Book Rev: The Artist’s Way + Be Nice to Yourself! by Kirsten Bett

When I began writing, my journals and conversations focused more on the lives of others than on my own. It took me ages to see my experiences as worthy of interest. Julia Cameron helped me immensely toward that end. Her The Artist’s Way, a 12-week creativity workbook, totally rocked my world. Eventually, the process spurred me beyond journalism and into novel writing (about my books here).

The number of Artist’s Way fans has grown exponentially since her first premiered in the early 1990s. She’s since gone on to publish a long list of variations on her initial theme. Her second one, The Vein of Gold: a Journey to Your Creative Heart, came at exactly the right time for me…

Her It’s Never Too Late takes things a step further. It coaches readers to review where they’ve been so they can dream of where to take their lives…

Kirsten Bett is another author who gleans much value from The Artist’s Way. As much from New Zealand as she is from the Netherlands, she’s published My Name is Wilma: I was called Willem for a day in both English and Dutch. Check out Kirsten’s site to learn more about her and her writing…

Be Nice to Yourself! by Kirsten Bett

Reading Week Seven of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, I came across a line that resonated with me:

“Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong.”

I love that line because I pushed myself to the edge and during these last months I have found out that the result is stress, injuries and feeling overwhelmed. The reason I pushed myself is that as an indie writer, I not only love writing but also the 500 other activities that come with self-publishing. And then there’s your partner, the household, daily walks, a grumpy cat who is not amused you changed his bulky chair for a stylish cat tree. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the 27 hours you put in each week as a customer service agent.

You shouldn’t overuse a precious object, you should treat it with care. On the list above, I ghosted my gym called Fit4Lady. The reason I have not been going is that I am recovering from a knee injury I got in May when walking with my friend Martine. I didn’t pay attention to the uneven road, and avoided falling in the ditch by twisting my knee.

Ding dong

A couple of days later it hurt so much, especially at night, so I went to see Tim, my manual therapist. He gave me some stretching exercises to lengthen the upper leg muscle. That was the one that was attached to the lower inside of my knee, and causing me so much pain. It’s hard to heal. Tim told me to be patient, my GP told me it could take up to six months.

Did I listen? No, of course not. Not until I was complaining to Tim that after only seven minutes of walking, the pain made me stop, and when I continued, it hurt even faster. He explained I wasn’t doing myself any favours, “Just walk around the block, and maybe a few days walk a bit longer.”

Ding dong, I finally got it. Yep:

“Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong.”

Get back your mojo

Being nice to myself means I now walk for 30 minutes and enjoy every step. The same goes for the indie-author process. It has been an eye-opener for me to be nice to myself as a writer. We often say: “Prioritise!” but that just means you still need to do everything on the list, and you don’t, not only that, you shouldn’t. You will get back your mojo if you don’t, then it’ll flow. 

I feel that the morning pages and weekly artist dates of The Artist’s Way have inspired joy back into my entire writing process. For those of you who aren’t familiar with either, the daily morning pages get the whining out of the way and clear the path for your creativity, and the weekly artist date with yourself regains your sense of joy, your creative spirit. 

Yesterday I was reviewing Wilma’s Tulip Field Days, a dark comedy adventure. Months ago, I had sent it to a beta-reader, a co-member of the Alliance of Independent Writers. She saw some issues with the timeline. I didn’t see it, so I put it away for a while. Coming back to it with kindness to myself, made it even fun to fix and I am happy with the result! Stressing to get things done just never is the answer, but treating yourself like a precious object is.

How kind are you to yourself?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1bKmdGi98yHTSe70pLcbyf?si=0cf963dc6d5546a7

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