The care and feeding of a creative beast are not tasks that should be left to chance.
My friend Sara and I started doing Julia Cameron’s “The Artists Way” workshop a few weeks ago. I discovered Cameron’s idea of “Morning Pages” via the Back to Work podcast.
I tried it for a few weeks and found it a healthy and inspiring process for me.
So I introduced it to Sara. And then we found the Artists Way course. So, long story short, we’re working our way through this pretty amazing course together, doing the daily assignments, cheering each other on with our morning pages, and checking in together once a week as part of our regular work. It’s cool stuff.
I’m finding the experience incredibly enlightening. I’ve been working as a creative since 1997, and If you’d have suggested to me that I needed a “creative recovery,” I would have laughed at you. And then I would have secretly gone home and cried. And yelled at someone who probably didn’t do anything wrong. And then cried again.
Let my hypothetical tears be a warning to you, folks, you have to feed your creative. If you’re in a creative industry, you’ve got to keep yourself engaged and inspired. That means more than trolling Pinterest for cool looking cupcakes between checking your email.
Feeding your creative means taking yourself on a terrifying process of self-rediscovery and acknowledging that it’s entirely possible you’re going to come out broken. Or fixed. But at least changed.
I think you’re worth it.