RESOLUTIONS for 2022, Part 2
If you didn’t read last week’s TGIF on the Boulevard, or have never heard of James Clear, I wrote about his book called Atomic Habits. This week, I’d like to introduce you to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
I learned about it this fall and was leery when I read that she was referring to her self-help program as “a spiritual path” and “the simple process of engaging the Great Creator in discovering and recovering our creative powers.” (Introduction xv) That sounded like something I wouldn’t spend much time pursuing. But as I read further, she clarified her use of the word “God”, writing “…you may substitute the thought good orderly direction or flow... a creative energy.” (Introduction xvi) That felt a little better to me, and as I read how she developed her 12-week (12-chapter) program, by trial and error, over many years of helping artists get past what was blocking them from creating art, I became engaged.
So here it is: after the Introduction, the first two chapters are devoted to the Basic Principles and the two Basic Tools. If you decide to follow the program, you need to commit to the First Tool, writing what Julia calls morning pages — like journaling or writing a stream-of-consciousness — every morning. It’s like ‘venting’ in writing. You need to wake up earlier every day, so that you can complete your morning pages, first thing, and then file them out of sight. That was very difficult for me. I needed to go back to James Clear’s ideas of how to start a new habit. Even then, I often didn’t get to bed early enough, the night before, in time to write morning pages, first thing. (I hate alarm clocks!) All of which meant that I needed to turn off my computer earlier in the evening… and so on and so forth. Julia’s suggestion of three pages of writing had to be reduced to two, for me, because it was taking me too long to write three. I was thinking TOO MUCH, which defeated the purpose of writing a stream-of-consciousness. But, if I was to continue with the program, I needed to adjust the plan.
The Second Tool is an artist date, which you make with yourself, alone: “a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist.” (p. 18) You should commit to this preplanned excursion with “your creative child.” This is a central theme of the program: as a child you were creative, but because of your environment or certain events or relationships, or fear of not being good enough, that creative child was squashed, in many cases, and you abandoned your creative side. There’s the crux of the whole program. If you keep that in mind, you find that the spiritual path is a rediscovery of your creative self in childhood.
I’m still on the path to discovery, and next week I’ll tell you about a man named Napoleon Hill.
Fiona