Turning your unconscious thoughts into conscious and organized, articulated thoughts.
I have not read Julia Cameron’s fantastic book in years. The echos of the process, however, reverberate in my heart and head all day long. I write. I read. I explore.
I am learning to listen more.
In the morning pages, we are introduced to a process that begins to build a conversation between you and your conscious/unconscious mind. In Cameron’s book, the words are less important than the practice. You are beginning to engage the writing mind. The capture. The expression of you. In the early going, it’s best not to put to much focus on the content, but get into the groove of the process. Again, you should get the book, but here’s my summary.
When you arise in the morning, spend 15 – 30 minutes writing. Just write. Don’t think. Unthink. Unlearn what you know about writing, or poety, or prose. Just put the words down. In my experience, using a pen and paper gives one more layer of humanism to the mix. That’s it. Repeat as often as possible and see what happens. She suggests you don’t really go back and read your morning pages, but I’ve found gems along the way. I think the biggest point is to NOT LET YOUR EDITOR SLOW YOUR FLOW.
Don’t get to hung up on “what will I do with this great piece of writing” and more aligned with “what might emerge from my beautiful mind if I just gave it a voice. That’s the essence of the morning pages. Write. Allow your thoughts, dreams, words, images, to flow out of you on to the page. Then drop the page in the ocean and continue on your journey.
As you continue cultivating this mind/body connection things will evolve. You will get better at listening to your own thoughts. You will get better at expressing your dreams, fears, and random tidbits.
Your voice will emerge.
That’s one of the goals. Understand and find your OWN UNIQUE voice.
For me, the other goal of writing is to organize my thoughts and dreams into imagined architectures of the mind. I set up skyscrapers of opportunity. Unfilled floors stretching up into the sky. Like this new creative motion (Artistsway.ai) of how to use the emerging AI tools to enhance and propel your human creativity, not replace it.
The digital transformation has made us all lazy learners, impatient listeners, and too busy to pay attention to what our soul needs. We are lacking a strong connection with our own hearts. All this scrolling, swiping, binge-watching, has numbed us to our own inner creativity. Here’s where my idea comes into play.
Disconnect. Unplug.
Not a social media diet, a full stop. Freeze.
When you are not constantly stimulated by news media, social media, job demands, and relationship demands, you can seek a quiet that will give your own thoughts a chance to develop and set up architectures of your own. By becoming quiet, stilling your own life, even for the 15 minutes of writing, once a day, you are cultivating a deep understanding of yourself.
What do you want for your life? How would your creative expression develop if you had no limits?
Here’s another real bonus. Writing costs you nothing but time.
Writing makes the unconscious conscious. Ongoing writing begins to build healthy habits and stronger connections between you and your… bear with me… soul. Your heart and soul wants to express itself. It’s what makes you human. It’s what’s so different from ANY AI SYSTEM they can develop. Your human mind and human soul is connected in some way to the human soul, god, the Universe. You’ve got to listen for the signals in your life, give voice to the things that excite or terrify you, and then see what emerges from the architectures you begin assembling.
First, write.
John McElhenney – artist
next up: learning to dream – capture and release
prompt for image: minimal woodcut of a woman in a red beret writing at the table in a journal with a cup of coffee steaming beside her
Watch this space. Our partners at iterativ.ai and isthisart.ai are hard at work getting our training and enablement system up and ready for beta testers. If you’d like to be among the first to try ArtistWay.AI please reach out to [email protected]. We will send invites as the system comes online in early 2025.
You may also be interested in the Write.Now Group.
From the minds of
