Occasionally we can find ourselves in a rut, causing our life to feel stale or colorless. That is when we need a creativity jumpstart to bring the color and essence back into our life.
To me a brand new box of pens and a blank notebook is like a being given a gift, if I give myself some space from the daily responsibilities of my life and allow my mind to wander. I can open up my imagination to write and create, and it can take me to a place where Anything is Possible. As the statement goes, 'If you can Dream it you can Achieve it.'
Artists who can draw and paint have always intrigued me with their talent. Many times I have wished that I had the ability to draw, to create the visions that I see in my mind and have them come to life on the pages, alongside my words. But maybe that is where collaboration comes in, by bringing two people together with different skill sets to create something new and vibrant.
There are also people who can look at a blank page and it scares them. They think to themselves, "I have no idea what to write," or "will what I write even be any good?"
But if a person is prompted by a question or an idea, and that person allows their mind to go to a place with no judgement, and endless possibilities for their imagination to roam, it can become a fun and free flowing experience.
Back in my twenties, a very dear woman kept pushing me to get the Artist's Way workbook, created by Julia Cameron, until I finally picked it up one day at the bookstore. At first I thought it was a book about journaling, which I had been doing since I was a child. Instead, I would soon discover that it is an amazing tool which takes the reader on a spiritual path to higher creativity. For me it opened up a tunnel to my soul that had been buried a very long time.
Each week the workbook takes the reader through daily journaling, exercises, artist dates and self care tips to do. And through each week of the journey, it hammered away at the wall that time, demands, and real world responsibilities had built around my soul.
I had forgotten about a summer from my childhood where I spent long lazy days punching the keys on my mom's old manual typewriter, devising mysteries that I would share with my aunt. She would always be interested in what I wrote and would encourage me to keep writing. It was during that time that my eager nine year old self had dreams about becoming a writer.
And over time I had forgotten that childhood dream, until I cracked open The Artist's Way workbook, and found myself on an inner quest to unleash that childhood dream.
Over the years I have recommended this book to many different people, and have even went through it a couple more times myself, (you can see how tattered it is) after very difficult periods in my life. The Artist's Way is a journey that I recommend to every woman to explore and see what your inner soul shares with you during the process.