The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Many people acquire the belief that money equals security, and God has little to do with that kind of security. Cameron pushes back on this belief and other false notions that lead us to self-limiting beliefs and choices in life. Challenges aren’t inherently virtuous, and art isn’t inherently selfish. God can be in whatever form you like to think. Cameron challenges readers to record who they think God is and who they’d like God to be. Making art is about embracing the moment, believing in our ideas, and understanding our self-limiting beliefs around God and money. To create art, there must be a sense of abundance, and that can be created through authentic luxury, which can be anything from a favorite song to a savored snack. The most important luxury is the luxury of time, and with money dictating so much of life, it can feel like time/money is the reason art can’t be created. Cameron provides several anecdotal examples that counter this idea and describes ways to evaluate how we use and perceive money. By becoming aware of these habits and perceptions, it is easier to make time for art.

This chapter includes only one exercise, and it focuses on helping the artist to develop a strong understanding of their relationship with money. The tasks tie into this understanding by focusing on the idea of abundance. The check-in the same usual questions, but they include prompts to work the idea of abundance into the morning pages and artist date.

Cameron reveals another purpose of the morning pages and artist dates: to learn how to listen. Art isn’t about coming up with a great idea but listening to what’s inside. Those moments of flow when ideas whisper to us aren’t flukes but the process working as it should. She uses the analogy of creativity as a kind of radio wave, and we just have to learn how to dial in to the correct frequency to receive the art we’re meant to make. God is the ultimate artist, so the universe will support your dream. Perfectionism is another formidable enemy to the creative since it’s not about standards; it’s about being stuck in a loop. After a certain point, some projects just need to be released because no art is ever perfect. We only do the best we can. We also have to learn to take risks even if we expect a poor outcome because attempting things is better than doing nothing. Cameron’s final note in this chapter is to see jealousy as an indication of a desire for something the other person has or has accomplished. By analyzing jealousy in this way, it ran help an artist develop a plan of action to accomplish what is causing the jealousy.

This is another chapter with substantial exercises. The two exercises included require some psychological heavy lifting as artists assess specific jealousies and come up with an actionable solution and then do some personal excavation of past desires and inadequacies. The tasks focus on encouraging the artist to cherish and nurture themselves through a wide variety of actions, projects, and journaling. The check-in encourages the artist to daydream and further nurture themselves.

Artists must acknowledge the losses, rejections, and criticism they incur on their artistic journey to move forward with a healthy sense of strength. Cameron discusses some of the dangers to strength and resilience that are fostered within creative academia. There are cases of outright hostility, such as the jaded film professor who tried to control the lives and art of his students, but there are also the more subtle kinds of danger, such as making students feel numb to the process. Cameron isn’t against academia for the arts; rather, she cautions against the over-intellectualization of the creative field. Critical and creative talents are not the same, and creativity requires a certain kind of strength. She tells the story of Ted, a novelist who paid an agent $100 for reading his novel and got a mediocre reply: “‘This novel is half good and half bad. That’s the worst kind. I cant [sic] tell you how to fix it. I suggest pitching it out” (133). After much convincing, Cameron managed to get Ted to share his novel, and she discovered it was quite good. She asked him to please try writing it again. This was the first student she unblocked, and now Ted has a successful writing career. She posits that every loss can be framed as a potential gain for artists in that it can point them where to go next. Strength requires acknowledgement of the pain. Another self-sabotaging behavior is to rely on time and age as an excuse for not fulfilling dreams, but Cameron argues this is as weak an argument as using money as an excuse not to write. Thinking only about the finished product is counter to growth. Big change happens in small increments. You don’t need to make some great creative leap off a cliff or to be a certain age to succeed creatively. A big goal can be accomplished in many small steps that Cameron calls “Filling the Form” (140). She asks readers to take stock of early patterns that may have conditioned them to certain ways of thinking that are no longer serving them.

This chapter includes an affirmation as well as an exercise. The affirmations support the idea that the artist is worthy of creativity and has the right to practice it. The exercise focuses on remembering moments from childhood that felt like someone was reducing the artist’s strength and belief in their creativity to help uncover the conditioning that may be causing the adult artist to be blocked. The tasks focus on the artist’s dreams and encourage them to dissect the dreams to understand them on a deeper level. The check-in asks pointed questions about whether the artist is struggling with the commitment of the morning pages and artist dates.