I was introduced to Julia Cameron during my studies at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She was a great motivational and humorous speaker. Her book, The Artist’s Way, isn’t new, it’s almost a decade old, but when I read it, it completely resonated with my life now. Cameron believes creativity resides in all of us, it is simply “blocked.” I felt I could completely transform myself if-and when-I followed her 12-week process which includes daily and weekly exercises to help develop creative habits.
Here are a few of her underlying principles:
Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.
When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us.
Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
It is safe to open ourselves up to a greater and greater creativity.
As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
“The great thing about a program like Cameron’s is that the reader doesn’t have to buy into all of it, or any of it, for it to work. Despite the subtitle, it’s more like jogging than like a religion. Whether you believe in jogging or not, it will get you into shape if you do it every day. It’s just a fact. That’s the most powerful thing about The Artist’s Way. It may employ some New Age and self-help jargon, but it’s a practical, hands-on program to get you working creatively again. There is a good reason the book has become a classic in the genre: it works.”
Ginny Wiehardt, editor