The Unblocking Process

Two weeks ago, this book came out of my baul.  It was time.

I've been hearing people talk about The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for years. Mostly in connection to morning routines.  I used to be obsessed with operationalizing the optimal morning routine, and productivity gurus on the Internet mostly recommended: meditation, exercise, and Morning Pages. 

Morning Pages is an exercise where you freely write three pages of longhand in the morning, every day. Write about anything, stream of consciousness, whatever you like. As long as it's three pages.  This is supposed to help unblock your thoughts, to get you started on your day with a clear mind, as you already unleashed all the issues and blocking thoughts out on the page first thing in the morning.  People recommending this cited The Artist's Way.  So I was doing Morning Pages for some time now even if I haven't read the book, I can't go without regularly doing that. It's therapeutic. Most times I start writing either unsure or emotional about something, then the issue (or my thoughts about it, at least) gets magically sorted out on the page.  

When I saw this book at The Strand, I bought it. Not because I wanted to read it then, but because I somehow knew I had to save it for the future, when I would need it. The Artist's Way involves a twelve-week program on unblocking creativity.  It begins with the premise that everyone is a natural artist.  We are naturally creative. You just need to remove the blocks to your creative energy so that you can express yourself creatively -- or rather, you can let the creative energy (the book calls the creative force "God") flow through you. You are only a conduit, the book says.

How promising. And thrilling! The book warns that the reader may not only get breakthroughs but can also experience a total shift in their perspective over the course of the program.  Some readers have done the program with just the intention of trying to be a little more creative, but have walked away with different artistic professions altogether at the end of it.  One example is Elizabeth Gilbert, who cited The Artist's Way as the trigger for Eat, Pray, Love. I've only been doing it for a week but I've noticed a little more ideas coming to me, spontaneous short-fiction being jotted down, new melodies being played on my guitar.

The pandemic has a way of making people sit down and confront the elephants in their brain-rooms. My elephant is that I gave up writing, which has always given me life. My guess is that most professionals have the same elephants -- giving up various creative inclinations and pursuits for the "real world". Well, I can sort of argue that I write professionally now, but like it's a trade and not creative writing. The book argues that creating is our natural state and we should at least be doing some creating, even if you have a job. Lovely.

So, I'll report back from the frontlines of The Artist's Way in twelve weeks. Hopefully I'll be more in tune with my creative natural frequencies then.