Julia Cameron

The Artist’s Way

This book is one of the reasons why I took my creative side more seriously. I never thought of myself as creative and I am not very spiritual or religious either. But for this book, you don’t have to be. This book teaches us that in all of us there is some creativity and so I was able to unearth mine. Julia Cameron introduces two main tools to discover out creativity: morning pages and artists dates. Both are very helpful to get out of our logic brain and into our creative, playful brain – and it helps us get all doubts out of our heads. This is a great book if you want to re- or newly discover creative passions!

“”How can you teach creativity?” they want to know. Defiance fights with curiosity on their faces.

“I can’t,” I tell them. “I teach people to let themselves be creative.”

“Oh. You mean we’re all creative?” Now disbelief and hope battle it out.

“Yes.”

“You really believe that?”

“Yes.”

“So what do you do?”

This book is what I do. For a decade now, I have taught a spiritual workshop aimed at freeing people’s creativity. I have taught artists and non artists, painters and filmmakers and homemakers and lawyers – anyone interested in living more creatively through practicing an art; even more broadly, anyone interested in practicing the art of creative living. While using, teaching, and sharing tools I have found, devised, divined, and been handed, I have seen blocks dissolved and lives transformed by the simple process of engaging the Great Creator in discovering and recovering our creative powers.

“The Great Creator? That sounds like some Native American god. That sounds too Christian, too New Age, too …” Stupid? Simple-minded? Threatening? … I know. Think of it as an exercise in open-mindedness. Just think, “Ok, Great Creator, whatever that is,” and keep reading. Allow yourself to experiment with the idea there might be a Great Creator and you might get some kind of use from it in freeing your own creativity.”