I’ve decided to try a program designed to “unblock” your creativity. It’s a book called “The Artists Way” by Julia Cameron and is highly recommended by almost everyone I come in contact with who has read it. I also watched some reviews on youtube that were also positive. Especially Laura Try, and Alessandro Frosali. “The Artists Way” is a 12-week program that takes you through various tasks and exercises that help re-awaken the creativity inside you. So far, I feel like I am on the right path, but it’s just week one.
The two main tasks that you do throughout the program are “Morning Pages” and an “Artist’s Date”. Morning Pages involves writing 3 pages of long hand everyone morning, first thing. Well, I shower and grab a morning beverage first, but for the most part, first thing. This is not meant to be an artistic exercise, but a brain dump. Your pen/pencil really shouldn’t leave the paper to think. What this does is get all of that mess out of your brain that clogs it up and leaves your brain refreshed. It sounds kind of silly, but it actually works. I really feel like I can think more clearly for the rest of the day.
The Artist’s Date is a solo date you take yourself on that is meant to be a rejuvenation of your creative well. You just go and do something relaxing by yourself. This can be anything you enjoy. Take in a movie, go sit in the park and people-watch, go to your favorite museum, etc. Julia describes it this way. If creativity is a trout pond and we are starting to draw on a lot of creativity, we may be “over-fishing the trout pond”. The Artist’s Date is meant to re-stock that trout pond. Since it’s only my first week, I haven’t gone on the Artist’s date yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes.
From there, each week has a theme with exercises for that week’s theme. Week one’s have been fairly easy to accomplish and helpful. I’m not going to give away all of the goodies, but I would say, so far, its working and I am liking it.
