How to become more creative through self-education?
This is a contribution post by Aishwariya Laxmi
I was recently a part of author Radhika Meghanathan’s cohort of The Artist’s Way – ‘A course in discovering and recovering your creative self’ devised by Julia Cameron, an international poet, playwright, fiction writer and essayist with extensive credits in film, television and theatre.
How The Artist’s Way helps unleash your creativity
I underwent this twelve-week programme, which aims to help unleash one’s inner artist. At the end of the programme, I have hopefully gotten rid of any creative blocks in my life, for example, limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, guilt etc. and replaced them with self-confidence and productivity.
What is The Artist’s Way?
Radhika describes The Artist’s Way as “a simple but powerful journaling programme, with many interesting and interactive exercises, that helps us understand our own life goals and aspirations, and enables us to lead a happier, more creative life.”
What does the programme entail?
With 211 pages of material from the book to go through, daily exercises and weekly exercises (given in the book) to finish in 12 weeks, the course can get overwhelming if you are not part of a group or cohort like I was. You will need to set aside at least 10 hours a week to do the programme.
10 Basic Principles and Two Basic Tools
There are 10 basic principles outlined at the start of the book, which are like affirmations stating that creativity is the natural order of life and creativity is the gift that we return to the Creator.
The two basic tools are the morning pages and the artist date.
The Morning Pages
“The morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness,” according to Julia Cameron. In other words, you just write whatever you want, first thing in the morning onto three pages of a notebook.
The Artist Date
The other tool is the artist 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,” according to the book. An essential thing to note about the artist date is that it must be done alone. An artist date could range from watching a movie, listening to a playlist, going to the local store to buy art supplies, drawing a mandala, etc.
What you can expect to learn
At the end of each of the twelve chapters, there are tasks for the week, usually, about 10 in number that you need to do before going to the next chapter. Tasks could vary from listing 20 things you enjoy doing to describing your childhood room to answering questions about your artistic goals and dreams.
Over the 12 weeks, I wrote in three notebooks. I needed two notebooks for my morning pages and one for my tasks.
Issues the programme addresses
In the programme, Julia Cameron has also designed a chapter to change one’s perception or outlook towards money and make it more positive. In Chapter 10, she helps us see that workaholism is a block rather than a building block. In another chapter, she introduces us to the concept of creative U-Turns or self-sabotage. The programme helps us reframe negative thoughts and embrace our inner artists.
As I took part in this programme, I felt as if the book had been written especially for me. That’s the beauty of the book/programme. It will resonate with you on a deep level and help you in ways you would never have imagined. I urge you to pick up a copy of this book and commit to the programme to transform your creative life.
Aishwariya Laxmi’s writing has appeared in 30 anthologies. Her bio is included in the ‘Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2021 by Sweetycat Press, USA. She was one of the top three winners of High 5 -The Great Poetry Hunt Contest organised by WriteFluence in 2021. Find her blog here.
