More from Liz Gilbert on "Living a Creative Life"

http://ideas.ted.com/fear-is-boring-and-other-tips-for-living-a-creative-life/

Now, my own tips:

1. If you are suffering from writer's block, malaise, sadness, depression or angst, go spend an hour in a nursery--either the kind that has little kids or the kind that has plants.  I did the latter today--my version of Julia Cameron's "The Artist Date."  Looking at growing green things shifts my perspective and juices my creative fruit and weeds.

2. Don't badger yourself during your solitary down time, as that only adds to the malaise.  Go with the flow of it.  Enjoy it even. Watch a series on TV (I'm watching The Americans right now) until suddenly, one day, you're finished with it, bored with it, or tired of sitting.  Crochet.  Paint something. Clean the bathroom.

3. Go to a thrift shop or real store and buy yourself a new blouse or two, maybe a piece of jewelry you can tinker with.  While you're there (if "there" is a thrift shop; Macy's won't want them), drop off two or three bags of clothes you no longer wear.

4. Buy some birthday cards for friends whose birthdays are coming up.  Write something a little cheery on them, even if you're not feeling all that chipper.  This is called "acting as if" until you find that it's actually happening.

5.  Watch and enjoy birds' antics around the feeder.  Order a birdbath from Amazon.  Fill the feeders with sunflower seeds.

6. Pick up the phone when people call to check on you, even if you're not in the mood to talk.  They will cheer you up--as you will cheer them up when their turn comes.  Be happy that people love you even when you're feeling unlovable and frumpy and out of circulation for a while.

7. Notice that one day the malaise will end.  You'll know it because you'll start taking interest in the projects you've been putting on the back burner--or entirely new ones.

8.  Take a little kid to the Hemisfair playground and just sit and gaze at the creative moves of kids with pails and shovels in the sand.  If you don't have a little kid, pretend you do and go and gaze anyway.

9.  Serve yourself refreshments--whatever you like.

10. Be brave.  You "can cry and be brave, both."  Take a lesson from my favorite four-year-old on this one.