How to Fill Your Creative Well

How do you fill your creative well and what does that even mean? Your creative well is an idea I first discovered through Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist’s Way”.

“The Artist’s Way” is an excellent book that teaches among other things that we are all creative beings. Yes – all!

Many people think they aren’t creative but with a little self-examination they realize they actually are, just maybe not in the traditional sense. You can be creative in many ways:

Cooking
Acting
Dancing
Decorating
Drawing
Writing
Playing Music
Sewing
Arts and Crafts
Painting
Scrapbooking
At Work (creating anything new)
Creating new programs
Creating new ways of doing things
Photography
And many other ways

The list goes on and on! Only a few items on this list would be what we would consider as part of the stereotypical “artist” creative person.

Cameron’s idea is we all have some gift we should share with the world. And for some of us this gift may have been buried over time. (She helps you excavate your creative gifts if you are really stumped as to what they might be).

The Artist’s Date

Cameron also describes the “Artist’s Date” where you go out into the world and fill your well with all sorts of interaction with life. She wants you to purposely fill your well, the creative well in this case, which is the source of inspiration and and also the source of much of the joy and fun in life. This is where you can find your spark for living.

If you haven’t had that spark for a long time it can be like a man who has crossed the desert who is finally given a big long drink. The relief is staggering and immense after so much thirst.

The more you fill your creative well, the more you have to give to creative work and to everyone around you too. It truly is refilling your life force as well as your creative well which is necessary for any creative project.

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In Cameron’s words “Artist’s Dates are a once weekly solitary expedition of your ‘creative self’ into new, interesting and expansive territory. They might be a trip to an aquarium store, a concert, a used record store, a drive in the country – anything that “fills the well” for you. Artist dates are undertaken alone.”

More Information on Creativity and Filling Your Well

Just about anything by Julia Cameron is going to be good, but these are just wonderful.

The Artist’s Way: 30th Anniversary Edition

“Without The Artist’s Way, there would have been no Eat, Pray, Love.”
—Elizabeth Gilbert

The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart

If you would like to begin, but don’t even know how, please see the following:

The Art of Play – When Was the Last Time You Let Yourself Play?

How to Have Fun Again When You Forget How

You have permission to let yourself have some fun again and share some of your creativity with whoever you would like (even if it is just yourself).

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