Last week I announced that I completed Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. (And yes, it took me three years to do it. But I finished it and I’m very proud.)

Today’s issue is Part 2 of my deep dive into my experience with the book.

Just in case you missed it: 

The Artist’s Way is a 12-week creative recovery system disguised as a book. It’s a spiritual + psychological + emotional reconditioning program for people who feel disconnected from their creativity.

At its core, it’s built on this belief: Creativity isn’t something you “learn.” It’s something you unblock.

What did I learn from reading The Artist’s Way?

I’d actually reframe this question to be: what broke open for you emotionally?

1. Safety changes everything.
I started to understand that play, creativity, and expression don’t come from motivation — they come from nervous-system safety. 

When I feel safe, my inner child can create. When I don’t, I try to protect myself. A lot of my “blocks” were just self-protection wearing different masks.

2. Confident decisions reorganize reality.
Something shifted when I noticed how life responds to clarity. Not to wishing. Not to thinking. Not to planning. But to choosing. 

Real decisions create momentum when you’re willing to take the first step. They invite alignment. They generate movement where there was stagnation.

3. I learned how to trace my inner voice.
The book taught me how to follow self-criticism back to its source. To ask where it came from. Who introduced it. Why I believed it. That process changed how I relate to my thoughts. Some of them carry wisdom. 

Many of them are just old recordings I had to learn how to let go.

4. I became aware of destabilizing energy.
There are people who unconsciously (and sometimes consciously) create confusion, doubt, and emotional volatility around them. Learning to recognize that it’s not my responsibility to heal unresolved energy changed how I choose proximity, access, and emotional boundaries.

If it disrupts my peace for too long, I release it now with ease. 

5. Time stopped feeling like an enemy.
The idea that life has an expiration date on becoming who you’re meant to be quietly dissolved. The pressure softened. The panic faded. I stopped experiencing time as a closing door and started experiencing it as open terrain.

That’s why this 40 year old had the confidence to choose a new dream and start over. Yes, It’s scary, but this is my life and I’m going to design it to be as enjoyable as possible. 

Would you recommend The Artist’s Way?

This is a hard one.

I’m the most aligned I’ve ever been in my life. My work feels more like me than ever. And I have a renewed relationship with spirituality, God, my ancestry and how that connection shows up in my work.

But baby — my life also literally fell apart.

Everything that was out of alignment started to fall away. And that process was incredibly challenging. There was so much heartbreak and I had to mourn all the versions of myself I lost.

For me, though, it was worth it. 

My only real regret is that I wish I’d done it sooner.

Because the person I am now, on the other side of all that transition and change, is the version of me I’ve always wanted to be.

So if you’re willing to risk blowing up everything you know in order to truly connect with the artist you’re meant to become — yes, I think it’s for you.

It will change you in the best ways.

If that sounds too scary right now, maybe don’t try it.

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Not a podcast.
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It’s to send them.

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or grab it free inside the Reset Society ($10/mo).

My Critiques of The Artist’s Way

1. There’s lots of God language
I grew up Southern Baptist, so it wasn’t a hiccup for me, but If you don’t believe in a higher power, this book may be challenging. She references God in almost every chapter and in most of the questions. 

2. You can’t just read it
This isn’t a book you casually read — you have to do it. And the exercises that are hardest to do are usually the ones you need the most.

They’re the ones that lead to the biggest breakthroughs.

For example, there was an exercise where she asks you to make a collage. I skipped it for over a year. When I finally did it, I realized collage is one of my favorite ways to express myself.

3. The timeline is unrealistic

The book is incredibly dense. I genuinely don’t understand how anyone could complete it in three months. That feels impossible — unless you’re unemployed and treating it like a full-time job.

But I will say this. Whenever I picked the book up after an extended break, the next section I read was EXACTLY what I needed to learn for that next phase in the journey. 

Final Thoughts

Finishing The Artist’s Way feels like coming home to myself.

It gave me language for things I’d felt for years but couldn’t name.

It changed how I move through my work, my choices, and my inner life.

And I don’t think I’ll ever relate to my creativity the same way again.

To close us out this week, I want you to answer this journal prompt: Write a letter to the part of you that has been afraid to create. What does it need to hear in order to feel safe enough to start again?

Then head over to the Reset Society Skool and tell me how it went.