"The Artist’s Way” Week 2—Recovering a Sense of Identity

On this week’s episode of Creative Space, we’re diving into Chapter 2 of Julia Cameron’s seminal book on creativity, “The Artist’s Way.” The focus for this week is “Recovering a Sense of Identity,” and it’s all about self definition and setting boundaries as our desires and new interests come to light.

There is so much to cover but there are three core principles we’ll talk about: how outside forces block our creative growth (poisonous playmates and crazymakers), how inner forces block our creative growth (skepticism), and the tools available to us to grow in our creativity (attention).

My favorite quote from this chapter: “The quality of life is in capacity, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”

If you’re interested in reading "The Artist’s Way" and/or following along with the podcast as you complete the work, you can purchase it here.

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Transcript

Jennifer Logue: 0:10

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Creative Space, a podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together. I'm your host, Jennifer Loog, and just as a reminder for the next few weeks, we're going to be doing something different. On the podcast, I'm doing the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for the first time, and last week we talked about Chapter 1, Recovering a Sense of Safety, and this week we're diving into Week 2, Recovering a Sense of Identity. This chapter is all about self-definition and setting boundaries as our desires and new interests come to light. Julia Cameron breaks down a few key points in this chapter how other people can block this recovery of self, how we can block our own recovery of self and the gift of paying attention. On to the first part, how can other people block our recovery of self? While Cameron talks about poisonous playmates, these are people in our lives whose creativity is still blocked. Cameron compares them to a recovering alcoholic's friends at a bar they're not going to be celebrating their sobriety. So to protect your inner artist as it's becoming creatively unblocked, you need to limit your interactions with poisonous playmates. Then she defines another type of outside force that can get in the way of our creative recovery crazy makers, and they are just what they sound like. These are the people in our lives who love drama and don't respect boundaries. Julia Cameron then asks a very poignant question why would we hang around people like this if they're so destructive to our inner artist? She says that because we're that crazy ourselves and that self-destructive by associating with crazy makers and poisonous playmates. It's just another way for us to block ourselves from the challenge of a creative life of our own. We're like welcoming the distractions. So, anyway, interesting stuff.

Jennifer Logue: 2:19

Then Cameron dives into how we block our own creative recovery on the inside with skepticism. These are deeply held beliefs where we doubt ourselves, and these doubts can be small on the surface. For example, I'll share my own struggle with skepticism that's come up for me this week as I've done my morning pages and everything. It's that little voice in the back of my mind that says oh so you're singing and playing piano every day. Now, so what? And maybe you should stop messing around with music and focus on a more traditional career path before it's too late? Those are some of my secret doubts that I guess aren't so secret anymore, but I'm doing what Cameron suggests we do, Rather than stuff down these doubts and ignore them. She encourages us to examine them, Otherwise they will sabotage our creative recovery. So in this week, two of the artist's way recovering a sense of identity.

Jennifer Logue: 3:22

These first two ideas are essential to getting us unblocked. If we allow ourselves to be limited by others, we won't push past our creative blocks. And the same holds true for skepticism. If we doubt ourselves deep down, we'll hold ourselves back. And when we limit ourselves in these ways, there's so much of our identity that we're missing out on. There's so much to explore within ourselves, but we keep playing it safe at a surface level.

Jennifer Logue: 3:54

Now onto the third idea from this chapter that I absolutely love, and that is attention. Cameron says that oftentimes a creative block shows up as an addiction to fantasy. A great creative life is not aimless. It is centered on paying attention to the now, noticing and embracing the little things, the big things, right where we are.

Jennifer Logue: 4:21

There's one quote in the section that I had to repeat here, and I said it out loud when I was reading the chapter. I absolutely loved it because it really moved me, and the quote is the quality of life is in capacity, always to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention. Let me say that again. The quality of life is in capacity, always to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention. Oh, I love it. It has to go on my wall somewhere. Love this quote so much.

Jennifer Logue: 4:57

Great actors are experts at this. I remember when I was in acting school. One of the fundamental principles was living truthfully moment to moment, getting out of our heads, allowing ourselves to be moved moment to moment. Acting made me appreciate my everyday life so much more. When you get out of the past and out of the future, standing firmly in the now, that's where peace is and that's also where creativity is, where true flow is. And our lives become so much more fulfilling and vibrant when we pay attention. With social media and always being connected in this fast-paced world of ours, it's easy to get out of step with the present moment and doing this work.

Jennifer Logue: 5:44

In week two of the artist's way, I noticed that I'm paying attention and appreciating little things every day much more than I was. Like the morning light pouring through my kitchen window, dancing through a crystal glass of water and making a rainbow pattern on my island. These little moments make me smile. They're a delight, which brings me to another concept that I learned in acting school Pay attention to the things that break your heart and I'll add that bring you joy. From my perspective, these are all tied together when it comes to recovering our sense of identity as creatives. By knowing what moves us, we come to know ourselves in such a profound way. So that's all I have for this episode of Creative Space. Next week we'll be diving into Chapter 3 of the Artist's Way Recovering a Sense of Power. If you're interested in checking out the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and doing the work on your own, I've linked to it in the show notes. My name is Jennifer Loog. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to Creative Space Until next time.