Beginning The Artist’s Way: Part 1

In the wellness space, there is no shortage of self-care suggestions — so many that it can become overwhelming to know where to start or what will actually work for you.

There’s physical self-care like prioritizing sleep, eating better, and exercising more. There’s mental and emotional self-care like meditation, journaling, and gratitude. There’s social and environmental self-care, like setting boundaries or decluttering your space.

Perhaps, like me, you are already engaging in a variety of self-care practices, but something still feels like it’s missing.

For me, that missing piece has been creativity.

Where Did the Creativity Go?

Have you ever felt like you aren’t as creative as you used to be? Or caught yourself thinking you could create, but… there’s always a “but”?

According to Steven Shapiro, “98% of 5-year-olds test as highly creative, yet only 2% of adults do…we don’t lose our creativity, but we learn habits which stop it from emerging.”

That quote really stuck with me.

I remember being creative as a child. I entered an art contest in elementary school for a Smokey the Bear event and vaguely remember winning a ribbon for that drawing. I remember rewriting the ending of To Kill a Mockingbird during my freshman year of high school, among other creative projects.

I have evidence in the form of memories that creativity showed up for me throughout childhood and my teenage years. I tried to hold on to it in adulthood, too. There were a dozen or so partially started fiction novels and unfinished craft projects. But college, graduate school, parenting, work, and life responsibilities gradually took precedence.

Now, I find myself in a place where life feels more settled, and I’m ready to reconnect with that creative part of myself again.

Beginning the Journey with The Artist’s Way

I’m hoping that by incorporating The Artist’s Way, I’ll be able to shift some of the habits that have been blocking my creativity.

The Artist’s Way, written by Julia Cameron and published in 1992, originally began as a class she taught in person. It eventually evolved into a 12-week, self-guided process designed to help people uncover creativity, overcome artistic blocks, and foster personal growth.

If you notice the full title, it includes the phrase A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Spirituality in this context can mean whatever resonates with you.

The book uses the word “God,” but Cameron suggests many alternatives — Creator, Goddess, Mind, Universe, Source, or Higher Power. For now, I’m sticking with “God” in a way that makes sense to me, and I’ll see how that evolves as I go.

While the program is designed as a 12-week journey, I plan to move through it a little more slowly. I want to take you along for the process and really notice what comes up—where resistance appears and where moments of creative flow begin to emerge.

The First Practice: Morning Pages

To begin this journey, I want to introduce one of the core practices in The Artist’s Way: Morning Pages.

According to Cameron, “in order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it.”

The practice is simple. Each morning, you write three pages by hand in a stream-of-consciousness style. There’s no structure and no expectation of perfection. The critical or “perfectionist” part of your brain doesn’t get a say here.

There’s also no right or wrong way to do it.

The pages are not meant to be art or polished writing. They’re simply a way to get your thoughts onto paper and create a stronger mind-body connection.

The only real goal is to fill three pages every morning — even if what you write is “I don’t have anything to write” over and over again until the pages are full.

Another Tool: The Artist Date

Another important tool Cameron introduces is the Artist Date.

An Artist Date is a block of time each week dedicated to nurturing your inner artist. Ideally, it’s something outside the house, but the most important part is that it’s done alone, just you and your creative self.

I’ll talk more about Artist Dates in future posts. For now, I don’t want to overwhelm myself (or you) as this journey begins. My focus for now is simply incorporating Morning Pages and seeing what unfolds.

In the next post, I’ll reflect on how the Morning Pages practice went and share my experience with week one.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to join me in exploring your creativity as well. Perhaps we can unlock a little bit of it together through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

A Small Aside: If you’re planning to purchase The Artist’s Way, consider shopping local. Or, if you’re lucky like I was, you might stumble across a thrifted copy waiting for you.

Carla Kelley, LCPC

References

The Artist’s Way: https://juliacameronlive.com/ 

Self-Healing Techniques: https://www.verywellmind.com/  

On Creativity: https://stephenshapiro.com/