Day 5 - Chapter 5 & 6 - The Artist's Way

Cameron starts off chapter five with a reminder of the generosity of a creative spirit (or God).  And alerts her readers to how one may be unconscious to the possibility due to some old messages or beliefs.  We might not want to get too far ahead of ourselves and not be able to accomplish what we set out to do; so we hold back with our thinking about what we can achieve.  She identifies this as part of our scarcity thinking. For example, to avoid being disappointed, we hold back on what we hope is possible. She holds firm that creativity is a spiritual issue and one way her readers can make progress is by leaps of faith (holding onto a belief of what is possible).  Cameron asks her readers to review the dreams they might have discounted as impossible and to begin to experiment with writing down some of their dreams, asking the creative spirit questions in the evening and “listening for the answers in the morning.” She further encourages her reader to be open to what is possible.  She also calls attention to the Virtue Trap. That is when a person plays nice for the sake of others, but does not practice the care for one’s self, to nurture themselves as a being creative. The author makes note that a person may defend not being creative with it as a “down time,” and if they are putting other schedules ahead of their own.  This becomes a self-defeating trap of resentment.  Cameron ends the chapter with some daily writing exercises to assist her readers with the practice hearing the ways one may be self-destructive or hold themselves back from receiving these gifts from a creative spirit. 

In chapter six, Cameron encourages her readers to review the self-sabotaging beliefs they might hold, especially about views of money.  These views sometimes limits one’s pursuit of being creative as they might think they would not be able to make enough money doing so. She suggests her readers write down these beliefs; to look for ones that are in conflict, especially those around money as they might contribute to their beliefs about creativity.

I encourage you to buy a copy of The Artist's Way for a better understanding of your own creative process.  Whether you're a master artist or beginning artist, this is an excellent book.
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