The Artist’s Way is part self-help, part workbook, and definitely a process for getting creatively unstuck. It’s premise is that the Universe wants us to be creative. Creativity dwells within us, and in order to get into a creative flow state we really just need to get out of our own way–that’s how we free out inner artist. According to Elizabeth Glibert, “there would be no “Eat, Pray, Love” without The Artist’s Way.”

Instead of focusing on creative acts as an expression of our own egos, the book strives to get us to wrestle creativity away from our own egos and turn it over to a higher power.

I first completed the program in 2016. And I found that many people are turned off because of the “Spiritual” aspect. However, Cameron makes it clear in her books, which do contain a great many references to God, she also reference the Universe, and she tells you to use whichever word, label, or none at all that you choose, feel comfortable with–“Because The Artist’s Way is, in essence, a spiritual path, initiated and practiced through creativity, this books uses the word God. This may be volatile for some. ofyou–conjuring old, unworkable, unpleasant, or simply unbelievable ideas about God as you were raised to understand “him.” Please be open-minds…”

The Artist’s Way Intro (September 2023) Video for YT

Here is the link to my Facebook Artist’s Way group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theartistswayproject/?ref=share_group_link

For me, though I know that The Artist’s Way is called, “A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity,” Spiritual can mean, “1. relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things, or 2. relating to religion or religious belief.” Personally, I often replace the word God with Universe. It works for me. However, If it bothers you or triggers you there are a is a blog post(s) about “How Can Atheists Traverse the Artist’s Way.“

According to Cameron, the Artist’s Way core principles are:

1. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.
2. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life—including ourselves.
3. When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.
4. We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
5. Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
6. The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
7. When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.
8. As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
9. It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
10. Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

The Program is a 12 week program that you work through yourself, though there are courses, as well as groups you can pay to join–I haven’t tried either, but. I have worked through the program 3 out of 5 times that I’ve started it.

There are what she calls the Tools, and then each chapter there are Affirmations, Tasks, Exercises, and Check-In’s.

The Two Main Tools:
The Morning Pages: Three, hand-written pages every morning. No topics, no rules. Just write. These helps clear whatever is keeping us stuck. The act of freely dumping something—anything—onto the pages starts to get us unstuck. Morning pages must be written out longhand—no typing. And I have to say the effect is pretty great. What Cameron writes is true:

“Once we get those muddy, maddening, confusing thoughts [nebulous worries, jitters, and preoccupations] on the page, we face our day with clearer eyes.”

The Artist’s Date: ” An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist.”

I have a few suggestions in my notebook that I’ll share in my Introduction Video.

One of the other Basic Tools in the other two books that are part of the Artist’s Way program is Walking. Cameron says this about walking:

When I wrote The Artist’s Way, I got all the way to week twelve and said, P.S. Walk. I have been teaching now for twenty years since the publication of the book, and I now realize that there are three basic tools, not two, and they are Morning Pages, Artist Dates, and Walks.I find that if you walk, you start to integrate what has occurred to you from the other tools. You might walk out with a problem, but as you walk, you come into a solution. You just get a different perspective. You go out for a walk, you come into a solution. You just get a different perspective. You go out for a walk, maybe see a cat in a window box, and suddlenly you hear yourself saying “oh, I could try X.” Walking is very powerful.

One of my favorite takeaway’s from previous endeavors with the Artist’s Way program, is Cameron’s recommendation to look out for moments of ‘synchronicity,’ and how they can play a role in your creative recovery. So what is synchronicity: the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. Carl Jung defined synchronicity as the “acausal connecting principle” – a meaningful coincidence of two or more events that appear to be unrelated but are experienced together, which means that the events do not have a cause-and-effect relationship, but their occurrence together is seen as having a greater significance or more profound meaning.

The concept of synchronicity is based on the idea that everything in the universe is interconnected and that certain events or occurrences could have deeper meanings. The goal of synchronicity is to recognize these meaningful coincidences and use them as a way to learn more about ourselves and our environment.

Here are some examples of synchronicity that have happened to me over the past few weeks:

1. A few years ago, when I went to the cemetery where my father (Don) is buried to clean the headstone and visit, I pulled up to around the areas where I knew his headstone is. My husband got out from the passengers side, closest to the grassy area where people are buried, and immediately said, “You pulled up right next to it!” And at the same time we both realized I’d done the same thing a few years before when I’d fist taken him there. My father is buried a couple of hours away from where I live so I do not get to go as often as I would like. Both times I’ve done that I have seen a yellow butterfly flying just above the headstone.
2. Right Time, Right Place…. There have been several times when I felt like I was in the right place a the time time… or that I was delayed so that I wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other day I was driving to pick up my grandchildren from school. The school is about ten miles from my house. Just as I was about to leave our mail courier pulled up with a package and our mail. I gladly walked to our mail box and she handed me the items instead of having to put them in the mail box and getting out of her jeep to put the package on our porch. I went back in the house and put the mail and package on our dining room table and then left to go pick up my grandchildren. Just as I got close to one of the intersections on the way to the school I saw police and ambulance lights behind me, so I pulled over. A mile ahead where the intersections was there had been an accident. That could very well have been me if I had left my house without stopping to get our mail and package from the courier instead of just getting in my car and leaving.

There have been several other synchrocities lately. Coincidences? Sycnchrocity? Mr Rockstar and I met a decade after I met his father. His father read my Astrological birth chart for me. Mr. Rockstar and I were both in some of the very same places over that decade, but at different times. When we finally met, a decade later, we met through mutual friends… it was amazing that we had never run into each other and met.

Morning Pages is another takeaway from the Artist’s Way that I have come to appreciate, even if it has been. a sort of love/hate relationship. However, over the past few weeks it is the Morning Pages that have drawn me back to do redoing the Artist’s Way program. The morning pages have started to become a comfortable place, one of not only warmth, but of safety and calm. Each morning after my Morning Pages I feel calmer, more focused, and less anxious and ready to get creative. I have found myself more and more pulled to do them. I no longer feel resentment toward them. I feel like for the first time I am reallyl getting the hang of them

Officially I am starting the Artist’s Way Program on the September 23rd, this Saturday, which is the Autumn Equinox. I have this version, the 25th Anniversary edition, of the book on Audible, and my very paperback book that was published in 2002, ten years after she published it originally in 1992. I am going to chronicle the Program via videos and blog posts, they won’t be exactly the same but more of a way to process things in different ways. I’m also reading the Writer’s Diet by Cameraon along with the Morning Pages.

I’m off to read the rest of the Introduction. I’ll be back over the weekend with an update.