The Artist's Way - and We Are All Artists (continued)

The more we write, the less self-consciousness we become. We need to constantly ask ourselves, “How do I feel?” - Remembering that the path to creativity is through the heart not through the head. As we begin to trust the process, the discipline of writing this way reveals feelings, longings, and dreams we did not know we had. They are not about anyone else. They are just about us. The pages have a silent whisper -- “To thine own self be true.”

In this quiet place, we meet ourselves. It is there that we contact the creative self. Until we experience the freedom of solitude, we cannot connect authentically. Cameron says, “Art lies in the moment of encounter, we meet our truth and we meet ourselves, we meet ourselves and we meet our self-expression, we become original -- an origin from which work flows."

Sometimes we will hear ourselves saying, “I don’t know who I am. I don’t recognize myself." Sometimes we just start getting rid of things, throwing things away. All this is okay. This is our new sense of identity saying the old stuff won’t work anymore. If we want to do and be something new, we cannot keep doing the same old stuff. There is a strange feeling that something wonderful is happening and yet everything is still simmering, still under the surface.

By staying with the discipline, we navigate this critical juncture -- the old way does not work anymore but we are not quite sure what the new way is. This place in limbo will unnerve us if we focus on goals rather than process. As the artist who paints, writes or sculpts, we must surrender to the process and know that the process will reveal our next step.

Connecting with the artist inside is like a jolt of spiritual consciousness. There is nothing that makes us feel more alive and connected then when we are doing what we are meant to do. We are in the moment (and at least for the moment) we are no longer one step away from the action.