Month of Gratitude, Day 17: Julia Cameron & The Artist's Way

I'm profoundly grateful for Julia Cameron and her seminal 1992 book, The Artist's Way.

Julia Cameron is a creativity teacher, coach, and leader who by now has published over 30 books.  Some are her own fiction.  Some are autobiographical.  But most are about how to open you up to becoming a more creative you.  And The Artist's Way is the lynchpin starter-up of the whole deal.

Watch out.  This book will CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

I received The Artist's Way as a gift for law school graduation in 1995.  (Hmmmm.  That friend had a lot more insight than I did.)

I put the book on a shelf, and wrote legal briefs for eight years straight.  We moved twice during that time.  I brought The Artist's Way with me each time, and put it on my shelves.  

Until one day, in June 2003, I pulled it off the shelf . . . . BOOM!!!!

From The Artist's Way website descriptions of Cameron's mission, you can read all about how this works.   In brief, The Artist's Way is meant to help "creative people from all walks of life find the courage to create -- and to make the act of creating a way of life."  

How?  "In order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it."  

How?  "There are two pivotal tools to creative recovery:  the morning pages and the artist's date."  

The morning pages are three pages written in long-hand (yes, written, in long-hand . . . no computers), stream of consciously, first thing in the morning (yes, first thing, do not get out of bed).  They are for your eyes only.  

The artist's date is a "festive [yes, that means FUN], solo [yes, that means ALONE . . . yes, you can do things by yourself, and you don't need text and tweet about them every minute in order to stay connected virtually to other people] expedition to explore something that interests you."  As Cameron adds, think "mischief, instead of mastery."  

If you do these things on the 12-week plan covered in The Artist's Way (which also incorporates tons of other mind-shifting, perspective-opening exercises), I guarantee your life will change.  

Do you want it to?

Because, you are going to find out where you are an artist.  How you are an artist.  That ideas and visions -- whole worlds! -- are freaking LONGING for you to recognize them and GET THEM OUT INTO THIS WORLD!  

You might find yourself, like I did, visited by characters whose world I did not know, who were so persistently knocking on the door of my consciousness that finally, I felt like I could not let them down . . . so I drove across the country and learned about where they lived, and took classes and read books on how to write a screenplay (write a screenplay?  me?  what?) and actually wrote the whole screenplay.  And do you know what?  It's a terrific screenplay. Because I DIDN'T WRITE IT!!!  I just typed it for my guys.  What The Artist's Way did for me was unblock me enough to get myself out of the way, so that I could simply be the typist for folks in the ether who want their stories to get out there.

And then, you might find yourself turning into a collage artist (visual artist?  me?  what?) and cutting and pasting and coloring and matching and switching images and colors and words into pieces that actually make people smile.

These are a new set of luggage tags.  They popped out last night in one sitting.  

Because you know what?  You don't have to fret, you don't have to worry about being perfect, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY, AT ALL!  The whole point of Julia Cameron's teaching in The Artist's Way is that you "simply start."  This book will blow away your sense that you are not good enough, not really an artist . . . and all the other blocks that got stuck in ourselves along the way that keep us from making stuff.

I firmly believe that art wants to be seen.  If you are feeling the longing to create but feel blocked -- by "lack of talent," "lack of time," "lack of deserving to have fun," "lack of courage," or any other "lack" (they're in quotes, because they're not real) -- please do art a favor.  Pick up this book.  Work its 12-week program.  And get yourself out of the way so that you can make the art that wants to be manifested through you.  You will be doing the world a favor.  You will be in this world as a happier, more engaged, more vital and juicy and real you.  And you will be manifesting the art that wants to be out there, to which others will resonate.

Thank you, Julia Cameron.  I find myself over and over again in my morning pages writing a stream of consciousness thank you note to you -- for your amazing insights and teaching, and for the fact that YOU got out of YOUR way and allowed The Artist's Way to manifest itself in this world, for all of us.  What a gift.  What if you still believed that you weren't a writer?  That it wasn't good enough?  That there was already enough writing out there?  Nope.  BOOM!!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!