The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

By Julia Cameron with Mark Bryan

I first bought a copy of The Artist’s Way in my early twenties and read through it but it didn’t really speak to me. I certainly didn’t use the book the way it was intended.

Nearly a decade ago, when I was starting to seriously write, I took the book off my shelf and opened it again.  I didn’t remember it but as I browsed through it, it occurred to me that I could do this as a course, since I couldn’t afford to take any writing courses at the time.

I started reading one chapter every Sunday night. I wrote the three longhand morning pages every day. (Did I mention I was out of work, single and had no children? Way too much time on my hands.) As suggested, I picked the exercises at the end of the chapter that appealed to me most, or that I most resisted, and wrote them out. I had to get creative with the artist dates because I didn’t have money to do anything that would require it.

I would now say that this is one of the three books that changed my life the most. It opened me up to writing in a way that nothing ever had. It taught me a lot about myself. It also got me writing every single day.  It was a wonderful experience.

I’m looking forward to starting this again with the group I’ll be teaching at our library in Corning starting January 9th. Hopefully it will help me get writing daily once more.

As I’ve begun reading again, I’ve already found certain passages leaping off the page at me. Different things than the last time I worked through it, I think.

The “basic tools” are the morning pages, the written exercises at the end of the chapter and the artist date. The morning pages are three pages of long hand writing done in the morning to let go of the worries and burdens for the day. I think of them as writing meditation.  You just write everything you are thinking down as fast as you can.  It usually takes me about 20 minutes. I guess it depends on how big your writing is, how big your paper is and how fast you write.

The exercises are very short and directly relate to the subject of the chapter that week. It may be as simple as making a list. This is where I definitely learned some things about myself. For example, some of the exercises deal with giving yourself a sense of permission to be creative or artistic by uncovering the messages that you received at some point that you can’t or shouldn’t. I ended up remembering all the positive messages that encouraged me over the years. That was very helpful for me.

One of the great things about this book is that it is not just for “artists” but rather for anyone who wants to be more creative in their thinking. Every aspect of your life can benefit from a more creative approach – work, parenting, partnering . . .

This isn’t just a book, it’s a workshop in a book.  Give yourself the gift of discovering your creative self through this book.