Book by Julia Cameron
This book has been recommended to me by so many people. My aunt bought me this book years ago and I skimmed it but for a while it sat on my shelf. Sometimes I’d look at it and think: Who has time for art?! I don’t like that this was often my instinct. I’ve been raised in this capitalist world where at times I felt like making art was frivolous - that It’s not as important as the work I need to produce.
I’ve learned just how wrong that thought process is. Creativity is exactly how I build things that I can be proud of. Creativity is how we take our dreams and imagination and bring them into reality. What type of world do we want to live in? First we decide that, then we start to create it.
When we’re children, we play. We imagine. We dream. We create with abandon.
We don’t think about being perfect or fitting into some external expectation.
It lets us see the world differently.
I need more of this in my life. I need creativity to find hope.
The cover of the book calls it “A Course in discovering and recovering your creative self” - which is such a clear reminder that we all have a creative self that has, for many, been stifled by the dredge of survival. The book is designed to help us get that back.
I’d also like to address the subtitle: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. As someone who doesn’t participate in organized religion, this had me a bit hesitant at first. But, I liked how the author addresses this head on. She uses the word “God” but makes it clear that the term can be substituted for whatever resonates with you. Creativity is tied to spirituality for some, but this book is still relevant even if it’s not connected for you. I choose to replace the word “God” with the world “universe”. I just fits me a bit better. And it reads the same.
This morning I listened to a recording by the author Julia Cameron (linked below), and she mentioned her goal was to help others find “creative recovery”, as she had. The book helps you fight against your inner critic and let you just create. Which really resonated with me, because my inner critic often has me sitting in a perfectionist mindset frozen and unable to finish anything. My creations never come out as perfect as they are in my head. I’ve been on a journey trying to accept that perfection is a lie. Things are better when they’re authentic and a bit raw. We see more of our humanity it in.
But this takes practice. Bringing creativity back into your life may take some time if it’s been a while. But this book offers tools to do so.
Julia Cameron outlines two primary tools in this book to help us build our creative practices:
Morning Pages - Write 3 pages every morning. On any topic.
The Artist Date - Spend 2 hours on a solo-adventure every week. Do something you love to reconnect with yourself.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t finished this book yet. I want to go through this journey with all of you. This morning, I started the morning pages for the first time and I can feel the impact already. I always wake up with my mind buzzing with everything I need to do, which often ends in overwhelm and results in me picking up my phone to distract myself. What if I started the day by emptying my mind and resetting myself? What if I refocus my mornings on my value and inner world? What could I create then?
Next time, I’ll do my pages before opening my phone… Join me.