“The Artist Way” by Julia Cameron is a 12 week self-help book to support the reader to discover and recover their inner creative artist
If you are ready to uncover your hidden creative genius, then you will enjoy reading this book. It is designed as a work book with weekly exercises and tasks to complete on a weekly basis.
Even if you think you are not creative, you will start to notice that everyone has a creative side that they would love to express. As children we all loved to play and have fun as a young creative child, whether that is dressing up and playing at being a grown up, finger painting or clay modelling. There was definitely childhood activities that we loved and forgot all about them. When you express your creativity you allow yourself to go back to that childlike feeling of being playful and fully self-expressed without censoring yourself.
As a child playing and doing your thing you were totally in your zone and did not even contemplate thoughts like am I doing it right or am I good enough or who am I to dress like this or act like this? Such questions are often asked of yourself when you are growing up as a young person or as an adult after you have heard so many critical voices and opinions from people who put doubt in your mind that you could actually be whoever or whatever you want.
Your creative self does not leave you, it may lay dormant or be hidden from you until you are ready to explore and discover this part of you again. When you are ready and brave enough you will feel like you have to unleash this side of you otherwise you will explode – literally!
Being self-expressed creatively allows you to tap into your inner wisdom, intuition and internal navigation system
Creativity is the catalyst for growth, strength, wisdom, clarity, fulfilment, happiness, abundance, connection and so much more.
I read this book the first time round over a decade ago and it sparked the artist in me. I always loved drawing and art, however, as an adult I could not think of a use for having an Art O’Level and at the time I had no idea that artists could actually earn a good living from their passions. Besides this was not a conversation that the careers advisors ever had with me when I was 16 and about to leave school.
I was so inspired to be rekindled with my inner artist that I searched for an art class for beginners and I found one just a few miles away from where I lived. It was perfect because the local artist had just started delivering small group classes in his workshop. I was one of six ladies that used our time to connect with each other, eat cake and biscuits and chill out on a Tuesday evening in a beautiful inspirational creative space.
Nick Malone from London Art Classes is a well known artist and is a great art tutor who totally understood the importance of being creative even if you do not call yourself an artist. He guided and supported our small group of women and every week. We were transported from our busy lives to an artists workshop which became our creative sanctuary.
Sometimes we would turn up and get on with whatever projects we were working on. At other times Nick would have a specific task for us to creatively explore. Whatever the agenda we were keen and willing to do whatever we could to get into the zone, sometimes we barely spoke to each other until the end of the class and at other times, we would talk and laugh about every day life throughout the session. This was our time to be creative, we would get set up with our easels up, gather up the art equipment, choose our paints and allow our creative artist loose for 2 hours.
After a few months of dabbling and having fun, Nick encouraged us to enter a local art exhibition in Southwark Park with other local “artists”. At that point I still did not consider myself to be an artist, but I entered anyway because I thought it would be fun. Can you imagine how happy and proud I felt, seeing my paintings exhibited next to people that I considered to be really artistic. It really was a turning point for me to accept myself as an artist.
Tapping into this energy really gave me the confidence to embark upon creating art pieces for family and friends, some I sold and some I gifted. I still have some pieces in my home that when I look at them they bring a smile to my face as I remember the joyful times I had creating the pieces.
The Artist Way will help you, even if you have never considered yourself to be creative or an artist.
You will discover that you have many hidden talents waiting to be unleashed once more.
As an adult, life tends to get in the way of us having the time to explore our creativity. There always seems to be something else or someone else that seems more important than you nurturing your inner creative child.
However, this book teaches you, that you are important, your inner creative child is important and all of the activities in this book are important. It will teach you to take on a new journey of self-love and a life of personal fulfilment. If you have never done any personal development work before, this is a great place to start.
There are 2 fundamental practices that The Artist Way teaches the reader.
1. Morning Pages – A form of daily journaling that you do in the morning where you write 3 pages of handwriting to empty out your mind of thoughts and get them onto paper. This enables you to release anything holding you back onto the pages. It makes you aware of whatever is lurking in the background of your thoughts and brings them forward into the present moment. These pages are to be written and left in the book or on the sheets of paper they are written on and not to be looked at again. The main purpose is that you get your thoughts out of your head so that you can have a clear start to your day.
2. Artist’s date – This has become a treasured part of my weekly self-love. I look forward to my”ME-time” whatever that might be. You plan your artist date and make it happen. It could be a visit to a museum, walk in the park, being pampered in a spa, writing/blogging over a cappuccino in a coffee shop or enjoying a manicure at the nail shop! This is your time to do whatever brings you joy. As a busy working mum it is easy to sometimes put everyone else first, but I had to be committed to my artist’s date. Remember when you do create your artist date, the beneficiary is always YOU!
I am currently on week 3 of my journey this time round. I have rekindled my love of writing. I always used to dream of being an author of best selling books (gosh I have said it now – no more hiding) and writing columns and short stories for magazines.
Blogging has helped me to creatively express my writing in a digital format. To my surprise my community of female entrepreneurs are starting to explore this creative art too, which has led me to organise blogging workshops.
This has become such a joy for me to deliver and connect with the ladies on a weekly basis in any one of my favourite creatively styled restaurants in South London.
As well as enjoying all of the wonderful new opportunities I have created for myself in the past few weeks. I have been really aware of other benefits I have gained from doing The Artist Way that I hope you will appreciate, if you decide to take this journey too.
- Faith – A new sense of faith as you trust your gut and instincts and take inspired action
- Manifesting – As you find your flow, the universe starts to align with your desires and miraculously delivers exactly what you want
- Self-love – Nurturing your inner creative genius with special attention and necessary “ME-time” activities
- Mindfulness – Become aware of your thoughts and patterns negative and positive and allow for quiet time
- Affirmations – Empowering statements and mantras are used to support, encourage and inspire you daily
- Celebration – Remember to treat yourself to something nice when you reach milestones of success
“When desire meets with opportunity, magic happens”
So you never know where this book and stepping into the unknown could lead you. Maybe a new career or a new hobby is waiting for you to bring a new lease of life and fulfilment to you.
If you are feeling like you are at cross roads in your life, feel like you have lost your mojo in some way or feel burn out from working or living a fast paced lifestyle, then maybe now is the time to commit to YOU!
Take “The Artist Way” 12 week self-discovery course, find yourself and get your “Happy Groove” back.
Check out the book on Amazon or visit The Artist Way website for more information.
If you have already read “The Artist Way” I would love to hear your thoughts on your own self-discovery.
If you are interested in following my journey please subscribe to my blog as I will be sharing more self-love principles and insights along the way.