Book Recommendation: The Artist Way 🎨✨
📕 Book Title: The Artist Way
✏️ Author: Julia Cameron
⏰ Length: 12 Weeks Long
Are you ready to commit to a spiritual and magical journey that lasts 12 weeks long? If you said YES!!!! This book is exactly for you. Sounds daunting to some, but when you’re ready, you will be so amazed not just by what’s written in a book but the magic that arises around you while going through the chapters.
I picked this up at a point where I had a lot of free time because there wasn’t much work coming in and instead of being depressed, I knew that I was due for a level-up. This creativity course isn’t anything new; it was first published in 1992 and has been re-published countless times, so there are many book covers of this classic.
💡 What is this book about?
You can view this book as a course to level up as a creative through discovering and recovering your creative self. It’s a 12-week programme that follows 12 chapters in the book. Every week you’ll commit to reading a chapter, doing the activities, going on a solo artist date, and doing morning pages every day. Sounds daunting but it can be very therapeutic once you get used to it.
Each chapter is a week dedicated to recovering a particular theme within us, e.g. your sense of Abundance. As you begin, you’ll start to see it reflected in your day-to-day life (that’s the magical part🕺🏻). I did one activity uncovering my shadow artist and suddenly remembered that my childhood dream was to be an actress and I never admitted it EVER throughout my adulthood. That very week I remembered that old dream of mine, I was cast in an advertisement (SUPER LAST MINUTE BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL ACTRESS WAS ILL!!). How insane was the timing?
❤️ What I love about it?
① It’s like going for a retreat and a course all in one but on your own. I like that I have to keep myself accountable and if I do give up halfway, that’s also on me, and I could write about why I gave up in my morning pages 🤣
② I enjoyed witnessing the synchronities all around. It has been insane and it is a really fun way to look at life.
③ I heard about this book from the time I worked in a bookstore (2 years ago). I knew that it required discipline and a lot of commitment to finish the whole 12 weeks so I had a lot of resistance to start. I had the book months before even trying it out. I love that it took me out of my comfort zone every week through the different activities and solo dates. It changed my routine permanently, right now, I still do morning pages in the morning and I try to make time out for solo activities as a reward weekly. ④ Every reading uncovers something deep within us that I could never put into words. I found myself going “OMG THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL” after every reading.
⑤ I also started to flow better with my words because I was reading and writing so much during the 12 weeks.
⑥ The edition I bought is a hardcover that opens flat—it’s so comfortable to read and refer to.
So much to love!!!!!
👍🏼 I would recommend this book to someone who is…
☑️ struggling with imposter syndrome as a creative
☑️ searching for their path in life
☑️ looking for their next big step
☑️ ready to grow as a creative individual
☑️ wants to focus on personal growth
☑️ ready to commit for 12 weeks straight of readings and activities
☑️ ready to unblock and unleash their creative energies
✨ Quotes from the Book That Blew My Mind
There are just so so so many good quotes… but I have to NOT REVEAL THE ENTIRE BOOK.
✦ “As you work with the tools in this book, as you undertake the weekly tasks, many changes will be set in motion…Triggering synchronicity: we change and the universe furthers and expands that change.”
✦ “We begin to excavate our buried dreams.”
✦ “For all shadow artists, life may be a discontented experience, filled with a sense of missed purpose and unfufilled promise. They want to write. They want to paint. They want to act, make music, dance…but they are afraid to take themselves seriously.”
✦ “An artist must have downtime, time to do nothing. Defending our right to such time takes courage, convection and resiliency.”
✦ “Shame is retriggered in us as adults because our internal artist is always our creative child.”
✦ “Not all critisism is shaming.”
✦ “As artists, we must learn to create our own safe environments.”
✦ “In creative recovery, it is not necessary that we change any of our beliefs. It is necessary that we examine them.”
Some places offer The Artist Way as a workshop and you’ll complete the readings and tasks as a group to keep yourselves accountable and committed. The bookstore that I used to work at offered that and I loved seeing customers leave all inspired and refreshed after the weekly workshop.
This is a long post but I hope I did The Artist Way justice. It’s not only a magical experience but it’s a great way to rediscover our deeper, inner, true selves.
With Love,
Chara