The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart (Companion to The Artist’s Way)

Julia Cameron

ISBN 0-87477-836-0

Amazon link

This journey to your creative heart begins with a chapter about setting out on your journey. The basic tools of morning pages, weekly artist date, cluster list, walking daily, walking an hour-long walk weekly, walking prayerfully, manifesting, and your creativity commitment.

The main chapters of the book take us to the kingdoms of: 1) story, 2) sight, 3) sound, 4) attitude, 5) relationship, 6) spirituality, and 7) possibility.

The last chapter deals with breaking camp. In this chapter, the artist’s tribal rules are given.

The tribal rules are:

Survival rule number 1 is acceptance. “I seem to want to be an artist.” Accept the fact that you’re an artist and stop second guessing yourself. Just do it.

Survival rule number 2: Don’t Judge It. Focus on process, not product.

Survival rule number 3: Defend your process. Sooner or later, you’re going to run into somebody who won’t want you to do it, or will want you to do it only a certain way. Consider the source. Are the making your art? Do what you need to do.

Survival rule number 4: Never Let Anybody Tell You What To Create. Create for you. Create something every day.

Survival rule number 5: Maintain Your Creative Health. Artists are athletes. Creativity is like distance running. Log ten slow miles for every one fast mile. Consistency—process—builds stamina, what horse people call “bottom”, what we may call the bottom line. This brings us to:

Survival rule number 6: Grieve Your Losses. In any creative life there are losses. Some of them are grievous. Only one thing makes them go away—more creativity.

Survival rule number 7: Create for Revenge. Be a spiritual midget. Skewer the bastards. Create right at them.

Survival rule number 8: Remember That the Part of Us That Creates is An Inner Youngster. Allow your creative child to have playmates and playthings.

Survival rule number 9: Find Your Believing Mirrors and Stick Close to Them. You deserve a cheering section.

Survival rule number 10: Ignore the Odds. We are all equally sourced in an abundant Universe. Our dreams come from the God within, and that God has the power to fulfill them. Trust yourself. Accept divine help from whatever human source offers it, remembering always that God is the Great Creator—and artists love other artists.

]]> http://changemakergroups.com/2008/09/the-vein-of-gold-a-journey-to-your-creative-heart/feed/ 0 http://changemakergroups.com/2008/09/the-little-book-of-letting-go/ http://changemakergroups.com/2008/09/the-little-book-of-letting-go/#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:45:03 +0000 admin http://changemakergroups.com/?p=282

The Little Book of Letting Go: A Revolutionary 30-Day Program to Cleanse Your Mind, Lift Your Spirit, and Replenish Your Soul

Hugh Prather

ISBN: 157324-503-8

Amazon link

Hugh Prather and his wife, Gayle, have been sharing their spirituality for almost 40 years. He is the resident minister at St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church in Tucson, Arizona.

The contents include sections for letting go of: problems, fear of letting go, worry, our first reaction, motivation through crisis, money anxiety and travel worries, anticipated and unanticipated emotions, victim-perception, word magic, stories, neglect, fear of happiness, t-thoughts; I, me, and mine; outcomes, relationship battles you aren’t having, useless blocks to relationship, sticky thoughts, gloom, rigid responses and limited answers, “turning it over”, scattered thinking, blame and damage, body thoughts, t-thoughts, spiritual attainment, “higher” path, “spiritual” laws of success, our personal struggle.

From letting go: the basics:

“Within the human heart, we all feel the call to be simple, to be present, to be real. Yet throughout the day, the world urges us to be at war with ourselves and each other” “Be resentful about the past.” “Be anxious about the future.” “Be hungry for what you don’t see.”

“Be dissatisfied with what you do see.” “Be guilty.” “Be important.”

“Be bored.” “Be right.” Little else in nature exhibits this need to be more that it is. The simplicity of rain, the clarity of a star, the effortlessness of s bird, the single-mindedness of an ant—all are just what they are.”

From letting of problems:

“To “become like a little child” is merely to relinquish our need to judge all things, change all things, and be right on all occasions. This removes the blocks we put on our capacity to enjoy, or at least to be still and at peace.”

“There are only three things you need to let go: judging, controlling, and being right. Release these three and you will have the whole mind and twinkly heart of a child.”

Prather defines t-thoughts as a core belief that we developed at some point in our lives, usually doing our formative lives, that now stands in the way of our experiencing unity and peace. When something happens during the day to trigger a t-thought, it automatically clicks on, like a tape or a computer program. If we are not aware of its activity, the set of emotions it produces controls our decisions and outlook. (page 95)

From letting go of t-thoughts:

“There is no way to perfect egos. Nor is there any reason to. Why would you want to perfect an imaginary playmate? Would that get rid of it? Certainly not. Likewise, there is no need to make a project of your ego and attempt to perfect an imaginary identity. Just seeing it clearly will show you that you don’t want it; don’t need it; and don’t have to fear it.”