Creativity is a spiritual practice: How The Artist's Way changed my life and helped me work through burnout
This week I’m coming to you with a blog post detailing my experience reading The Artist’s Way.
For those of you who have never heard of The Artist’s Way, it’s a book and twelve-week creative recovery program written by Julia Cameron. Best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert has said that Eat, Pray, Love would not have been written without the help of The Artist’s Way.
Over the past three months I’ve been working through the chapters and trusting the process. I’ve also been going to therapy and working with a career coach.
TLDR
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Somewhere around week 5 I started to feel a shift. I realized how much I was getting in my own way, and how it was probably harder to stay blocked than it was to do the work.
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After that, momentum built. I started experiencing small synchronicities that told me I was indeed heading in the right direction.
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I stopped trying to plan so much. As much as I love making plans and managing my personal projects, what’s more important (and more useful) is taking the next right step.
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By week 8, I had successfully turned my creative practice into a daily ritual.
Some of my favorite weekly tasks & journaling prompts
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Imaginary lives: If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them? Whatever occurs to you, jot it down. Do not overthink this exercise. The point of these lives is to have fun in them—more fun than you might be having in this one. Look over your list and select one. Then do it this week. For instance, if you put down country singer, can you pick a guitar? If you dream of being a cowhand, what about some horseback riding?
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Make a list of friends who nurture you—that’s nurture (give you a sense of your own competency and possibility), not enable (give you the message that you will never get it straight without their help). Which of their traits, particularly, serve you well?
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Time Travel: Remember yourself at eight. What did you like to do? What were your favorite things? Now, write a letter from you at eight to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself?
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My payoff for staying blocked is… This you may want to explore in your morning pages.
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Clearing: Throw out or give away five ratty pieces of clothing.
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Wear your favorite item of clothing for no special occasion.
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New Childhood: What might you have been if you’d had perfect nurturing? Write a page of this fantasy childhood. What were you given? Can you reparent yourself in that direction now?
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Priorities: List for yourself your creative goals for the year. List for yourself your creative goals for the month. List for yourself your creative goals for the week.
Things I consumed/tried/did this week
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It’s been almost three weeks since I’ve logged into any social media accounts. I feel less scattered and can’t say I miss anything about Instagram. I do miss Twitter friends!
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Takis meat sticks. Good in a gross way.
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A full moon bath 🌕
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Great Barrier Relief skin repair serum. I use it when my skin feels sensitive and it seems to reduce redness almost immediately.
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The last few episodes of Squid Game on Netflix. Whew!
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The first few episodes of the Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby podcast, since all of a sudden I decided to become interested in Greek mythology?
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Painting when I should have been working and feeling nothing but pure joy.
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A quick and simple branding and website design for my cousin who is the most incredible esthetician in the world. I’m having fun working on design stuff for the first time in several months!
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Organizing my postcard collection into a photo album (simultaneously fun and tedious).
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Riding in a Tesla for the first time and actually having so much fun 🚙💨