I’m on week one of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a book and course on discovering and recovering your creative self. I believe everyone is creative. That’s what makes us human. Where people get tied up is that they think creativity is painting with acrylics and drawing with charcoal. But it’s so much more than that!
what is creativity?
Creativity is about bringing things to life from the visions in our heads. This means that people who design refrigerators, cars, and desk chairs are all artists in their own way. We are all creatives. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, many of us have been blocked from this power. And that’s what this book is for.
Now, I’ve always considered myself creative. I was incredibly lucky to grow up with bold and creative women in my family—namely my mom, aunt, and grandmother. Weekends looked like making scrapbook pages, crafting bracelets, and painting canvases.
But I’ll be honest, outside pressures have taken a toll on me.
As a young girl, I was heavily encouraged to take the science route, to the point where I could no longer decipher if it was my own dream or someone else’s. This birthed an inner conflict that I carried with me throughout my teenage years and into college. More than anything, I was confused. Who am I, really? What is left of me when I remove other people’s expectations of me? Who do I want to be?
Growing up, it felt like people had this vision of who I was and where they saw me going and I didn’t know how to see myself outside of that. I didn’t know how to be me for me. As an adult, I’ve had to learn how to exist as myself from within. I’ve had to get to know myself.
While I’ve come so far in many ways, sometimes I still find myself blocked creatively. And usually, this block is caused by some concoction of overthinking and anxiety—the lovely products of my upbringing.
the start of something new
The Artist’s Way first came to me in a thrift store where I just had to buy it… but then it sat on my bookshelf… for months. It wasn’t until a week ago when I watched this video on how Doechii, a successful Grammy-winning music artist, used The Artist’s Way to get to where she is now. It was so inspiring that I took the book off the shelf and began.
As unbelievable as it may sound, in just a few days I’ve already noticed shifts in my life. I’m no longer waking up from stressful, anxious dreams, but I’m receiving creative ideas through dreamy, inspiring dreams. My head feels clearer. I’m not so scared. I’m starting to believe that maybe what I have to say and create does matter. And that’s true for everyone! We all are here to share our own unique gifts. That’s our purpose.
the twelve-week course
To give you an overview of The Artist’s Way, the course is broken up into twelve weeks. You read a chapter each week, then you’re given tasks to do. The main one is the morning pages. This is where you write three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing in the morning. Basically getting all that junk out of your mind. It feels so good. Cleansing. Like a shower for your brain.
Then, you take yourself out on an artist date each week. I haven’t done mine this week yet, but I’m so excited. The point is to do fun things for your inner artist aka your inner child. Today I’m going to brainstorm some artist date ideas and I’ll share them here!
Along with the morning pages and the artist date, you’re given eight more semi-optional tasks. Semi-optional because Cameron knows that not everyone will have enough time to do all of them in a week, so she suggests picking a couple that call to you and some that you feel repelled by. And leave the neutral ones for later.
So, while I’m still just a baby on this journey, I can already feel how powerful this book is. I’m so excited to see what’ll unfold for me over the next twelve weeks. I’m going to do my best to keep you updated!
The Artist’s Way
— by Julia Cameron
— Here’s a link to the book on ThriftBooks if you’d like to get a copy for yourself!
All of my posts on The Artist’s Way will be saved under the same tag (here) so you can easily follow along with me on my journey! I’d love to hear below in the comments if you’ve read this book and what the journey was like for you!
For more posts like this one, check out my posts on books and self-improvement.
