious to the part others play and have played in deciding much of what we take for granted. This is unfortunate, for by doing so, we give up new choices and lose the opportunity to take more control of our lives. 1582


We are taught to think inside the box. Then we are taught to think outside the box. What I want us to ask is, Who put the box there? 1594


No matter how proficient we are at what we do, most of us are able to find a way to draw comparisons with some ideal or existing yardstick that keeps us from recognizing the value of what we are doing. 1622


Putting people back in the equation reintroduces the uncertainty that 1786


A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells. GRANDMA MOSES 1794


The first and last important rule for the creative writer, then, is that though there may be rules (formulas) for ordinary, easily publishable fiction— imitation fiction—there are no rules for real fiction, any more than there are rules for serious visual art or musical composition. JOHN GARDNER 1840


We can look for and find aesthetic value in almost anything, and we can appreciate it as Art. We need not be limited by the opinions of “experts,” who in turn are limited by what they perceive to be limited resources. 1850


It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else. HENRI MATISSE 1905


Perhaps we should ask those with whom we compare ourselves and our work what starting was like for them. We’re likely to find out that no one can know in the beginning whether what lies ahead is going to be a great work or an embarrassment. 2008


The artist David Hockney, in his recent book Secret Knowledge, tells us that a surprising number of Old Masters used all sorts of optical devices to help them trace the subjects of their paintings.6 Dürer, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Velázquez, Ingres, and Hals all used such devices. None of which detract from their accomplishment. Hockney tells those who would find the genius of their work diminished: The lens can’t draw a line, only the hand can do that, the artist’s hand and eye in coordination with his heart. . . . This whole insight about optical aids doesn’t diminish anything; it merely suggests a differentstory. 2065


The New York Times had a similar story not long ago about Thomas Eakins, who in 1882 was called the “greatest draftsman in America.” 7 We now find out that the great Realist “had a secret,” that, essentially, he traced from photographs. Yes, some great artists draw brilliantly, and that is wonderful. Millions of dollars, however, have been spent on paintings in which the artists’ drawing technique was less central to their appeal. 2070


Herein lies the mindlessness of social comparison. It can lead us to disparage others, interfere with their potential successes, and keep us from engaging in a more creative life out of fear of failure; all in order to protect ourselves. But do we really succeed in protecting ourselves? Ironically, with most of these attempts at self-protection, we hurt ourselves instead. Our concern about self-esteem leads only indirectly to self-protection. If the evaluation of events leads me to feel bad about myself, i.e., hold myself in low self-esteem, then I take steps to protect myself in the future. We accept our search for psychological self-protection as natural because self-protection for our physical selves is taken to be natural. We view potential harm to our physical selves as justification for behavior that otherwise would be unacceptable. In the end, though, psychological self-protection is self-defeating. 2219


Evaluation is language-based rather than experience-based; the very process of evaluating removes the person from the interaction, that is, from the experience. We seek positive experiences, yet the process of evaluating the experience removes our participation. Defending the self by making downward social comparisons removes the self from the interaction that could provide the opportunity for further growth. The “experiencing self” and the “self-evaluating self” are mutually exclusive, and self-actualization is the antithesis of self-protection. This may be why, when we look back on the creative process, we frequently feel that we don’t know how we did it. When I write, and now when I paint, I am often surprised at the final product. I don’t know where it came from. I could worry that I might not be able to do as well ever again, and I might not. But it surely won’t happen if I watch, rather than do. We saw earlier that when we repeat a process mindlessly, the resulting products will not be as good as our mindful efforts. We can’t and shouldn’t know before we begin something where it will end up. All we know is that, once we start, something will result. That is all we need to know. Part of the excitement we experience from creative activities is in seeing what comes to be. If I knew for certain that the next time I play tennis, each shot would be perfect and I was destined to win the point, the game wouldn’t be much fun. 2230


When something happens that leads us to feel bad—we don’t finish the project when we had hoped to, for example—we compare ourselves with someone else or our ideal self and find that they have or would have done better. If we let the comparison lead us to question our worth, we may unwittingly begin a vicious cycle. When we feel good, we don’t ask ourselves questions about our self-worth. We just experience ourselves. When we feel bad, too often those are the very sorts of questions we do ask. This means in some sense, that the answers we are left with weigh more heavily than they should. We evaluate ourselves when we feel bad, we just experience ourselves when we feel good. So negative information is more available to us in the latter case. If we evaluated ourselves both when we felt good and when we felt bad, we might have a reasonable way to decide which feeling is dominant for us. But because the very act of evaluating reduces our experience, it might be better not to ask. Instead, we might just let ourselves be. 2243


If we allowed ourselves just to be our experiencing selves and had some unobtrusive way of making the evaluation, we’d see that there’s much more of us. To my mind, at least part of achieving a personal renaissance is learning to give up our tendency to make social comparisons and to live our lives mindfully. 2257


When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college—that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, You mean they forget? HOWARD IKEMOTO 2262


It isn’t that the talented “know” what they are about to do as much as that they are willing to start something and see where it leads them. We, however, tend to focus on their results and ignore the struggles, uncertainties, and false starts. And so the gap between us widens, although the real difference between those we think of as talented and ourselves may be nothing more than their willingness to go forward in the face of the uncertainty, if only because they believe in the skills they know they can bring to bear. 2282


If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all. MICHELANGELO 2291


The real problem isn’t that we don’t know these things. Our problem is that we think we should know without that which only firsthand experience can teach us. And this negative expectation leads us to shun activities that we would find satisfying if only we gave them a fair try. 2327


To read art historians, one would think that all the great artists were intent on making political statements about their times, keenly aware of complex scientific ideas, and certainly able to articulate their awareness of color, light, and other technical aspects of their art. In fact, many artists just paint without much regard to such grand ideas. 2356


The problem with creating these explanations is that we unnecessarily lock ourselves into rules for our behavior that limit us, or even make us feel like hypocrites, when we are inclined to act differently later. Moreover, such explanations lead us to be evaluative of anyone who behaves differently from us. 2367


The abstractions that critics attach to artists and their work more often than not lead many of us to feel more intimidated. Ironically, they increase the gap that lies between us and the artist, when their role is usually presumed to be that of bringing us closer to the artist and her art. 2376

Note: Whenever we look back at the work of others, we seem to overlook the smaller steps. In fact, we even lose them when we look back at our own efforts. As we go forward in life, we focus on the details of everyday living to lead us through the day. The typical day ahead is a series of steps, tasks, or activities that call for our attention. When we look back on what we did, however, we tend to impose grand, often moral explanations on our behavior. The details get lost when we look back, washed away in favor of large, abstract explanations. These abstractions get us into trouble, because as my mentor, Robert Abelson, was fond of saying (and it seems I am too), while it is easy to find reasons for what we do, it is hard to do what we find reasons for. Langer, Ellen J. (2007-12-18). On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity (p. 156). Ballantine Books. Kindle Edition. Edit
When you are writing before there is an audience anything written is as important as any other thing and you cherish anything and everything that you have written. GERTRUDE STEIN 2531


Most of us, on the brink of trying something new, are likely to ask “Can I do it?” But for all of us the question “How do I do it?” is a better place to start. It’s my belief that the major difference between those “that can” and those “that can’t” may be not much more than the number of attempts the former group has made. 2534


Peale advised us to continually “precondition” our minds to success, to “forecast that you are going to achieve a certain goal and then move steadily toward that goal.” Our experiments, in contrast, indicate that the goal may be better served by dwelling on the means. 2538


our studies suggest that just believing that talent is not the issue increases the chances that we will start to engage ourselves instead of hesitating. 2542


Audience appreciation, after all, is psychologically determined to a large part. It is one part conformity, one part a willingness to engage the stimulus, one part the context in which the work is viewed, one part the mindfulness of the viewer, and finally, of course, some aspect of the work itself. 2585


Even if we accept the conventional view of talent, it doesn’t matter whether we are talented or not. The reason to engage in any creative activity is that to do so is to feel alive and in turn to become enlivened. Will anyone really think less of us if we just can’t paint, sing, or write, very well? Probably not.

Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things. EDGAR DEGAS


When we cling to our own point of view, we may blind ourselves to our impact on others; if we are too vulnerable to other people’s definitions of our behavior, we can feel undermined, for observers are typically less flattering of us than we are of ourselves. It is easy to see that any interaction between people can have at least two interpretations: spontaneous versus weak, intense versus emotional, and so on. 2821


The best reason to paint is that there is no reason to paint. . . . I’d like to pretend that I’ve never seen anything, never read anything, never heard anything . . . and then make something. . . . Every time I make something I think about the people who are going to see it and every time I see something, I think about the person who made it. . . . Nothing is important . . . so everything is important. KEITH HARING 2979


It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well. JACKSON POLLOCK 3084


We are unlikely to feel competent as decision makers unless we see many of our actions as decisions. Engaging our mindful creativity means there are many new decisions to be made. 3186


So the more decisions we see ourselves making, the better we feel we are at making decisions. The broader our understanding of what a decision is, especially if we are led to define it for ourselves, the better we feel about making decisions. Most important, people’s views of their ability can be influenced by changes in their interpretation of their past actions as decisions, rather than merely reactions to objectively specified alternatives.

[chiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All too often people feel as though they have no choice in situations where others, although no different except in their outlook, actively create their world.”

This book has been helpful in challenging how I feel about creating and how to be more compassionate with myself and others about self-expression. I especially loved the chapter on the mindlessness of social comparison.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quotation:
"How do we get from beginning some new activity to a personal renaissance? Learning what things stand in the way of our comfortably engaging in some leisure activity, and how to break down these roadblocks as we experience them provides the practice we need to deal with our more familiar stresses and fears. Once examined through this new lens, many of our 'problems' fall by the roadside. We can, it turns out, pursue art for art’s sake and art for life’s sake, and it matters little what that art is. Any creative activity can have a powerful effect on our lives if we pursue it mindfully and recognize the ways in which old familiar fears and habits can be set aside to make room for the personal renaissance we seek."

[Jocelyn Paige Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, practical, uplifting. As a writer who dabbles in art, I felt like this book really helped me to understand and engage more mindfully in the practice of creativity on a level that I had not yet reached or appreciated. I found mountains of gems in here, both from the author and from quotes the author brings in to highlight certain ideas.

[Sojharo Mangi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book really interesting as I started reading it. I am a poet and story-writer myself so I could relate to many things. There were many good things like where we should care about rules and where we should come up with our own decisions. In short, the author helps you realising how we can openly participate in situations and not blindly follow rules decided by someone else in some other situation. However, after 1o0 pages, I was like dragging myself to complete the book. I don't know why but I got tired of reading it. It might be my mistake as well as I was not reading it daily but with gap of two to three days. This book doesn't keep you stuck with it.

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Langer, who is a psychologist and researcher at Harvard University, is known primarily for her work on mindfulness. Here, she outlines the obstacles to creating art mindfully--unnecessary obstacles of our own making that stop us from fully enjoying the creative process or that keep us from making art altogether. Her arguments resonated strongly for me, even though no one issue was particularly novel or earthshaking. I realize that I may simply have been at the right place at the right time, so I'm not assuming that the book will have a similar impact on every reader, but it's given me quite a lot to think about.

[Deborah Biancotti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much a how-to or hands-on book as a book of reminders & considerations for the obstacles to liberated play/art. Mentions the idea of a 'personal renaissance', but I'm left wondering what that is & how to get there. ;) A book for beginners with an academic bent.

[Teri Temme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the ideas and Ellen's description of her painting adventures. I learned some important lessons. Confirmed a few beliefs. And remembered: "Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely". ~Auguste Rodin

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think it cut deep enough for me, but I did find parts of it helpful and interesting. It reads more as a memoir in some regards. This book best for a beginner mindset.

[Ziggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellen Langer is one of the wisest people on the planet. If we allow her, she can restore sanity to the masses. Studying mindfulness and mindlessness her entire life has evidently paid off. Her joy jumps off the page, and it’s not the empty joy of head-in-the-sand positivity. She has her eyes wide open.

Mindfulness is a term that now has many meanings but ultimately it means “seeing” things as they really are. And it’s obvious from reading her that she is less trapped by illusions than most people. She understand that the future is always uncertain no matter how much we plan and predict, that everything is always changing, that our experience is only one way of experiencing the world, that facts are context-dependent, that our knowledge will always be incomplete, etc.

She says the essence of mindfulness is noticing new things. But her concept of mindfulness is more than just noticing new things. It’s a state of mind when we are open to new information, aware of context and situation, aware of multiple perspectives and understandings.

Ellen began painting late in life. The more she painted the more she realized how relevant her work on mindfulness was to creating art. Basically, we are more creative when we are mindful, and creating art helps us practice mindfulness.

Her ideas are simple but oh how we struggle to live them. Most of us pay lip service to the idea that there are many ways to look at something, but we live our lives stuck in a single perspective. We tell our kids that they have so many possibilities and options to choose from, but we didn’t live that way, did we?

[Susan Oleksiw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the title, this book is not the usual series of morale boosts readers may be seeking. Dr. Langer, a psychologist specializing in mindfulness, took up painting on the spur of the moment, surprising herself as well as her friends. With no training, she wondered what her work would be like, and mentioned what she was doing to her friends. They gave her simple advice—ignore any judgments and just start painting. She did, and loved it.

This book is Langer's report of the ways we prevent ourselves from making art, entering a world of imagination and creativity because we have been led to believe in things like the importance of evaluating and critiquing our work, relying on talent and seeing ourselves in relation to others we are led to believe do have talent, rules of art, and the like. In ten chapters she examines these are other obstacles to becoming an artist, citing numerous research studies to back up her observations and conclusions. Her emphasis is on the role of mindfulness in establishing an authentic life, an approach to art that will bring both joy, happiness, and creativity.

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the vein of Flow : The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (best book on this subject), here is another set of concepts on the issue of creativity by another esteemed (Harvard) college professor.

Dr. Langer speaks of her foray into becoming an artist in addition to teaching Harvard seminars. The focus is on what keeps people from dipping their toes into creative waters. Matters of social expectations, judgment, perceptions of talent, making time, etc. all are discussed. As always with this type of books, a number of case studies and experiments are included to support conclusions. That mostly is not that interesting. The practical side of exploring is more meaningful.

What gets a bit in the way here is her own story: summers off, lots of free time, access to other artistic types (usually wealthy), and so forth. While benefits of practicing art are included, perhaps more could have been included in this area. Perhaps not only creating art but also experiencing it by going to concerts, visiting galleries, etc.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellen Langer writes about her own process of discovering "how to paint" tied in with ways that we can be mindful when creating art. She discusses things that often hold people back from creating art, like the "definition of art" (no one can agree, why worry?), comparing self to others (with so many different types of art, what good does comparing ourselves to ONE do?) and saying we're "not creative" (also with the many types of art doesn't make sense). She emphasizes that the process of making art, the curiosity of the finished product and the process are what is most important when doing any type of creating - it's not about the evaluation or what others think - it's about a way to be mindful when creating.

I'm oversimplifying, but this book was really helpful for me. Langer gives people a freedom from "knowing the rules" and getting something on the paper/canvas instead, learning as we go.

Recommended.

Pairings: Art and Fear, Sabbath.

[Maria Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did struggle with this book, l found the pace very slow, and hence read it in the same way. Lot's of information, it did seem to be talking about one thing and then jump onto something else. L know when thinking in a creative way this is what happens, but at times l found it frustrating. The bottom line for me with this book, is be yourself, look for inspiration from the world around you nature, other arts, music etc. but be yourself, let your art evolve, the way we evolve as a person. When you are deeply into creating you become your deeper self and therefore that shines through in your work.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

She highly encourages being present with what is in the moment. Becoming aware of our preconceptions often limits our creativity... Bringing what “should” be to an art experience creates judgment and perhaps withdrawal from what could be a learning experience from our “mistakes”... Self-evaluation often arrises when we feel bad and just experiencing ourselves is more likely to occurr when we are feeling good. She openly shares her own personal journey to self acceptance and embracing her art as it is rather than falling into despair over criticism... A hope filled book for those who are often filled with self condemnation.

[Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually 3 1/2 stars is more appropriate.
Not entirely certain who the book is written for and the reasons for writing the book.
It is a a mixed bag of personal discovery and the development of her painting blended with insightful psychological studies that explore creativity and elements that preclude a person from pursuing their muses.
It is certainly not a waste of one's time and it provides a foundation for a better understanding of how to move forward in a creative endeavor if one is so inclined.

[Janine Toomey]

There are loads of fun studies noted in this book. Langer has a long career in psychological research in the university setting. Her drive to achieve a personal renaissance through mindfulness is very compelling. I read this book through little 15-minute portions over several weeks. The book was assigned for a writing workshop. I would not have chosen it on my own - even though Langer was JUST interviewed by Andrew Huberman! I'm not sure I would have stuck with it in the normal course of reading as it is pretty dry toast for the reader.

[Lukie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a professor, Langer conducted study after study showing how mindfulness affects people's perceptions making them more open, creative, and less bound by rules and expectations. I didn't feel it necessary to read every study. The parallel thrust of the book is that people are afraid to make art for many reasons that this mindfulness can erase; you too CAN make art. It's a good message, and since I get the point about mindfulness, one to start putting to practice.

[Beverly · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is pop psychology for the unlearned consumer. Langer actually offers some advice for aspiring adult artists, but her observations are pretty obvious. Basically she says just do it. This volume amounts to hand holding for the insecure. This fits in with Langer’s profession of social psychology, a discipline that pretends to be science but through its contrived and manipulative “experiments” never achieves more than superficial insight.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on creativity you'll ever read. This book expertly walks the reader through mindfulness, creativity, and artistic creation while weaving in relevant stories from the author's own life. I finished this book feeling inspired and with a new willingness to try other art forms that I hadn't been brave enough to try. I can't wait to read more of her work.

[Heike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I keep thinking this book could be helpful and provide insight, like I’m just on the other side of grasping what they are. It ended up being more academic and less artistic than I expected. To be fair I read it in bits and pieces, here and there and it’s not the kind of book to benefit by that type of reading. I may change my evaluation after I (as planned) read it again.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book on mindfulness by an extraordinarily aware Harvard psychologist -- not a meditation practitioner. This book is useful to artists and to non-practicing artists alike. I underlined something on almost every page.

[Karen Shilvock-Cinefro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent positive book. It encourages the artist in each individual. Everyone has talent in some form that is so often discouraged by others, especially those in authority. It is time to explore the artist in you.

[Laurie sharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok not particularly enlightening.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is nothing more than a rehash of her previous work, and self congratulatory description of herself as an artist. As an artist I found this book incredibly annoying.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

More philosophy on living creatively than about being an artist.

[Karen Calhoun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much- cues for mindfully considering one's creative endeavors.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a fan, neither of the writing style nor the content.