Julia Cameron: It’s Never Too Late To Begin Again
Miriam Knight: Throughout the book you give a lot of examples from your students as they were going through this process, which was really very helpful in illuminating how you can use it for yourself. You had one student who was really reluctant to revisit her traumatic childhood, and you said, “Go ahead, and then promise me that you’ll get a therapist if you need it.”
Julia Cameron: Right. One of the things that I found is that people with an incest background may find it threatening to try writing about it. And I coax them, “Oh, please try. Just give it a little try.” And they may find themselves nervous. And I say to them, “Well, get some support for yourself, then, but keep doing the process.”
Miriam Knight: The combination of writing it and getting that anger out is kind of like self-psychoanalysis. And you do invoke Jung every so often. Julia Cameron: Well, what I say is that I don’t think the book is therapy per se, but it is therapeutic. And so I find that when people are willing to start digging into their past, they discover all sorts of treasures. They learn, “Oh when I was 12 I loved drawing. Gee, maybe I can try a little drawing now.”
Miriam Knight: I should point out that you describe many, many ways in the book of expressing creativity. It doesn’t have to be writing or painting. It can be baking!
Julia Cameron: Yes. I think what we’re after is we want people to realize that whatever form their expression takes, it can be viewed as creative – we had people redecorating their houses, moving their furniture, repainting a kitchen chair a more vivid color. We have people adding window boxes. We have people say, “Gee, I wish I had a pet.” And having a pet can be a very potent form of healing.
Miriam Knight: So, this isn’t just about being creative. This is actually about living well beyond retirement or as you move into the next phase of your life.
Julia Cameron: Yes. What I say is that we’re practicing creativity and that our life, in effect, becomes our work of art.
Miriam Knight: Now, do you think that everybody can be creative, and what are the biggest blocks to creativity?
Julia Cameron: I have never taught a student who didn’t have some form of creativity. So, I think, yes; everyone is creative, and we all have what you might want to call an inner child that’s longing to play. Now, the most common blocks to creativity tend to be a sense of fear. We have a mythology in our country that artists are fearless, and they’re born knowing that they’re artists. And so then, if I say, “Well, you feel some fear,” does that mean you’re not an artist? And the answer is no. Artists are people who have learned to live through their fears. And we don’t necessarily have artists who are born knowing they are artists. We may have people who realize far later than birth that they have a creative yearning.
Miriam Knight: And how about this quote from George Eliot, the delightful female writer who wrote, “It’s Never Too Late To Be What You Might Have Been.” That resonated so much with me, Julia, as did your title, It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again, because as we age we feel it’s all behind us. How does this perception impede rediscovering our creativity? How do you best overcome it?
Julia Cameron: Well, I think this is where we–I sound a little bit like a fanatic because I say, “Start writing morning pages.” And when people write morning pages, they discover that they had many interesting thoughts and ideas, and they begin to become fascinated by themselves.
Miriam Knight: Right. You also are a big proponent of taking a walk.
Julia Cameron: Well, this is something I found–when I wrote The Artist’s Way it was 1992. And I wrote, “Do morning pages, take artist’s dates.” And then, all the way in week 12, the very last week of the course, I said, “P.S. exercise.” So, in the teaching that I’ve done in the years since then, I found that exercise is a much more important component of the creative awakening than I had realized. So, I assign people two 20-minute walks. Twice a week take yourself out for a walk. And what I find happens is that when people are walking, they integrate the insights, the intuitions, the hunches, the breakthroughs of the other two tools.
