“Our problem is not that the world lacks magic; our problem is that we don’t believe in its magic. We do not show up fully for life, and then wonder why life is not showing up more fully for us.”

Author, speaker and political activist, Marianne Williamson, said this and while I’m impatient to explore how we show up for life, it can’t be done without first delving into the magic she mentions. After all, don’t magic and the muse go hand in hand?

Nick Williams, author of ‘The work you were born to do’, says that artists and creatives have always been comfortable with the idea that they are the instrument for songs, stories, poems and other projects to come into the world. He says that your work pre-exists in the form of energy and potential and it wants to exist in this world, but it needs you to exist. It is a continual adventure of emergence.

Showing up every day is crucial to this quest. Peter S Beagle talks about ‘sitzfleisch’, which means just plain sitting down and getting it done. “My uncle Raphael was a painter, and he used to say, ‘If the muse is late for work, start without her’. You have to be there, and do it, and grind it out, even when it is grinding and you know you’re probably going to rewrite all this tomorrow.”

In her famous TED talk, which has become a clarion call for the creative spirit, Elizabeth Gilbert – best known for her book, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’– talks about summoning the ever-elusive muse: “Don’t be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be.”

“If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then ‘Ole!’ And if not, do your dance anyhow. And ‘Ole!’ to you, nonetheless . . . just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up.”

‘Showing up’ doesn’t only mean ‘sitzfleisch’. It means showing up as yourself. In a recent ‘Marie TV’ episode, Marie Forleo talked to Suleika Jaouad, Emmy Award-winning writer and founder of ‘The Isolation Journals’. 

Suleika said that she attended a conference with intimidatingly impressive people such as Nobel prize winning scientists and everybody was talking about their work in artificial intelligence or editing genomes, and she dreaded the question she knew was coming: So, what are you working on?

Suleika answered that she was busy writing a book about journaling, but was tempted to beef it up and make it sound more serious. That inclination we have to be some exaggerated, more impressive, rigorous version of who we are . . . Suleika said that she tried to keep Brené Brown’s words in mind: “Don’t puff up. Don’t shrink. Just stand your sacred ground.”

Brené says that authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. “It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”

Girlfriend, most of us struggle with this. We’ve learned to approach issues in a way that won’t offend others and in the process we shrink. We wind up watering down our own convictions and being disloyal to our own truths.

Tal Gur, author of ‘The art of fully living’, says that ‘showing up’ means showing our true selves, even if it means exposing our vulnerabilities. “By revealing our imperfections, fears, and doubts, we break down the barriers that often hinder genuine connections. It’s through this act of vulnerability that we invite others to relate to us on a deeper, more meaningful level.”

Actually it’s the only way to find real friends. If you pretend to be something you’re not, if you puff up or shrink, you’re going to be surrounded by people who were attracted to that which you pretended to be – not the true you. Showing up as yourself and allowing that self to be seen is the only way to create space for genuine connections.

So, stand your own sacred ground, girlfriend. It’s as Elizabeth Gilbert says: “You may return here once you have fully come to understand that you are always here.” – Angie Kleijn