The Artist's Way: Workbook: A Companion to the International Bestseller

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We cannot obsess over how we will make something happen, we just need to say what we are doing, and take action. “Action has magic so simply begin,” writes Julia. I logged my anxious thoughts for one day and it was helpful for staying focused on the task at hand – redoing my chapter outline for the book. I haven’t been audacious enough – I have failed. This is a belief, not a fact. “We are the thinker of the thoughts, not the thoughts,” as Julia writes.

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My high expectations and lofty plans often mean that I want to leap over the small, incremental steps and dive straight into the impossible tasks. “The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce at all,” she writes. A resounding message throughout the chapters has been that it’s important to experiment with what works for you. Instead of thinking about the big end goal or outcome, I needed to focus on the next small step and swap ‘what’s the use’ for ‘what is next’.

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What we return to is the process of creating itself rather than the outcome, because “wanting more will always snap at our heels, erode our joy at ours or another’s accomplishments.” It hurts, but the antidote to the pain of letting go is opening up to what delight there is in your life. Each time I tell myself I will run and then I take action and do it, I am building self-respect, which comes from doing the work.

The Artist’s Way | Julia Cameron Live The Artist’s Way | Julia Cameron Live

Just like the bends of a river, things don’t pay off in a linear fashion – there is no neat sequence of events once you’ve made a step, but the important thing is to become internally clear on dreams, desires and delights. Tasked with asking myself what next steps I am evading, I realised I had to make decision about a trip to New York City I had talked about since the beginning of the year. Money, timing, and fear all got in the way, but the next step was to decide, so I booked the flight. Cooperation with our creativity takes time, and we have to remember that we can often sense our own changing and experience a sense of grief for our old life. There’s something new opening up, I just don’t know what, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s extraordinary. Where to from here? Notes on the elusiveness of delight and desireRather than a tool for vanity, exercise teaches us about the rewards of the process, not the outcome. When we are clear about who we are and what we are doing, the energy flows freely and we experience no strain.” The day after things ended between myself and my ‘crazymaker’ for the second time, I get a cold – what Julia describes as a Kriya, or “the bad case of the flu right after you’ve broken up with your love. It’s the rotten head cold and bronchial cough that announces you’ve abused your health to meet an unreachable work deadline.” From the ground below, my neighbor walks her Yorkie and hears my fading screams. She shields her eyes from the sun and stares at my disappearing body as it ascends to the heavens. Sighing, she shakes her head and turns to the tiny, crusty dog. As Julia writes, “Any regular, repeatable action primes the well” and for me the seemingly non-creative act of running puts me into step with myself.

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Sometimes it is our expectations that has created a drought. We have to watch for delusions such as fame and external validation which are often short-cut to self-approval. “The desire to be better than can choke off the desire to be,” writes Julia. Emotions that might feel counterintuitive such as anger are actually a map. “It tells us we can’t get away with our old life any longer. It tells us that old life is dying,” writes Julia.The Artist's Way Workbook is an indispensable book for anyone following the path to creativity laid out in The Artist's Way. Just over 30 years ago, Julia Cameron’s agent gave her the immortally bad advice that no one was going to be interested in a book about creativity. “What on earth are you doing?” the agent demanded.

The Artist’s Way,’ and ‘Morning Pages’ Explained Review of ‘The Artist’s Way,’ and ‘Morning Pages’ Explained

This week, I committed to writing a short article every day to test the idea of taking care of the quantity and letting an external force take care of the quality. There is no longer a fantasy of what could, would or should be with this person, no longer an addiction to the fantasy. Often planning for me is a symptom of perfectionism, which we can have false ideas about. “Perfectionism is not a quest for the best, but a pursuit of the worst in ourselves.”I’ve also learned that the goal is not the point, it’s the running. Once I reached 5km, the treadmill did not evaporate – opportunity to keep running, keep taking strides remained. Once again, it’s joy. “Only when we are being joyful creative can we release the obsession with others and how they are doing.” Week 11: The true purpose of exercise Work begets work and taking one small step in action instead of indulging in the big questions can help us further along. Week 9: Fear is not laziness I expect to hit the ground running immediately, but I can hear a familiar voice inside my mind telling me this has been a mistake, that I can’t afford to be here financially, that I’ve taken a wrong turn and I should focus on finding a job, a real job.