The Artists Way
The Artists Way by Julia Cameron is a unique book in that it encourages anyone who reads it to remember that they we ALL are creative beings, having been created from a divine source. It doesn’t matter what you believe about yourself and your own creativity (or perceived lack of), or what you believe spiritually, this book will awaken a long-forgotten part of you. Every one of us exists because of an act of creation; creativity is life. Perhaps you’ve been told that being an artist or artistic isn’t a real-life or adult enough to survive in life. Perhaps you’ve been shamed for something creative you did; maybe a long time ago. Perhaps you’re longing to discover a part of yourself that you know exists but refuse to allow space for. The Artists Way book can overturn all of these things if you allow it to.
The Artists Way follows a format of 12 chapters (ideally completed over 12 weeks) which focus on different areas of life and creativity. Specifically, each chapter is about recovery. Recovering a part of yourself long lost or shrivelled up or locked away. Recovering, uncovering, discovering – you’ll go on a treasure hunt into yourself. And I promise you there are many treasures that exist in you! These chapters are (Recovering a sense of):
Safety
Identity
Power
Integrity
Possibility
Abundance
Connection
Strength
Compassion
Self-protection
Autonomy
Faith
More to the point, The Artists Way is a book about creative recovery. But what does this mean? It means what it says it means: restoring a part of ourselves – the creative side – that has long been lost, denied, suppressed or hidden. Our creative self is a link to our inner child; it is a process of remembering who we are. The Artists way is journey into the creative, the spiritual, the psychological and the unknown. It’s a book and program of action, and of choosing to give yourself the gift of creativity. It doesn’t matter what you do (or want to do) that is creative, and is not limited to what we traditionally think of as artistic (ie. Painting, drawing, writing, singing, dancing, acting, sewing, pottery, crafting, knitting, crocheting, designing etc). Like to bake or cook? That’s creative. Like to market? That’s creative. Like to blog? That’s creative. Like to design apps? That’s creative. Like to garden? That’s creative. The list is endless!
There are many accounts online of people who have committed to the journey of the Artists Way and changed their lives. Check out Rick (a musician) and his spiritual journey through the book here. Or Erica, an equestrian who writes about horse riding here . There’s Madeline and her experience of diving into the Artists Way over 12 weeks here and Lucy, who writes about how the book inspired her personally and professionally, here.
Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services will be running for the first time a 12 week Artists Way group in 2020, over 2 terms. The group (a 'creative cluster') is to help you in an otherwise DIY program, to reactivate and/or uncover your creativity and get past creative blocks. Each week you’ll be tasked with reading a chapter and completing the tasks from the chapter. Throughout the 12 weeks, you’ll also be doing your daily morning pages and weekly artists date – both covered in the start of the book. This book and this group is all about action. The most change will occur when you commit to it thoroughly, despite your fears, hesitations and excuses (we all have them!). On her website, Julia Cameron specifies some group guidelines which can be found here.
We hope to see you in 2020 to start your creative journey!
