"The Artist's Way Week 9"—Recovering a Sense of Compassion

On this week’s episode of Creative Space, we’re diving into Chapter 9 of Julia Cameron’s seminal book on creativity, “The Artist’s Way.” The focus for this week is “Recovering a Sense of Compassion.”

There is so much to cover but there are three principles we’ll talk about: fear, enthusiasm, and creative u-turns.

One of my favorite quotes from this chapter: “A productive artist is quite often a happy person. This can be very threatening as a self-concept to those who are used to getting their needs met by being unhappy.”

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.

For more on me, your host and creative coach, visit: jenniferlogue.com.

Transcript

Exploring Creativity Through Compassion

Jennifer Logue 0:11

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 Logue , and just as a reminder for the next few weeks , we are going to be doing something different . On the podcast , I'm doing the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for the first time . Last week we talked about Chapter 8 , Recovering a Sense of Strength , and this week we're diving into Week 9 , recovering a Sense of Compassion . Diving into week 9 , recovering a sense of compassion . I'm going to touch on a few of the core principles in this chapter fear , enthusiasm and creative U-turns Fear .

Jennifer Logue 0:58

On the topic of fear , cameron says we need to call things by their correct labels if we ever want to recover as artists . Often we'll mistake our inability to create for laziness , and this perspective is cruel , and she encourages us to have more compassion for ourselves . As she says , blocked artists are not lazy , they are blocked , and when you're a blocked artist , you put out a ton of energy being blocked instead of working on your art , and this could look like energy spent on self-hatred , regret , grief , jealousy and my favorite , self-doubt . I'm not sure if this happens to anyone else , but I spend way too much time analyzing projects I'm about to take on . It would be way more fun to just spend more of that time just creating , but I would love to know your thoughts there . Can you relate to spinning your wheels in any of those areas ? Then Cameron says do not call the inability to start laziness . Call it fear . This is what she calls the true name for what is blocking an artist , and it could be fear of failure , or fear of success , or even fear of abandonment , which has roots in childhood . Maybe becoming an artist was to go against what your parents wanted for you . So there's this lingering guilt that carried over into adulthood . She also highlights these two ideas the need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist . The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all . No-transcript , and she ends this section with the only cure for fear , and that is love . Love your inner artist . Take baby steps to get started . Ask for help from your higher power , your friends who support you , and from yourself .

Jennifer Logue 3:26

Enthusiasm this may be my favorite section in the book , the one on enthusiasm , and Cameron opens it up by outlining the dangers of aligning your artistic self-image with discipline . I'll read a passage to better explain . As artists , grounding our self-image in military discipline is dangerous . In the short run , discipline may work , but it will only work for a while . By its very nature , discipline is rooted in self-admiration . We admire ourselves for being so wonderful . The discipline itself , not the creative outflow , becomes the point that part of us that creates best is not a driven , disciplined automaton functioning from willpower with a booster of pride to back it up . This is operating out of self-will . She goes on to say that being an artist is more about enthusiasm than discipline . Enthusiasm is a loving surrender to our creative process and it means filled with God . So , rather than being a disciplined automaton , our inner artist is our inner child , our inner playmate , and joy will form a lasting bond , not duty . But it is a balance . I mean we still need to take care of the quantity of our work and let our higher power take care of the quality . So we still need to show up , but it's all about how we furnim it . She gives this example , saying to her inner artist I'll meet with you at 6am and we'll goof around with the script , sculpture , song , whatever it is you're working on . The more we treat our work like play and make our process fun , the more likely we are to stick with it Creative U-turns . So the next concept Cameron addresses is very important for those of us in artistic recovery the creative U-turn . We can't sabotage our progress , all this progress we've made so far with the Artist's Way .

Jennifer Logue 5:36

A great quote here is a productive artist is quite often a happy person . This can be very threatening as a self-concept to those who are used to getting their needs met by being unhappy . That actually may be my favorite quote in this chapter . We need to let go of the fringe benefits we enjoyed as blocked artists . Like maybe we've become addicted to sympathy . We'd rather be a victim , a blocked artist , than having to constantly be productive and healthy .

Jennifer Logue 6:08

A creative U-turn can show up as a wave of indifference , like in my case . I can belittle the progress I've made with songwriting . I hadn't finished a complete song since the pandemic and having completed a few now , it's a huge leap forward for me creatively . But I could sabotage myself by saying , ah , it's not that big of a deal . Most other artists are so far ahead of you , why keep wasting your time ? But we can't stop working . We have to keep moving forward .

Jennifer Logue 6:39

She gives a few examples in the book . Maybe one will resonate with you . A screenwriter has an agent interested in repping a script with just a few changes , and the writer doesn't make the changes . Or a painter gets invited to his first group show and picks a fight with the gallery owner and this happened to me . A lyricist works with a new composer and they write three great songs together , and then they stop working together . I mean , and now I'm thinking maybe I should be reaching out to my favorite songwriting collaborators again you have to be persistent , cameron advises

Creative Space

Jennifer Logue 7:21

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Jennifer Logue 7:21

When faced with a creative U-turn , ask yourself who can I ask for help ? The ego , as she says , always claims self-sufficiency and would rather be a creative loner than ask for help . So ask for help , so ask for help . Anyway , that's all I have for this episode of Creative Space . Next week we'll be diving into Chapter 10 of the Artist's Way , recovering a Sense of Self-Protection . If you're interested in checking out the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and doing the work on your own 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 Logue . Appreciate you taking the time to listen to Creative Space . Until next time , thank you .