3. Dig Into Your Raw Power
- Claire Guerin
- Apr 1, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 11, 2024
With The Artist's Way, find the power that drives your creativity. In my series of blog posts, "Journey Through The Artist's Way", I invite you along my odyssey on Julia Cameron's workbook, The Artist's Way. If you're new, welcome aboard! You might want to read the introduction first, or you'll be lost.
We humans are but tiny specks in the face of the universe's vastness and agelessness. Still, there is power in every single one of us. Power to do things. Power to stand up for what we believe in. Power to help others, to show kindness. Power to create.
Do you feel like you don't have any power? Do you feel like you're a leaf in the stream of creation?* Then read on.
*If you don't get the reference, go watch Dirk Gently now and let me know what you thought of it in the comments. If you do get the reference, go watch Dirk Gently again and tell me all the reasons why you love it in the comments. If you hate Dirk Gently… Why???
In her third chapter, Recovering A Sense Of Power, Julia Cameron touches upon the sources of our individual power to create, and gives us tools to tap into our full potential for creativity.
So, where can one draw inner power from? The answer might seem obvious: from your own emotions. Whatever you may think, your feelings work for you, not against you. It's all a matter of learning to listen to them, understand them, and act upon them accordingly. One of the most powerful feelings Julia explores is that of anger. I find this set of three selected sentences summarises her point perfectly:
"Anger shows us what our boundaries are."
"Anger points the way, not just the finger."
"Anger is meant to be acted upon, It is not meant to be acted out."
So remember, next time you get angry, don't shove it down or try to hide it: embrace it! Your anger is trying to tell you something. Listen to the feeling, understand its roots and use that power to act in your best interests.
Another feeling linked to your inner creative power is shame. I can already see you raise your eyebrow and go like, "uh, gurl, shame is like, the opposite of power." Yeah girl, but ask yourself: where does this shame come from? It's certainly not innate, rather it's a nail that has been hammered into our very bones from early on, by our culture, society, morale and collective fears. Shame in what you create does not mean that your creation is wrong, quite the contrary. It means it's right, and it makes people uncomfortable. It means you're shedding light on a darkness others pretend isn't there. But it is, and you know it, embrace it, and use it to create something powerful.
That also means, we shouldn't let others shame our creations, and our responsibility as artist's is to learn to deal with unfair criticism. That is not to say we should avoid or disregard criticism altogether. No. Actually, power can come from useful, on point criticism. Have you ever been stuck on a work of yours, knowing it doesn't quite work, and then an outsider puts in words the very thing that was bothering you? If you have, then you must be familiar with the feeling of relief mixed with revelation and newfound energy: now you know what to do to make your creation work! To find this power, you first have to learn to weed out the unfair and destructive criticism.
This is actually interesting, as this week I have experienced such power, not in my creative endeavours, but at work. I used to be terrified of criticism on my work. I felt it was a criticism on me, that it meant I wasn't good enough and I might be fired because I wasn't perfect. But this mindset has changed, as I realised with delight at the beginning of this week. I had delivered a product, which got tested, and feedback came with some changes to implement. And how happy I was to receive that feedback! How eager I was to improve the product!
If you have felt similar power out of constructive criticism, please share in the comments! I'd love to hear your powerful success stories!
Morning Pages
I haven't been keeping up so well with my morning pages. In my defence, late season flu hit me hard, and I was not able to maintain any of my good habits. This is probably not the inspiring story about power you were expecting from this week. Me neither. In fact, you may have noticed that this post is a whole week late. Here's what happened: I kept stressing out about not being able to deliver the blog post in time, and the anxiety and guilt did nothing to improve my recovery or motivation. When I finally acknowledged it to myself, and decided to simply "take a break" from the Artist's Way, a surge of relief went over me, and suddenly everything seemed possible again. And that, I believe, was a form of power. The power to decide to take a break when the body isn't following, to say 'no'.
I did manage to write morning pages in the days before I got sick however, and there is a recurring theme in those: I have been writing story ideas. New ideas, coming from dreams or daydreaming. I'm not quite sure the morning pages are intended to be creations in and of themselves (or at least, drafts of creations), but since it's all about rekindling our creativity, I would say this was a success for me this week… And let me tell you, I did feel the fire of my artist power burn inside. Not the outburst of flames and explosions that destroy your house in mere minutes, nothing so dramatic. But rather, the consistency of hot coals that keep you warm all throughout the night.
And this is what I'm looking for in my creativity: something stable, constant. I don't want to wait around for months for the next surge of inspiration to find me. I want to nurture inspiration, keep it with me at all times, grow it.
How does your creativity work? How and when does it come to you?
Artist's Date
You may remember I promised you a big date in the previous post, a secret plan I was excited and looking forward to. You'll be disappointed, though not as much as I am, that it had to be rescheduled due to my catching the flu. I will not tell you when it's scheduled this time, to avoid any further disappointment, though I am quite sure it won't be rescheduled a second time. Rest assured, I will let you know when I do have this Artist's Date.
I may have flunked that date, but do not despair! I'm not coming empty handed. I'd been ambitious this week, and had planned more than one Artist's Date, one of which to come to pass because it was scheduled before the big flu.
Wednesday 20th of March was the World Storytelling Day. If you know me, you probably know I'm a sucker for storytelling. It never fails to transport me into a new world, in a way similar yet different from how books managed to. The live setting, the storyteller's voice, their body language… Everything delights me in a story well told. I find myself back in childhood, which is actually something Julia tells us to look for in this week's chapter (I'll tell you more about this in the Growth Tasks section).
On that day, I went to a storytelling evening organised by the amazing @storytrooper and @the_grand_pillow_society. The show, called The Blame Game, was unlike any performance I'd seen before. Seven storytellers and a musician came together to weave a tale of love, control, power, betrayal and untimely death. It is up to the public to decide who is to blame in this untangled story where everyone could have acted differently.
A great thank you to Xina and The Grand Pillow Society for letting me use their photos of the event. Follow them on Instagram for amazing storytelling events and workshops in the Netherlands! @storytrooper and @the_grand_pillow_society
What I found most fascinating is how, rather than bringing us closer to a kind of truth, the heated debate between the members of the crowd revealed more of each one's beliefs and way to see the world. No matter the characters' compelling cases for themselves, we all found ourselves entrenched in our initial opinion, unwilling to bulge. In fact, the character's stories only tended to confirm our opinions on who was to blame for the untimely death in the story. However, when back at home and alone with my thoughts, I found myself thinking over and over on the conundrum. I may still blame the same character for the death, yet my view is more nuanced, influenced by the other point of views I discovered that evening. They say that art can change minds, what do you think? Have you ever been shocked and shook by a movie, a painting, a book, that it remains with you to this day and heeds you to consider a different side of a truth? If so, please share in the comments. I'll make sure to check out that revolutionary artwork!
Growth Tasks
I realise I have not been very open about what exactly the tasks consist of in the previous posts. The reason for this is simple: I do not want to encroach on Julia Cameron's livelihood by exposing her method here. The goal of this blog isn't to give you a free copy of a workbook I do not own the rights to, but rather to encourage you to explore your own creativity, be as open as possible with my journey to show you that you too can do it, and to give an honest report of my experience with the workbook, so that you can decide for yourself whether or not it's something you'd like to pick up.
"Failure is not an option, it is mandatory. The option is whether or not you let failure be the last thing you do." — Howard Tayler, The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries
However, I do understand how frustrating it must be to read me write about something without telling you exactly what it is. So I'm going to try a new method here: instead of listing the Growth Tasks for the week, I will give you sneak peeks into what I have done. So buckle up, we're going to review my week in fast forward!
I went back to my childhood. Bought myself some cushion cereals (at least that's what I call them), which I loved as a child (and apparently, still do as an adult). I was brought down memory lane to that time when I slapped a schoolmate who was pushing everyone around for fun. It calmed it straight away. I still remember his red cheek and the "I'll slit your throat" sign he gave me during class. I do not condone violence of any kind, and this is the only time I ever hit someone (other than by accident and followed by profuse apologies), but it did feel powerful. Not the part where I hurt someone else, I actually remember feeling terrible about it. I had stood up for myself, which is something I liked in myself as a kid. I hope I will remember to do that more as an adult (without the slapping).
What about you? Do you have any childhood memory where you felt powerful?
I also called an amazing, supportive and inspiring friend that week. In a low moment, I sent her a text asking if she'd be available for an impromptu call, and she immediately accepted. That's how awesome she is. She'll recognize herself reading this.
I discovered a bunch of traits I admire in others and would like to cultivate in myself. Here they are, in no particular order or importance:
Do I feel more powerful after these exercises? Maybe not yet, but I want to believe that being mindful about their outcome will bring about some sense of inner power down the line.
Thank you for reading. Stay tuned for week three of my Journey Through The Artist's Way, coming next week!
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