The Artist’s Way — 10 Key Themes.
My journey on ‘a course in discovering and rediscovering your creative self’.
‘Art is not a thing — it is a way,”
— Elbert Hubbard
What
The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, is a 12 week do-it-yourself creativity course that I started in Sep 16 and finished in Dec 16.
It is broken down into weekly chapters with exercises and her inspirational directions about how to approach and commit to your journey. Then there are the non-negotiable (for good reason) commitments — writing daily Morning Pages and taking yourself on a weekly Artist’s Date (that’s a date with yourself)- an oppurtunity to let yourself follow your curiosities.
Why
I knew I needed to create something. At work, I made plans, dealt with reactivity and generally kept the cogs moving. Although enjoyable, none of this felt that creative. I never really added something of my own — everything I did could have been almost replicated by someone else.
I told a friend that I needed to do something new something that I could point to in the world and say ‘that was me’.
The daily fantasises, cravings and urges to paint, dance, sing and more were getting stronger. And I never binged on them because of a number of excuses: time, commitment (I told myself you can’t just do them once), purpose (what is it for?).
Creativity is an experience, and it was an experience I both needed and wasn’t getting.
Life felt good but somewhat dry. So when I came across The Artists Way when reading about ‘morning pages’, I took it as a sign. Here is my opportunity to bring back creative experiences into my world. And then just see what happens.
I learnt a lot. I could write an entire book, but I won’t today.
For now here are 12 things The Artist’s Way taught me…
1) Synchronicity.
‘Leap and the net will appear’
-Julia Cameron (pg 2)
This is one of favourite aspects of The Artist’s Way. Once you open the gates and remove the blocks, everything flows in.
But answered prayers bring multiple emotions: both fear and excitement. I am glad that my desires have come to me. But now I am slightly terrified because I feel I must act on them. I am responsible for taking this opportunity now it is here.
‘ Genuine beginnings begin with us, even when they are brought to attention by external opportunities’
— William Bridges
It is funny because synchronicity is now a major theme in my life. I talk to someone about a particular thought I have about something and the first book I pick up in a bookstore describes that exact emotion. It is the same with books themselves, even organisations — I read about a cool business and then bump into somebody who knows the founder and asks if I want an introduction. One time I even bumped into the founder, through mutual friends. Even desires. I think I want something and then a few days later I seem to find it.
2) The Power Of The Tribe
Want to stick to a new habit? Statistically, the best way to do it is to rope someone else in.
You do the work every week. The weekly sessions I attended where simply check-ins — opportunities to share my experience with others. Successes, downfalls, synchronicities, experiences of the exercises.
It was great for accountability — you’re much more likely to do the work if you actually have to talk about it. And I’m not one for making stuff up.
My tribe were in many ways nothing like me. At least it appeared that way at first. For instance, I was the only one wearing a collared shirt.
It turns out they were everything like me. Regardless of our age, nationality, background and lives, our artist’s way journeys were brimming with the same experiences — feelings, thoughts and moments. Our fears, insecurities, wants and successes — they were not worlds apart.
At first we knew very little of each other’s backgrounds, which gave us an opportunity to be ourselves — unlabelled and unique. This is the ideal state of treating each other. (Another valuable lesson I have incorporated into TRIGGER). It taught me to listen to others, not just respond. To be interested and to be curious about their stories.
The group was inspirational. I would often turn up at the meet up feeling deflated and exhausted after work, only to leave feeling pumped, inspired and joyous. Without the group, the chance of me finishing the course would have been minimal.
I learnt an incredibly valuable lesson: as creative beings (which we all are), we all need support from others. Despite how ambitious and driven we think we are (and I would probably put myself down under this bracket), our support network is critical to our success.
Humans need acknowledgement. For our successful attempts and efforts, regardless of whether these lead to achievements or failure. Families — blood or friendships — are critical to happiness.
Life isn’t 100% incredible. Life is often shit. We think we can do it alone. But the reality is that we need each other to pick ourselves up.
3) Recovery — Beyond Creativity.
‘A course in discovering and rediscovering your creative self’. That’s the description at least. But it is so much more than this.
It was a recovery. I used to be very creative. At school I choose a very varied set of subjects for A level. Along with Art, I took Maths, English Literature and Religious Studies (Philosophy + Theology).
Art was the A level that I didn’t need for university but needed in my life. It took the most time but gave me the most freedom. It forced me to switch off my thoughts. I am very analytical and introspective so time off from thinking is an absolute need.
But it wasn’t just a creative recovery.
It forced me to rethink and change so many aspects of my life and my identity, that actually, it was a recovery. It was a change in mindset.
We live in a world that frowns on signs of weakness. But weakness is just a part of the human condition. Recovery isn’t for the weak. Recovery is a basic element of life. Let’s face it — whenever the shit hits the fan, we know that it will come back for us in another form on another day. There is no point being scared of it. It will just come.
I used to think to think that having my ‘mid-life crisis’ at a young age was in some ways a good thing because I got it over and done with. Ha! What a joke. They keep on coming. The beauty of having the first one at a young age was that I learnt that they will continue to come.
You can’t let life — your plans, hopes and dreams — be stalled but each minor life disaster. Sure, they may slow you down somewhat or cause you to change your life direction by a few degrees, but they don’t control you. You control you.
After an illness, I wanted to send my osteopath a thank you letter for all his help, when I felt like I had fully recovered and was on a much healthier and successful path in life. Of course, I ended up back in his consultation room with the next life issue. I thought I would send it when I got over the new hurdle. I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. That hurdle cleared up and was replaced by something else new and difficult.
I decided to send the letter and change the wording. Thanking him, I admitted that I understand that I will never be properly ‘better’. That life would simply be a series of hurdles.
‘I wanted to send this letter when I felt that I was much much better and when I didn’t think I would ever get to that point again. Although I can safely say that I have never returned to this state, I never seemed to be able to reach that high point and stay there all the time. It seems, as I am learning, that one never escapes the bumps of life. I might even go as far to say that, in retrospect, they give it much character. And I now realise that my life will continue to have ups and downs’
His reply? He smiled and said he was pleased to see that I was growing up. It is one of the most powerful lessons I have learnt. Don’t let the shit define your life, just accept that that is life itself:
‘Recovery is the process of finding the river and saying yes to its flow, rapids and all’
- Julia Cameron (pg 95)
We never truly recover. It is a continuous state. We are always in recovery from the current bump. And each bump affects our holistic self. A creative recovery is not about healing an aspect of our selves, but our whole selves.
4) Everyone is An Artist.
Everyone is original. Everyone has creative ideas. It is just a choice as to whether we choose to act on these. The course was not about teaching creativity but simply teaching people to let themselves be creative.
The beautiful part of being human is that we are creative beings and are brimming with ideas. The key then, is learning to access them. Its about being at the correct frequency.
Bad ideas are still ideas. They still allow us to stretch that muscle. The perfectionist part of ourselves is the enemy.
‘We are victims of our own internalized perfectionist, a nasty internal and eternal critic, the Censor, who resides in our (left) brain and keeps up a constant stream of subversive remarks that are often disguised as the truth. . . . Make this a rule: always remember that your Censor’s negative opinions are not the truth. This takes practice. By spilling out of bed and straight onto the page every morning, you learn to evade the Censor.’
- Julia Cameron
5) Creativity is Play / Your Artist Is a Child.
Children love to play. It turns out that adults love to play too. But society doesn’t encourage playing. Especially at work.
Our artist is a child. It has tantrums, gets upset and needs to be shown love. It needs to break-out and be crazy sometimes too — a few weeks into the course I started experiencing bursts of singing, dancing, running and laughing. Now I work at home I get to realise these urges daily. I had one this morning whilst editing this. It felt awesome.
6) Process, Not Product.
I like crossing and ticking things off lists. It brings me a great amount of satisfaction and I consider days of ‘to-do list’ tasks not only productive, but also enjoyable. Only for me, however. My ex used to have to remind me that ‘task-mode’ Georgie on weekends, whilst bringing me great pleasure, were not fun for him.
Achievement is addictive. And succeeding at the end of a project does bring positive feeling. But it is very transitory. Once something was achieved, I celebrated little and then started work on the next goal. And worked at it until it could be crossed off the list. The satisfaction lay in the completion of the product. I put little value in the process.
Life is long and short. Treating it as a series of big goals to be achieved somewhat devalues the effort and experience of actually doing the achieving. The former is short. The latter is long. The latter is actually what makes up life.
We need to celebrate the small wins along the route. Embracing the feelings and thoughts along the way. Including all the struggles and also the passions — both create meaning.
Process is about going on a journey. One that starts with nothing and ends in something, but where the middle step is non-linear, disruptive, adventurous and unique.
It is a place to explore. To be curious. To follow one’s own thoughts and feelings. To meander down roads that don’t have a visible destination. To try and to be willing to fail. To iterate.
You’ve got to be willing to do a bad job. Process isn’t about what kind of a job you do — it is just about doing it.
Write that shitty first draft. List 20 bad ideas. Create the painting that will never be sold.
You have to be prepared to be a beginner.
A desire to write a book is a desire to have the full book completed — it a desire of completion. This is the product. The finality. The desire to create something is merely an intention which directs us.
Do not deny the process of making the art — that is the joyous part. Instant gratification of the final product is instant, short and dissatisfying — it is nothing compared to the journey.
And the beauty is ‘if you win, you win, and if you lose, you [still] win’ ( Jake La Motta in ‘Raging Bull’)
I’ve written more on ‘process, not product’ in my Morning Pages blog - check it out.
7) Pregnant Ideas.
Ideas don’t simply come to exist in their full final version. Like a baby, they take time to grow. Give them time to be born.
Ideas linger at the back of one’s mind, need to stew and take time to grow.
It all starts with a single thought. And then a few minutes, days or months later, another one pings up. And suddenly, they begin to build.
For me, one of the original thoughts was around ‘How can I increase the likelihood of an interesting conversation?’. Then came the idea of a structured event. Then a menu with courses. Then the invite blurb. Then the questions. Then TRIGGER Conversations happened. And it was a thing.
8) Embracing Change.
I can always tell when I’m ready to jump in the deep end and quit something or simply jump into something new: I start sorting and ruthlessly throwing away my possessions.
Out with the old, bringing space for the new.
What’s happening? Not sure, but there is a shift in my tastes and perceptions which often accompany a shift in identity (Cameron, pg 83). Something feels incomplete and it is somewhat uncomfortable.
Blocked people at least have knowledge of their current state — they know who they are and what they are, even if it is unhappy. unhappy. They are safe.
Unblocked people don’t know who they are as they feel in a constant state of metamorphoses. There is a fear about who they could be and about the fact they don’t know where they are going or why.
It is easy to ‘turn to our drug of choice to block our creativity whenever we experience the anxiety of our inner emptiness [or discontentment with how things are]’
— Julia Cameron (pg 165)
What are the blocks? Food. Alcohol. Sex. Drugs. Busyness. Workaholism. They all help us alleviate the fear that we are not happy with ourselves.
Embracing change is hard — exciting but terrifying. Like when you feel synchronicity, you realise that the opportunities are being thrown at you and only you are responsible for taking then. But that you have no idea where they will lead you too. And what change that might bring to who you are.
‘You are no longer stuck, but you cannot tell where you are going’ (pg 85)
The unknown. Such an adventure.
9) Switch The Filters ‘On’.
Every decision you every make, every thing you have ever created has always been down to you.
All the tools you need to make a decision, come up with an idea and write that book already exist in your head. It is just a problem of access. It is just a question of whether we are engaging in listening out for the ideas. Find the frequency and then tune in. That’s it. And then act on what you hear.
10) Beginning.
One day you have to start. Like dieting. The blank page stares at you.
Desire to create something usually takes the form of completing of that desire. The painting. The book. The play. The blog.
You don’t have to know how to finish what you start. But you must start. I always feel like I need to know what I’m doing and why I am doing something before I do it. Because that will define how I do it. Which is doing it, right? No. Starting requires faith, it requires an openness and some small level of intention but no defined end goal. Note I said intention and not direction. Intentions define direction. But intentions come before and don’t always stick around — they are usually different to what actually happens.
Amusingly I often start writing about one topic and then it morphs into something else. The small amount of direction is simply to be started and then I let my creativity take over and lead me into some direction.
It is about taking those small steps.
It isn’t about immediate gratification.
To make art is to commit to starting something. The something will then grow and change with time.
Beginning is one of the hardest parts of anything. Because you have to commit. And you have to say you are doing X rather than something else. Which requires decision-making and sacrifice. Such great pressures.
Ending and beginning something are very different things.
Stop focusing on the product. On the gratification. On the end goal.
Do not deny the process of creating art.
11) Empowering the Victim to Take Ownership.
It’s easier not to do anything about our discomforts, because change is uncomfortable. More uncomfortable than the original discomforts.
It is much easier to be a blocked artist who complains about not being able to do anything.
Taking small actions starts to change our identity. We are no longer the victim, powerless to the systemic issues of the world and our life. To take 1 small creative action is to become aware that we have choices. On my current vision board (handmade A3 poster made of a torn magazine pictures and text) are the bold words ‘There is a choice’.
It reminds me that the world owes me nothing, that I am entitled to little and that responsibility for my life only lies with me. Life hurts. Life is sometimes hard. But I have a choice between playing the passive victim of my circumstances or the active agent behind my achievements.
12) The Small Things Are The Big Things.
’How you do anything, is how you do everything.’
Pretty frightening to realise that the way you address, think about and perform an action is usually the way you always address, think about and perform an action.
Life is a series of habits. Our identity is more consistent that we may expect.
And it is the small things that can change your lives. Small things that you do or that happen to you repeatedly. You don’t remember that big things because they don’t happen as often, and they are usually the end goal (see above — process, not product),
I have started to spend time every day to appreciate the small things:
Collecting positive wins in my ‘jar of awesome’, smiling and talking to strangers, beautiful flowers on my desk, feeling grateful for x3 things, meditating for 10 minutes (more irregularly), doing something indulgent (that’s pure, nonproductive, unadulterated fun), having a real conversations, slowing down and taking in the moment, stopping and looking up, reading a few pages, writing a few pages, bedroom/kitchen/bathroom dancing, drinking tea, laughing. Playing an awesome song.
My wellbeing is important — and something I have to work at every day. But also, and more importantly, life is meant to be fun; it is meant to be an artist date.
Making time to do the small things that make you feel happy and satisfied ‘has more of an effect on economic weep-being than any other single factor’ (Paul Hawken). And, even better, having fun often leads to creativity. So it is win win.
So, What’s next?
Naturally, I continue to write morning pages almost every morning as part of my routine.
I have many new creative projects on the go.
1. Creative Me. The artists dates were inspirational because they forced me to just do the things I was curious about. To turn up and try.
So this year I’ve made a commitment to do a different creative activity each month (ish). So far I have been life drawing, theatre-gyming, improv and dancing… I am having a LOT of fun. And learning a tonne about life that can be applied everywhere. More on this on an upcoming blog — look out for it.
2. Walking in this World. This is one Julia Cameron’s follow-up creativity courses — written 10 years later.
My Artist’s Way tribe became very close and are keen to stay in touch. The best way to do this seems to be by going on another journey together. As I edit this article now we have finished this journey, which I joined in parts but fully benefited from being part of the tribe, who continue to support and engage with each other on and offline.
I look forward to return to Walking in this world to complete it in full.
3. TRIGGER Conversations is the project which I can point to and say I created. It has and continues to allow me to be highly creative, as I experiment with what value I can bring to the community who attend the events. I can’t wait to see where it takes me. The ideas won’t stop now I have started to let them in.
Curious to Read More?
I write a monthly email called ‘Conversations with Georgie’ — this is the home of my thoughts on conversation deconstruction, personal stories of finding my edge in the personal development world and musings on what it means to be human. And, in ‘lifelong learner’ style, all with plenty of insights and nuggets that I hope may resonate with you on your journey through life.
Come and join the conversation.
