The Artist’s Way – Reflection

It’s been a while since I wrote anything on this blog. It’s been a tough year. However, I wanted to share one final post to close the humongous summary of The Artist’s Way. I went through this book again and, surprisingly, it helped me for the second time. That goes to show that this book can help you more than once, right?

First and foremost, I’d like to thank you for participating in this creative journey. I must say, there have been moments that were pretty rough. Especially when I was being confronted by so many inner conflicts. But at the end of the road, I look back and think: “At least I understand why I feel what I feel and I’m starting to get a hang of dealing with this most of the time. It takes practice to replace my old habits with the new, more healthier habits..” I’m glad I went through this book again and I genuinely hope you feel the same way.  

Inside every adult is an inner child that most of us forget along the way of adulthood. And most creative blocks, bad habits and inhibitions oftentimes stem from things that may have happened in your childhood. The Artist’s Way is a beautiful spiritual journey to recover your creativity by embracing your inner child. The purpose of the book is to help anyone who would like to overcome creative blocks as well as bad habits and inhibitions. 

The Power of Art 

When there are no words to describe how you feel, there is art. Art is a powerful tool to express oneself through a creative activity, such as literature, music, film, painting, et cetera. Take for instance Haruki Murakami, a world-renowned novelist who takes you on a journey to explore and understand the inner core of the human identity in his surreal stories. Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, shaped generations of music and played an integral part of the civil rights movement. Another great artist is Tim Burton, a talented filmmaker who brings a unique quality to his films with quirky characters showing you that being different is not a bad thing. Other artists paint, such as Salvador Dalí, a iconic surrealist who expressed his feelings about the civil war in Spain. There are many more artists that have made such a great impact through their art. Anyone could become this artist if you put your mind to it and choose the right art form to express yourself. Art then becomes a powerful weapon of self-expression. 

Magic in the Universe

Trust in yourself, have a little faith in the Universe, and the Universe will take care of you. Cameron believes that creativity is a spiritual experience that requires you to trust in the Universe. According to her, we’re all part of an energy field of spiritual electricity and your creative instinct has the ability to bring you in harmony with the ecosystem of the Universe. In other words, when we create something, we spark ‘spiritual electricity’ that aligns us with the natural order of the Universe. The magic in the Universe happens when you follow the 10 building blocks to creative recovery and self-healing. Personally, I believe that Cameron makes a good point. To be honest, it’s nothing new. Some people call it karma and others believe in the principle of Yin and Yang. It’s just written in a different way, but all of them basically represent the same thing: harmony. 

12 Weeks of Creative Recovery

It’s been quite a journey of this summary of The Artist’s Way and it may be a lot to process.
Let’s have a quick glance over this journey.

Week 1 – Recovering a Sense of Safety
The first week was about replacing core negative beliefs with positive affirmations to practice self-compassion and create a sense of safety without feeling too constrained by skepticism and fears. We also learned to confront the inner shadow artist, who lives in fear and should’ve-would’ve-could’ve patterns. Embracing the inner child is at the core of this week. How was has your inner child been and what does self-compassion mean to you? 

Week 2 – Recovering a Sense of Identity
A strong sense of personal identity gives us the strength to weather the storms of obstacles, conflicts, and uncertainty. Rediscovering your creative self is a fluctuating process of change and it’s very common to feel resistance. Change can be a fertile ground for self-doubt luring you into self-destructive thoughts. In this week, we learned to focus on the things and people that support a healthy recovery of your creative self. If you had a blank canvas, how would you paint your personal identity and what does your supportive environment look like? 

Week 3 – Recovering a Sense of Power
Life gives you lemons and we make lemonade by dealing with emotional outbursts such as anger, sadness, and shame. We learned to deal with criticism and to set boundaries before we become pro tables flippers with steam blasting out of our ears. Moreover, Cameron introduced the term ‘synchronicity’ (originally coined by Carl Jung), a higher harmonic voice that augments your inner creative self. This week was dedicated to regaining a sense of power by taking control of our own life using boundaries. How do you bring harmony and synchronicity to your life? 

Week 4 – Recovering a Sense of Integrity
Recovering a sense of integrity is one of the key ingredients of an unwavering moral compass guiding us to a happy life. The quality of being truthful and having strong values and principles start with honest changes (opening up to your true thoughts and feelings). We learned about buried dreams (discovering what you truly love to do). Also, we took a moment to return to silence by practicing reading/media deprivation. What does having a sense of integrity mean to you and how does it feel after experiencing the practice of reading/media deprivation? 

Week 5 – Recovering a Sense of Possibility
This week focuses on liberating ourselves from constraints that block our creative flow. Recovering the sense of limitless possibilities for authenticity in personal growth leads to a more spontaneous life without feeling overpowered by fear. We learned that it takes a great toll when we only focus on our appearance and that our inner critic may mislead us into self-abandonment. This week’s purpose was to listen more to the voice of our authentic self. 

Week 6 – Recovering a Sense of Abundance
Recovering a sense of abundance was about living a rich life. It’s about pinpointing attitudes that limit abundance and luxury in life. We meticulously look at our expenditures to check if we fritter away our money on things we don’t like. We learned to listen to our inner voice and re-allocate the money to hidden joys to create authentic luxury. This is a piece of self-care that is necessary for a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. In your opinion, what does authentic luxury and a rich life mean to you? 

Week 7 – Recovering a Sense of Connection
Recovering a sense of connection is about practicing the right creative attitudes to excavate areas that obstruct genuine interest as you connect with personal dreams. The closer we get to our creative dreams, the closer the get to our divinity. We also punched perfectionism in the face and learned to take on more challenges to create a sense of self-empowerment. What attitudes do you recommend to bring synchronicity and harmony to people’s life? How do you punch perfectionism in the face and motivate yourself to take on more challenges?  

Week 8 – Recovering a Sense of Strength
This week’s theme is recovering a sense of strength. We learned about ‘emotional survival’, whereby we tackle major blocks: loss of hope, money, and self-belief. We look at practical changes we can make to fight thoughts and behaviors that may deny our curiosities and cast judgment on our creative play while we fixate on the need to have a product to show off our creative exploration. What are the practical changes that you’ve made in your life? What do you do to excavate the behaviors and thoughts that have conditioned you to settle for less than you desire in life?

Week 9 – Recovering a Sense of Compassion
This week is about recovering a sense of self-compassion. We learned to resist ‘creative U-turns’, face our fears, and blast through internal conflicts. This week focuses on facing internal blocks to creativity and resisting the temptation to abandon ship by exploring and acknowledging emotional difficulties that beset us in the past. What worked best for you when you had to face internal blocks to creativity? And what did you do to resist the temptation to abandon ship and go back to your old comfort zone? 

Week 10 – Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
Recovering a sense of self-protection brought us to ‘the dangers of the trail’ and toxic patterns. We explored the perils that can ambush us on our creative path and toxic patterns that derail us from our creative flow. This week is about taking care of our inner child by setting physical and emotional boundaries. A healthy balance of self-protection shows signs of confidence, strength, and self-love. It’s the moment you shine the brightest as a unique individual. Aside of self-compassion, it’s the greatest gift you can give yourself. What would you tell the beautiful people in the world when facing the dangers of the trail and weeding out toxic patterns?

Week 11 – Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
Creativity is the oxygen for our souls and our art will be affected when we let our emotional and intellectual mind stagnate. That’s why this week is all about recovering a sense of artistic autonomy. It’s about nurturing and accepting oneself as an artist. We learned to examine behaviors that strengthen our spiritual base (our creative power). We also looked at ways to be successful without sabotaging our freedom. What does autonomy mean to you? And what are important behaviors that strengthen you emotionally, mentally, and spiritually? 

Week 12 – Recovering a Sense of Faith
The final week: recovering a sense of faith. We learned to: (1) acknowledge the inner inherently mysterious and spiritual heart of creativity, (2) trust the inner guide, (3) explore behaviors that can strengthen the spiritual base and creative power within oneself, and (4) look at ways in which success must be handled to prevent self-sabotaging freedom. What are powerful points to remember when recovering a sense of faith? What does it do to you once you’ve recovered a sense of faith? 

Thank you, Julia Cameron, for sharing your wonderful work.

Share Your Thoughts and Exeriences

Once again, thank you so much for joining me in this creative journey. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience during this journey. I strongly believe that I can only learn more by listening to inspiring stories of others. Books are not only to inform and inspire others, but I’d like to believe that books bring people together by sharing the knowledge they’ve obtained through their own perspective. 

I truly hope you’re able to reconnect with your inner child as it is the most powerful part of who you are. It warms my heart when I see people who are so connected with their body, mind, and soul. It emits a beautiful energy that’s contagious. Not only do you deserve it as a unique being, but it’s the kind of energy we need in this Universe to come together as a whole. 

Thanks for reading!
This article captures what I consider to be the highlights of the book and articles that helped me gain understanding of the subject matter, and should only be treated as such. If you enjoyed this article, hit the follow button for more articles and summaries.

Cameron, J. (2017). The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (12th Edition ed.). New York: J.P. Tarcher/Putnam.