Book Review: My Artist’s Works Toolkit by Julia Cameron
A little more than 15 years ago I was given a softback copy of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way by an artist/teacher/friend who loved it and felt sorry for me. At the time I was working corporate, commuting just under 4 hours per day and hating it. But I was also too scared to rock my little paddle boat to trust my lifelong creative energy. I’d heard from others that they had been able to change their lives based upon reading this book. But after finally achieving a modicum of equilibrium in life after my twenties, I didn’t feel so sure that this book would work for me.
I did not make a decision to seriously change my life or follow my bliss until about 10 years ago. Making this decision required that I be willing to suffer for this decision if need be. I wanted badly to be open to myself. But I had spent so many years adapting to someone else’s agenda that it would take me some time to rediscover how I really felt.
So I was anxious to see how I would interact with Julia Cameron’s online subscription version of this book as this would be the second time it had entered my life. I can tell you this online version has all the bells and whistles of an e-coach, if coaching is of interest. You will have a password and you will be able to access your entries in the cloud from any computer and from a mobile app.
The Toolkit allows you to enjoy recorded affirmations, inspiring statements to start the day and an organized system to capture random dream thoughts using free association as well as sequential journaling. And there is a huge community of Cameron supporters worldwide with whom readers might interact.
Best of all Cameron did a great job on ensuring that the whole process of turning inward is both personal and interactive. So if you can get beyond concerns about the privacy of your journaling, you are good.
I am a disorganized writer that could definitely be better served by this system. My writing however winds up on scraps of paper in different rooms, so I could not make the adjustment to make this interactive system work for me the way it was supposed to.
My Artist’s Way Toolkit dovetails philosophically with my belief that creativity and optimism are what propel us forward each day. I definitely would recommend this book.
Oh yes, I need to say that I was compensated for this review by Blogher but the opinions contained herein are very definitely my own.
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