The Artists Way - Revisiting it 5 years later
I always keep the first pages of my journals blank. I leave that space for a quote, sometimes one I have in mind already and others that are more serendipitous. This one is from a journal that begins at the end of December 2012, the month before starting The Artist Way for the first time.
“Jump and the net will appear”
I found that quote in the Artist's way and have come back to it over the years. Now, 6 years later, I serendipitously found my copy sitting inside our coffee table. It feels about the right time to dig back into the program
For those of you who aren't familiar, The Artist Way is a 12 week program to unblock your inner creative artist. (Sounds super lame, I know right?). The program was created by Julia Cameron and has existed since around 1992. The foundation of the program is starting your day with 3 pages of stream of consciousness, free-flowing writing and a weekly artist date. During the 12 weeks, there are different activities, reflections and questions that are all meant to guide oneself to creative healing. It sounds way more cheesey than it actually is.
“Creativity requires faith. Faith requires that we relinquish control”
It's funny going back through old journals and seeing how much has changed, but how so much has still stayed the same. Reading about the head space I was in, my hopes, goals, fears and challenges. It's so odd going back to all these photos from 2012, a time when instagram was just budding.
I'm excited to start this process again and I'll write about it periodically and hopefully it'll jog some insights I might be able to share. For those of you who have done it, I'd love to hear about your experiences. For those of you who are curious, it would be sweet to connect about it.
“Things are not so comprehensible and expressible as one would mostly have us believe; most events are inexpressible, taking place in a realm which no word has ever entered, and more inexpressible than all else are works of art, mysterious existences, the life of which, while ours passes, always endures ”