This is Part 5, a series of reflections on Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. 

Here is a link to week four, when I gave up reading for a week and nearly went insane.

This week, I jumped into the chapter reading. Finally, I could read again, but afterward I felt like this:

That about sums up the beginning of my week. There was no grand, yet-intimidating challenge, no exciting beach day/artist date to look forward to. I was feeling very meh. Very uninspired and clearly ‘throwing a tantrum’, as Cameron calls them. 

What it means to follow the Artist’s Way

When I began this series, I don’t know what I expected. That I would follow some tips, try a few suggestions and if they suited me, I’d keep doing them. The doing consists of writing morning pages, weekly tasks and exercises and an artist’s date. I’ve complained, but I’ve taken action. I want to be more consistent in my creative endeavors. Not so much a firecracker, bright and sparkly and then fizzling into burnout. I’ve read some advice books before. This is a very different experience. Never did I consider what dedicating your life to twelve weeks of following the artist’s way would actually do to my life. I was in denial: it won’t change my life, that’s nonsense. But it does. In both small and potentially larger ways. The bigger question is this: has it improved my life?

The Possibly Potentially life changing journey.

This week and last week offered tasks to change your environment. Go somewhere or make a space to be your artistic creative shrine. Cameron warns you may start moving furniture around. Check. You may have off weeks. Check. You may need change things in your life because you’re becoming more authentically you. You are being open and honest about where you come from, what you want, and where you want to go. In Cameron’s words “by listening to our creative voice and following its guidance. We have begun to hope, and we have feared that hope… With each day we become more true to ourselves, more open to the positive.” That has consequences and it’s scary and I am in the middle of this upheaval, of sorts.

But, its not as if I’ve experienced huge changes in my life. I work at the same place, live in the same place. I still do things I enjoy: writing, drawing, read a lot of books and play games (Curse you Elden Ring boss, it’s not a hopeless endeavor. I will see you defeated.)

Besides the artistic works and my hobbies, I also spend so much time thinking about the artist’s way. What would my artist self like to do this week? What is the greatest joy in my life? Then I start planning for an artist’s date and writing wish lists and time traveling.

Yes, it’s called time traveling.

This week you’re asked to think about your past self at eight years old. ( Which I vaguely remember. I have more significant memories of myself at nine.) Or yourself at eighty years old. I hope she is spry and still does yoga, surrounded by family and has written dozens upon dozens of books.

Twice now, I’ve opened up and tried to describe what I’m doing. It was strangely difficult. I’m on this journey. I’m trying this new ‘thing’. This new way of doing things. Now, I’ve settled on saying, “I’m following the Artist’s Way.” That’s what I’m doing. It sounds like a spiritual path or martial artist’s discipline, or a new religion, but it’s not that either. Not entirely. 

Faith and the Artist’s Way

When I watch a yoga video, I find it fascinating how the teachers adopt a similar voice, a particular cadence and rhythm. In fact, that’s a key factor to my sticking with a video, besides the level of intensity. They’re soothing, calm, encouraging and create this atmosphere that you eventually crave. You come back to the videos because they help you, make you feel better, give you a boost of energy or relieve your aches and pains. They speak of a body-mind connection that I find very spiritual. It is, and it isn’t religious. I’m still searching for my Christian yogi-master.

The Artist’s Way speaks about “creativity as a spiritual issue”. It also relies on a body-mind-spirit connection, but instead of getting more flexible physically, you’re becoming flexible creatively. Faith is a key factor to this. Faith in yourself, in what you believe and, in my case, that’s God. Cameron says it best, “God as my source is a simple but completely effective plan for living.” She doesn’t say it’s going to be easy, but this kind of faith “removes negative dependency — and anxiety — from our lives by assuring us that God will provide.” 

By having faith in the Artist’s Way, by following the Artist’s Way, “we acquire a sense of movement, a current of change in our lives.” The river of life’s possibilities, I imagine as a deep, flowing stream, deep enough to swim in the middle. Cameron calls this “current, or river a flow of grace moving us to our right livelihood, companions and destiny. Dependence on the creator within is really freedom from all other dependencies.” 

As long as it’s a river, and not an ocean.

Actual check in, week five:

Morning pages: Yes. And Yes I still complain as I write them. 

Artist Date: A shopping date at my favorite Asian grocery-hobby store.

Moments of synchronicity: Not this week.

Other breakthroughs or significant insights: Since I began the week struggling, I found myself writing out wish lists several times, until I had a better grasp of my real wishes. But then I ended the week in a horrible place. I came down with stomach cramps, possibly kidney stones, not appendicitis (because the pain is on the left side), could be food poisoning, or the worse PMS I’ve had in ages. I was considering a visit to the ER. I lay in bed not wanting to move or speak or do anything, and it put a little more clarity into my life. At first, I didn’t do anything creative. I watched movies, listened to a book on tape, but afterward that felt so unfulfilling, an utter waste to my weekend. I’m in horrible pain, but despite this, I still wanted to write and draw and do creative things, so I did. Small steps to build momentum.