My attempt at a book review

At the beginning of the year, it was recommended to me that I start reading the “Artists Way” by Julia Cameron. The book is marketed as a course in discovering and recovering your creative self. As already mentioned, I wasn’t in the best of places emotionally. I was, quite frankly, ready to try anything that would help me unblock and move forward in my life. The biggest part of the book is the commitment to write three pages every single day which are called ‘morning pages’. As the book describes “these daily morning meanders are not meant to be art.” The basic idea is that you simply commit yourself to write whatever comes to mind every morning; no matter how stupid, how negative or how insignificant you feel your ramblings may be (quantity rather than quality). Nobody is supposed to read these pages and they even suggest that you don’t go back and read them yourself. The intention of these morning pages is to help you begin to tap into your creative side. I personally felt like they sounded like….umm a pretty dumb waste of time…( I was already waking up 5.30 every morning to meditate- what more is a girl supposed to do? )…never the less I decided to put on my big girl panties just give it go. ( I certainly had nothing to lose- and everything to gain) What particularly sold it for me was reading all the wonderful reviews of people that had made incredible progress in their lives simply by doing them.

I have to be honest my morning pages and I didn’t have a very good start to our relationship. I just looked back at my first ever entry ( I’m not supposed to look….I know…..I have never been very good at following rules🙈👩‍⚖️) which was written on the 12 of February this year, (Incidentally my recently deceased mothers birthday.) I kid you not it went something like this: 
“So I seriously have to keep this stupid f *%”@*% journal and write three pages a day. I don’t want to do it. I feel bloody angry…this really is a complete and utter waste of time☠️😡“ The entire first three pages were, needless to say, “black closet day rantings”….(mostly moaning about having to write those stupid pages. Waking up at 5 am was not my idea of fun!) I took solace in the fact that the Julia Cameron said it was ok if we didn’t enjoy them, as long as we just say whatever it was we needed to say until the three pages were up. She also said that the students that often had the most resistance to the pages often came to love them the best. (Boy did I cling to that hope😳).

So I made the decision that I just had to stick with them for 40 days. I didn’t always manage to do them in the morning, I did forget on the odd day or two….but, on the whole, I was pretty amazed to find that I actually did start to enjoy them and LOW AND BEHOLD – those stupid pages- they did actually work.😉 I usually get uncomfortable when people say one thing “changed their lives” because ultimately, for me, it is never as simplistic as just that. There is usually a network of things that we do that might culminate in a sudden change at a certain time….but this book most definitely played a huge part in changing my life! I can’t quite explain why….I have journaled for years and never felt such a such a significant shift in my thinking and emotions. Maybe it was the hand to paper action, maybe the time was finally just right or just maybe Julia Cameron truly has written an amazing, inspiring book. I found my ramblings starting to get less negative. I began to include positive affirmations into my writing, I started focusing on how great my life is rather than focusing on what I perceived to be lacking. My dreaded black closet days definitely reduced in frequency and I was more able to remind myself that ‘they too would pass.’ The best part was that I started to come up with small creative ideas that I wanted to start initiating in my life…and I actually started doing them. As Julia says: ” The paradox is that on starting the course so many people start off worrying about their “lack the discipline” to do morning writing. When, however, you are willing to try writing anyway, you find soon enough that morning writing does not take discipline– but it does make discipline. “

I still haven’t finished the book. I am trying to do one chapter a week….and enjoying the process. Ironically when I sat down to do my chapter today it was all about “Recovering a sense of connection”….I had to smile because I have never felt more connected and grateful for all the wonderful supportive people in my life as I have this last week…..and I’m only halfway through the book.

In case it isn’t obvious I give this book a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thanks for listening 
Have an awesome week🤩🧚‍♀️💘💞

Ps How did I do Kerrin😉?