Amazing encouragement from The Artist’s Way

If you feel discouraged, The Artist’s Way can help you recover your spark

Since completing The Artist’s Way programme in 2019, I have constantly turned to the exercises in the book. Here are the BEST quotes I return to over and over

‘Our focused attention is critical to filling the well. We need to encounter our life experiences, not ignore them.’

I’ve missed my times in cafes whilst the pandemic and illness have kept me away. I would sit and scribble for hours if I could – although sometimes it’s about the cake -it is also about being out amongst life, seeing people and hearing snippets of conversation. Cameron posits that taking in images around us, feeds the inner artist.

‘Creativity flourishes when we have a sense of safety and self-acceptance’

It’s fine to be a beginner, and Cameron encourages us to develop our open mindedness, believing in synchronicity in our lives that bring ideas forward.

‘Setting skepticism aside, even briefly, can make for very interesting explorations. In creative recovery it is not necessary that we change any of our beliefs. It is necessary that we examine them.’

Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

Cameron really believes that there is synchronicity in life and therefore ideas that are occuring to us, things that keep coming into our life is us at play with the universe. It is interesting to keep an open-mind to these ideas as we work.

It can feel hard not to have a sense of loss for the time you didn’t write or draw or express yourself creatively. As Cameron says…

‘Recovering creatives commonly undergo fierce rage and grief over their lost years…instead, make changes, small changes, right where you are.’

I love this advice because for me taking time to be more creative is a slow process. It’s about making time in my current life “write now” rather than waiting for the perfect time.

How has The Artist’s Way encouraged you?