Weekend Workshop on Creative Living: Liberation and Curiosity

Creative Living: Liberation and Curiosity is a weekend workshop led by bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert at the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, North Carolina. It is an invitation to listen inward, clarify what matters, and begin making choices from truth rather than fear. Though it sits within the world of meditation and contemplative retreat, its focus is creative living in the broad sense, and no artistic background is needed.

It is for anyone who senses that part of them already knows what feels right and what no longer does, but who has let that voice be buried under expectation, fear, and the pressure to live a life that doesn't quite fit.

What to Expect

Over the weekend, Elizabeth Gilbert guides participants through her stories, insights, and practices. The aim is to quiet external noise, trust intuition, and shape a life that feels more honest, expansive, and deeply your own.

The workshop is built around two ideas named in its title: liberation, meaning the loosening of choices made out of fear or obligation, and curiosity, which is the thread to follow once that noise settles. You are not asked to produce anything or to be an artist, writer, or creative professional. The only requirement is a willingness to listen inward and follow your curiosity.

About Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert is an American author and journalist. Her books include the memoirs Eat, Pray, Love, Committed, Big Magic, and All the Way to the River, the novels Stern Men, The Signature of All Things, and City of Girls, the biography The Last American Man, and the story collection Pilgrims.

Her writing career began in magazines. Esquire published her short story "Pilgrims" in 1993, and steady work for national magazines followed. Her first book, the story collection Pilgrims, won the Pushcart Prize. The Last American Man, her account of the naturalist Eustace Conway, was nominated for the National Book Award. She has also republished At Home on the Range, a 1947 cookbook by her great-grandmother, Margaret Yardley Potter.

Eat, Pray, Love, published in 2006, chronicled a year of travel in Italy, India, and Indonesia, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies.

The Setting

The workshop takes place at the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, in the mountains of western North Carolina, at the address Whispering Hills Road. It is a dedicated retreat venue, a fitting place for a weekend spent turning attention inward.

Before You Go

No experience is required, whether with meditation, writing, or any creative practice. Come with an open mind and a readiness to follow your curiosity where it leads.