The Artist’s Way by #JuliaCameron
Story, First..
Books, leading to books is a calling.
A few years ago, when I picked up ‘Who will cry when you die’ written by Robin Sharma, little was I cognizant that it was my calling for a transition. Though it took a few years to realize it, the rusted levers were set in motion by the latent forces of nature, then.
Robin Sharma suggested two books to readers; Walden by Henry Thoreau and The Artists’ Way by Julia Cameron.
Unaware of the instant shift in FOC, that evening, I went to the book store and picked up both – it was not an easy decision because The Artists’ Way was a costly ledger – the trade off between entertainment, pleasure, and fun vs. addressing & rediscovering essential deeper self.
I took that chance then….
….and realized a few years later that NATURE could never go wrong. It craves for alignment, always.
I left Walden after fifty pages; my cerebral taste buds were not so accustomed to the compound and dense creation of art. So, I began reading The Artists’ Way which is much easier to eyes and brain. (Confession – I have not yet finished Walden, but plan to do it soon).
Reading through it, this is what I have come to learn about Creativity & how ignorant we are about it.
Let me ask you a questions.
As a parent, would you ever insult your own kid?
I know your answer, it is a big NO!! Isn’t it?
What if I say, You DO, we all DO it consciously or unconsciously.
Don’t believe?
Here is something for us to assimilate.
– We want to be a Singer, but we compare our voice with a celebrity’s voice, the moment we open our mouth.
– We want to be a writer, but we expect to match up to Stephen King or Lee Child, right from the time we write our first page.
….and so on and so forth…
Is this not an insult to our creative child?
Why we forget that time defines the evolution of an artistic flair. Why are we so unfair to us, not ready to give time and chance to the creative child to metamorphose into an adult.
Why do we deny the basics – pampering, grooming, nurturing and hand-holding, every creative child inside us deserves so badly.
Above all, many of us do not even realize that we have a creative child breathing inside us.
Book Review
A book that can be classified primarily as self-help by many but is more like common sense. It is designed to help readers reject the evils of self-doubt and seek for creative indulgence not as a profession or professional but as a form of therapy.
At the core of the book is a custom called “morning pages,” based on the belief that free-form writing, each morning, will unclog one’s mental and emotional channels of all the waste that gets in the way of being happy.
The other essential ritual involves taking oneself on an “artist’s date” each week – planning an outing to a museum or some other site of thought, free from the weight of responsibility or work.
Ending Remarks
Some day I will write a book on this master art, but today, I have to end my review here with two life changing lines by the Author and then my own comprehension of what this book has taught me over the years, and when I re-read earlier this year.
‘Practice Mystery, not Mastery’
‘Artistic people must learn how to emotionally guard themselves against the tides of negativity -both external and internal.’
Creativity is beyond the realms of semantics, a divine blessing guided by higher planes. Unfortunately, our limited intellect barely qualifies to decipher even a spec of it, unless, either it’s HIS will or our aspirations guided by the subconscious.
By Maniissh Aroraa
