Week 5 - Discovering a Sense of Personal Territory

Items in quotations come directly from Walking in This World author, Julia Cameron

Week 5 - Discovering a Sense of Personal Territory (Part 1 of 2)


It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye. ~ Antoine De Saint-Exupery

“Festivity breeds creativity. Rigidity breeds despair. Creativity responds to nourishment and warmth. If we are forbidden to be childlike – to perhaps that it is “childish” or “selfish” – if we are urged to be too sensible, we react as gifted students to an authoritarian teacher – we refuse to learn and grow. Our considerable energy is channeled into resistance and over time solidifies into a hard-to-penetrate shell of feigned indifference.” Have you ever had this happen in your life? I have, many, many, times. I just give up and quit the fight. My poor children – I’m teaching them the same values, to be sensible, act grown-up instead of being spontaneous, joyful, full of life. I truly hope that I can teach them to be festive in this life.


Stop Being “Nice,” Be Honest

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you. ~ Lao-Tzu

“Value systems are as individual as fingerprints. Each of us has a set of priorities that may be baffling to others but absolutely necessary to ourselves. Violating our true selves, we soon feel worthless and undeserving. This in turn prevents our acting on our own behalf, and so we suffer further.” I have been dealing with this very thing over the past week. My actions have baffled people but they are my true self. I’m tired of living up to others’ expectations of me.

“When we are too nice for too long, we stop being nice at all.” Exactly. When we hide our true feelings by being “Mister Nice Guy”, it all comes back to haunt us in the form of negativity. Our negativity and stewing hinders our creativity. We aren’t free to truly express ourselves.

We must train ourselves, yes train, to know what keeps us from our creativity. Once we know what is keeping us from creating, we must let go of it. People might not view this as being nice, as being selfish, but at least we are learning to be honest.

“When we stop playing God, God can play through us.” I love this quote. So true.

Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that’s good taste. ~ Lucille Ball

“People do not mean us harm, but they do harm us when they ask for more than we can give. When we go ahead and give it to them, we are harming ourselves as well.”

“It is never too late to start over. It is never past the point of no return for our artist to recover. We can heap years, decades, a lifetime of insult upon our artist and it is so resilient, so powerful, and so stubborn that it will come back to life when we give it the smallest opportunity.” I think this applies to everyone, not just artists. It is never too late to start a new lease on life.