Julia Cameron

I don’t know who said this but he or she is so right. It does take 90% of the energy to complete the final 10% of a project! Especially for someone like me who loves to start new projects but can lose interest and commitment long before completion. Another challenge for me—the exhaustion of withstanding the inner critic (whom Julia calls the Censor) and my, at times, sadistic superego.

Enter Julia Cameron and her masterwork, The Artist’s Way. I first completed her program in the 1980’s (Healing the Artist Within). I credit her with my being able to transition in my late 30’s from the computer industry to healthcare; getting my bodywork practice off to a good start; self-publishing my book, The Caregiving Zone (2006); completing the certificate program at the Chicago Jung Institute (2016); and, most recently, undertaking the study and practice of spiritual direction. At each juncture I would complete her 12-week program. Now that I am starting out on a new adventure, I am doing the 12-week program again.

I love that she believed in her work so much—when a literary agency turned it down (under the title, Healing the Artist Within) she typed it up and sold Xeroxed copies in local bookstores. To date, The Artist’s Way has been translated into forty languages and sold over four million copies.

If a person does the 12 weeks of work that she lays out (morning pages, artist dates, creativity contract, actual tasks, written exercises, and more) one’s creativity will come alive. How not?

In Her Own Words

“God is an artist. So are we. And we can cooperate with each other.” (Interview)

Quotes from her book, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

“In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. The precise moment I was in was always the only safe place for me.” (p. 54)

“In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do—spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.” (p. 21)

“Stop telling yourself, “it’s too late.” (p. 7)

“Boredom is just “What’s the use?” in disguise. And “What’s the use?” is fear, and fear means you are secretly in despair. So put your fears on the page. Put anything on the page. Put three pages of it on the page.” (p. 18)

“It means learning where and when to seek out right criticism. As artists, we must learn when criticism is appropriate and from home. Not only the source but the timing is very important here a first draft is seldom appropriately shown to any but the most gentle and discerning eye. It often takes another artist to see the embryonic work that is trying to sprout… Art requires a safe hatchery.”  P. 70-71) 

“The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.” (p. 53)

“Art lies in the moment of encounter: we meet ourselves and we meet our self-expression. We become original because we become something specific, an origin from which work flows.” (p. 82)

 Publications – Non-Fiction (Partial List)

Online Courses

 Note: At Julia Cameron – Wikipedia you can find her plays, musicals, novels, poetry, and more non-fiction…

Featured Media

Julia Cameron: The Creative Art of Attention
Creativity & Spirituality: Dancing Partners

For more information, visit Julia Cameron’s Website