A bit stucky.

About ten weeks ago, I was what my husband and I refer to as ‘a bit stucky’.

You know what I mean:

Lacking in energy, motivation, direction. Not feeling like I’m making inroads into the things I say I want to do. Searching for inspiration.

I was needing a guiding force.

For the third time in ten years, I picked up The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Anyone who spends 24 hours in my company will know I recommend this book to EVERYONE. I have seen its immense power to create change ever since discovering it when stuck and unhappy in an office job I loathed.

In picking the book up, I knew what I was letting myself in for: the twelve week course is a fair amount of work, atop an already busy feeling family and work life.

But, whilst I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to end up, I did know that I wanted to make gentle shifts in my course, and TAW is always guaranteed to achieve that.

I recommitted once again.

The Artist’s Way was at least partly responsible for me ten years ago quitting my corporate job and starting a swimwear company. Five years later and round two, it helped me admit to myself and the world that my heart was not in swimwear/fashion and that what I really wanted was to write children’s books.

Yet another five years down the line and my first children’s book later (something which felt like it took a while to get to), I knew that the time was right to explore what treasures might be found. That I wanted to rediscover the creativity I now was confident was there (unleashed since round one), but wasn’t at that point fully embodying.

Round three has proven more powerful but in an infinitely more subtle way, I think because at this point in time I’m not needing a big change in direction, I’m just needing to listen more intently to what my soul tells me is the right path.

Many, small, baby steps have been made. I’ve worked through some dark times and challenging emotions in my pages, as well as generating some more quotidian shifts. There’s only so long you can talk about how much you hate the curtains in your living room before you do something about them (thanks Charlie!). Banal the changes may seem, but small things add up to an enormous difference.

I’m playing around with some different interests and I’ve discovered new passions, including a newfound love of writing poetry which, having never shown a jot of interest poetry, has come as a surprise.

Alongside the help and encouragement of my artist mentor, Shazia, it has made me think more about the type of work I want to put out into the world. By committing to the daily practice of my morning pages which, remarkably, I’ve kept up every single day since, and to the weekly Artist’s Dates, as well as to answering each week’s questions, I’ve made inroads into many facets of life which were lying dormant. I’ve listened to what my soul started by whispering, and eventually shouted at me.

The changes are subtle, and perhaps unremarkable to the onlooker, but for me, they feel tremendous.

Whilst there have been many other books that have helped me, The Artist’s Way is my absolute all-time favourite for gently nudging you out of ‘pure talk’ into that next little tiniest of actions.

I’d love to hear what books you turn to when you’re a little stuck on your creative journey, and when you may have needed a little boot up the bum.