My Experience Reading The Artist's Way
An overview & what I have learned so far!
What is The Artist’s Way?
The Artist’s Way is a book written by Julia Cameron, originally published in 1992. It is described as “the classic course in discovering and recovering your creative self.” In her writing, she proposes the idea that everyone has creativity - we just might need some help finding it!
The book is structured as a 12-week course, and each week always includes two foundational practices…
Morning Pages: These are three pages of stream of consciousness writing. The goal is to not overthink it - just write whatever comes to mind until you have filled three pages. For me, sometimes this looks like to-do lists, prayers, or worries. Every once in a while it looks like a new adventure or endeavor blossoming. It doesn’t matter what you write; the only rule is how much you write: three pages!
Artist Date: This is a designated time during the week for you to nurture your inner artist. I have found it often looks a lot like nurturing your inner child. The rules are loose, but the goal is to spend at least one hour, alone, doing something that fills your cup. This could be something you love to do but rarely have time to do, something you are a little scared - but excited - to do, or maybe something you’ve never tried before but want to!
There’s a third component that’s not a staple part of the weekly curriculum, but is suggested as an optional weekly practice: a silent walk. No music or podcasts. No one else to talk to. Just your wandering body and your wandering thoughts.
There are three other weekly components of the course that change each week.
Reading: Think of reading like the lecture portion of a class. This is where you get the information you need, and if the teacher is good, you get excited and inspired for what you will do and learn. There’s a chapter each week filled with inspirational quotes, essay reflections, and questions to get you thinking.
Tasks: Think of tasks like the homework portion of a class. This is where you get to go out and practice. Some of my favorite tasks have been creating fictional lives, writing a letter as my 80 year old self to myself now, and making a list of 10 small changes I could make to improve my life. There are many tasks that feel like journal prompts, and there are others that are more actionable - such as mailing a letter to five friends, collecting flowers on a walk, or clearing out some clothes in your closet.
Check-ins: At the end of each week, the author gives you a few questions to help reflect on your progress. The questions ask about your Morning Pages, your Artist Date, any problems you may have encountered, and if you experienced any synchronicity (which you will learn about in week 3)!
Changes I’ve Noticed
I’m about halfway through the course, and it’s already having a big impact on how I think and feel. Here are just a few of the shifts I’ve noticed:
I am more decisive. I feel like I know more quickly what decision I want to make, and if I don’t, I have found my morning pages to be the perfect time to think through a decision until I have come to the one that feels right. This goes for big and small ones alike.
I know myself more. It’s almost like through this course I am getting to know myself again - who I am, what I like, what I don’t like, what I’m good at, who I want to be. It feels like getting back to who you were as a kid, your most authentic and unapologetic self.
I think the connectivity of social media is wonderful in some ways, but in others, it feels like it’s stolen our ability to fully think for ourselves. This book, and creative practices in general, are powerful ways to reconnect with your own thoughts, preferences, and opinions, rather than just absorbing (often unknowingly) what we’re told we should like.
I find myself enjoying the little things more. Part of this is learning to make the things you have to do (but may not want to do) more fun. For example, I have to do the dishes every night after dinner, so instead of just trying to do them as quickly as possible in silence, I might play music and sing along. The other part is adding more things you enjoy into your day. For example, I love to read, so every night I try to get in bed at least 30 minutes early to give myself time to read before I need to go to sleep. This is small, but it is something I look forward to about my day!
My brain feels more awake. I feel like parts of my brain that I haven’t used in a while are being woken up and stretched out. With the tasks each week, I am having to think about who I want to be, who I used to be, the people around me, the goals I have, what I want my life to look like - so many things that don’t cross my mind on a regular day.
I am allowing myself to dream. Dreaming comes naturally to kids, and then somewhere along the way to adulthood, we start to think “practically” which oftentimes means crushing the dreams we had. But as I have been working through this course, I have found the little voice in my head that usually says, “but what if…” or “that won’t work because…” or “that’s silly” is getting quieter. There’s more room in my mind for those dreams to breathe and maybe even grow. It’s so exciting!
And I am only halfway through! I can’t wait to see more of what I learn and who I become.
Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, this book is for anyone who wants to feel more creative, connected, and inspired. If you’ve ever wished you were more creative, been stuck in a rut, or put off a creative dream - this might be the gentle nudge or reset you need.
If you want to check out the book for yourself and do the course with me, I will link it here for you!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, it would mean so much to me if you would share it with a friend!
Take care,
Caroline
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Your observation about social media possibly stealing our ability to fully think for ourselves is interesting. I was listening to a podcast today about memory that said just the same thing. They s said that many young people know they can just “google” to get answers and don’t need to think for themselves or commit things to memory. AI will probably make this even worse. Interesting insight.