It had very - laid out very practical steps on how to live with more intention and how that could show up in creative ways. I remember a friend giving me my copy when I was in my mid-twenties. MARTIN: I mean, this is what your bestselling book 'The Artist's Way' was all about. MARTIN: And do you need optimism to be creative? And prayers of gratitude move you from pessimism into optimism. You start out with a small list, and as you write, more things come to you. It might be, I'm grateful for my curly hair. How does gratitude play into your daily prayer practice?ĬAMERON: When we talk about prayers of gratitude, we're talking about something very personal. MARTIN: You also talk about prayer in the form of praise - and gratitude, in particular. That was when prayer began to feel effective to me. And it said, OK, God, you take care of the quality I'll take care of the quantity. Once I started letting the higher power write through me, I put up a little sign near my writing station. Before that, I had always tried to be brilliant, to write the very best thing that could be written. And so they said to me, let your higher power, your creative energy, your line of poetry - let that write through you. MARTIN: And when did it start to feel like you were getting something out of it?ĬAMERON: I wanted to remain a writer. But I was so worried about drinking again that I decided to do what they told me to do. I felt like I was being cornered into praying. And when you go to bed at night, say, thank you for keeping me sober. They said, now, when you get up in the morning, say, please keep me sober.

It was a God that captured my imagination. I said, I could pray to that creative energy. I believe in a line of poetry from the poet Dylan Thomas - the force that through the green fuse drives the flower. And then I said, yes, I do believe in something. So they said, well, you must believe in something. MARTIN: In other words, prayer wasn't going to be the antidote for you, or so you thought.ĬAMERON: Right. JULIA CAMERON: Well, what happened to me the day that I got sober was that they said, now, if you want to stay sober, you have to pray. It's called 'Seeking Wisdom.' Cameron herself set out on that path decades ago after a friend told her flat-out that she was an alcoholic and she needed help. In 1992, Cameron published her bestselling book 'The Artist's Way.' Her new book goes deeper.

Sitting in meditation, repeating a mantra or talking out loud to a higher power - writer Julia Cameron says it all counts as prayer and it's the key to unlocking creativity.

Seeking wisdom julia cameron