If you are not a professional artist, you may look at creativity as a luxury. It is not. Creativity is a necessity.

Everyone on the planet is a professional creative being of some sort. All of life is a creative activity. Every decision, every movement, every way you process sensory information and understand every second of life is creative.

When we get blocked creatively and we know we are blocked, there is a rift between all we know we should be making, doing and experiencing and what we can actually experience.  The words won’t flow out on a page.  The paint doesn’t move as you want it to move.  The notes sound flat when you sing them.  It is enormously frustrating, it can drive us to quitting our crafts, it can create anxiety, depression… drive us to drink, to anger, to confusion.

And the farther we get lost in what isn’t working artistically, the deeper we dig ourselves in a hole.  I’ve dug many holes, quit many projects and spun in great confusion.

Even if you are not an “artist” by trade, you can feel the same blah, depressed, stuck, frustrated feelings.  Your job may be robotic.  Your life may feel monotonous.

Everyone is creative.  And when we get stuck, we have to find a way to un-stick ourselves.

Enter The Artists’s Way, Julia Cameron’s nearly miraculous book of creative excavation that has helped me get unstuck time and again. The Artist’s Way is not just a book you  read….it is a book you use.  In twelve weeks, The Artist’s Way takes you through the entire creative process from every angle, and helps you to literally de-clutter your creative mind, transform negatives into positives and uncover your voice in the world.

I’ve written a ton about this book, including a big piece about Feng Shui and The Artist’s Way that you can read HERE (and you’ll see the first childhood oil painting I ever made!) . Also, if you read the blog you know I tout the benefits of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages journal exercise as a game-changer for most everyone.

I’ve gone through this book eight times, and each has been a revelation. My own bullet-point journey through the book in very small part:

• I started booking commercials and hosting an internet music show the first time through.
• I finished a screenplay that I got a huge deal for(and decided not to take)- but I finished it!- the second time through.
• I started studying feng shui the third time through. And working with art again, running a big gallery.
• I healed from a major illness time four through.
• The fifth time I  had lots of personal breakthroughs. Six as well.
• Time seven I started this blog…and everything that came along with it in terms of a creative endeavor and a business.
• And the eighth I finished my first feng shui  e-guide and started on projects you have yet to see but will hopefully see very soon!
• Next… my Catalyst Camp, Cash Camp and all my Mind Body Green courses sprung forth in a big wave that was the most prodictive year in terms of “making” in my life…!
• And now… I’m open to the magic that ensues…!

The absolute coolest thing that happened my first time through the book: I reached out to my grade school “Academic Enrichment” teacher in New Jersey.  I hadn’t seen her since I was 12 years old. I tracked down her address and sent her a note.  Three weeks later a giant envelope appeared at my doorstep. She had saved everything I wrote in third  through sixth grade.  It was insane. She said for some reason she thought she should keep it, and suddenly I had this huge file of my history. Some of the stories I wrote (did my mom drop acid?) were extremely psychedelic, super poetic and many sort of predicted my life exactly as it unfolded many years later… and still is.

You never know what you’ll find when you open up your creative spirit and give the little kid inside you room to breathe again!

This simple book brings me tremendous discipline, momentum and peace.  It serves as a reminder to keep things organized, to stay light, to be my own best friend not my worst critic…and to try things. And keep trying them. It is a book that teaches you how to take risks in a fresh way. Creative risks can turn into majorly awesome turning points in life.

If you have never done it before, give yourself a gift and take the time to give The Artist’s Way a shot.  You won’t know how blocked you actually are until you unblock!

xoxo Dana

PS: If you want to join me this Summer for a trip through The Artists Way, I’m leading a feng shui infused private Facebook group through The Artist’s Way starting right now… for everyone who’s reading & doing my creative feng shui e-guide, Creating Genius.  You can get dowload Creating Genius & get started  below!!!

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Welcome to Creating Genius!

I spent the last year creating this e-guide to balancing and unblocking life by pulling together the best of a decade of space-changing and life-shifting feng shui! It’s 50 days and 50 ways to use feng shui to shift your space and your routines to move from “stuck” to creatively inspired and alive.

Start Creating Genius right HERE!

And… As a special bonus when you get the e-guide– a bonus that thrills me!— I’m leading a private Creating Genius + Artist’s Way Group for all of you, to guide you online through twelve weeks of creative awesomeness this year!

Gather up your magic & make gorgeous dreams come true!

xoxo Dana