Recovering My Inner Artist with The Artist's Way
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron is one of those books that will fall into your lap when you need it most. While you can definitely seek out the book, from my own experience, and talking with others who have worked through it, the book finds you when you are ready to embark on the journey of recovering your inner artist.
I first heard of The Artist's Way a couple of years ago when my friend, Rachel, had told me about doing "morning pages" every morning.
Morning Pages are one of the 2 biggest aspects of The Artist's Way. They consist of 3 longhand stream of consciousness journaling every single morning right after you wake up. This is not meant to look like anything but rather get all the junk out of your brain, sift through thoughts that continue to pop up, and strengthen the creative muscle of your brain each day. Julia Cameron says that the morning pages are the primary tool for creative recovery, and in my experience, I'd agree.
When this book was brought into my life a few years ago, I didn't think much of it. I didn't feel inclined to look into it further or ask my friend much more about the morning pages. I already journal each night what's the difference?, I thought.
How I Found the Artist's Way in 2020
Fast forward to the end of August, The Artist's Way snuck it's way back into my life. Another friend told me she had been trying to start it but couldn't stick with it. Then I had been recommended the book by a mentor whom I admire deeply. The seed that had been planted nearly 3 years ago had finally sprouted, it's time, I thought.
2020 has been a weird year and I spent the majority of it sifting through all of my desires, dreams, and aspirations to try and put together a "next step" upon graduation. By the end of the summer, I had given up on creating content for this blog because I felt as if my creative juice had stopped flowing. When I came across The Artist's Way in late August, I knew that this was my only choice.
In order to sift through these feelings of stuckness, I need to actually do something about it, I thought to myself.
The beginning of my journey with The Artist's Way was daunting. 12 weeks of daily morning pages, weekly artist's dates, and reflection and journaling to go with each week's focus. Thankfully, my dear friend, Julia, who had tried to start this book earlier in 2020, agreed to be my Artist's Way accountability buddy. We'd meet each Sunday and talk through the things that had come up in the week prior. Looking back, having an accountability buddy made this process so much better and more worthwhile–it really makes a difference having someone to share your insights, revelations, and challenges with.
What Is the Artist's Way?
The Artist's Way consists of 12 main chapters (corresponding to the 12 weeks you will work through it) on topics ranging from Recovering a Sense of Identity to Recovering a Sense of Faith. The work of this book strongly connects spirituality and creativity, which is why I think I liked it so much. Each week you are required to go on an artist's date which is where you spend a couple of hours by yourself doing something for your inner artist. For me, that ranged from a solo trip to Cleveland to a ceramics class to a picnic at the park with my favorite book. These dates don't have to be extravagant or well thought out but they get you thinking about the things you truly desire to do (but almost never get around to doing).
In addition to the morning pages and artist's dates, each week there are about 7 to 10 journaling prompts or small reflection activities to do. Again, these range from journaling about all of the different lives you desire to live to your relationship with faith and God to writing a letter of encouragement to yourself as a child. I loved this part of the book because it allowed me to dream again. Through these activities, I let go of all of the shoulds and excuses as to why I can't and started focusing simply on what I desire. Having a weekly focus on daily reflection activities are one thing that I will miss most now that I am through the 12 weeks but I think I'll come back to the content often.
My Biggest Takeaways
It's hard to say what my biggest takeaways are from The Artist's Way because I feel as if my life has opened up to me in the past 3 months. When I started The Artist's Way, I felt a shift within myself. This shift gave me permission to be in the mess and not try and fix it. Saying yes to The Artist's Way, in a way, was saying yes to myself as I navigate these uncharted territories of a recent college graduate in midst of a global pandemic.
The Artist's Way reminded me of the importance of prioritizing myself and my desires. Through this process, I was encouraged to dig deep through all of the programming and limiting beliefs that I have accumulated throughout the years. Programming and beliefs such as, you aren't allowed to do things that you're not good at. Or what's the point in doing something just for fun? Also, that's not practical so why are you pursuing it?
I have always considered myself a creative person but before working through The Artist's Way, I wouldn't consider myself an artist. A big block that I had to work through at the beginning of this journey is the idea that since I stopped pursuing dance in 2016, I could no longer be an artist. For nearly 15 years, I connected my identity as an artist with my identity as a dancer. It still feels foreign for me to say, I am an artist. But I am. An artist doesn't have to look a certain way or just do one thing–it's a way of life.
Looking Forward
These past 12 weeks have reminded me of the importance of play. If I could hold on to one thing that The Artists Way has taught me, it is to always prioritize my inner artist. There is no dream too big or too unrealistic. You have to take the steps forward with your work and trust that you are being guided throughout the process. Julia Cameron talks a lot about the idea that we are simply the vessel for God to channel through in our art. As someone who isn't religious, this didn't resonate with me at first, but now I see it. The divine is always working through us and when we are in alignment with our inner artist, we are able to be in alignment with our highest selves.
In 2021, I want to continue to prioritize play as I have in the past 12 weeks. That blog post will come at a later time and I will share how I plan on playing more in my life. For now, I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from The Artists Way;
As creative channels, we need to trust the darkness. We need to learn to gently mull instead of churning away like a little engine on a straight-line ahead path....the truth is that this is how to raise the best ideas. Let them grow in dark and mystery. Let them form on the roof of our consciousness. Let them hit the page in droplets. Trusting this slow and seemingly random drip, we will be startled one day by the flash of "Oh! That's it!"
Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way
