Julia Cameron: The Artist's Way (a Belgian creative group)

Who we are:
- We are an inclusive, welcoming group of friends. Initially brought together by our love of nature walks, now sharing also our interests in creativity and personal development.

Who is this MeetUp for:
- Open to anyone who would like to read through Julia Cameron's classic book, the Artist's Way in a systematic way, chapter by chapter, and experiment with her methods to bring more joy and creativity into their lives.
- You are welcome to join anytime and while we encourage you to attend regularly, it is okay to just come occasionally or as a one-off. Weekly sessions started in January 2024. At the moment, we are still at week six (Chapter thirteen), so easy for anyone to catch up. (We take more than one Saturday to work through one chapter's exercises from the book.)

What we do:
- During the MeetUps (each week on Saturday), we go through the exercises proposed in her book, one by one, in a structured way, as in a workshop. We bring notebooks, and take a few minutes individually to complete each exercise in the book, then we discuss what we learnt from the exercise, in a circle (with the opportunity for each of us to express themselves). For some exercises, there is some optional 'follow-up homework' to be done individually during the week.
- Example of the types of exercises (and homework) we have done during the MeetUps: 'Imaginary Lives: If you had five other lives to lead (no limits or restrictions, you can live anywhere, anytime, with anyone, and can have any talent or ability), what would you do in each of them? Look over your list and select one. Then commit to do it this week. For instance, if you put down country singer, can you pick a guitar?'

Recommended reading: text of the book up until the chapter we are at.
Recommended exercises in between MeetUps: a solo, fun, nurturing activity of your choice ('Artist's date') (+- 2 hours) each week + a journal ('morning pages') (3 A4 pages, +- 30 minutes) daily or as often as you can.

Tentative schedule (all or most Saturdays, at Zsuzsanna's place in Jezus-Eik):
- Pot luck lunch & chat noon to 1:30 pm
- Workshop: 1:30 to 4 pm
- Walk in the woods in the nearby Tervuren Arboretum (4 pm to dinner time/sunset) (optional but most of us join)

Entirely optional (but highly recommended) pre-book club activities for Saturday morning:
- A little dip in cold water at 9:15 am at Renipont Beach near Rixensaart. Warm-up and some breathing exercises before, hot drink and chat after. The cold water immersion is a regular event on Saturdays, organised by Didier Godart, who is a trained Wim Hof instructor. Some of us from the Artist's Way Meetup are also regulars at the cold water dip.

Here are the first set of exercises for week 6 (to give you a flavor of what's coming up):

Week 6: Recovering a Sense of Abundance MONEY MADNESS, AN EXERCISE Complete the following phrases: 1. People with money are ________________. 2. Money makes people ________________. 3. I’d have more money if ________________. 4. My dad thought money was ________________. 5. My mom always thought money would ________________. 6. In my family. money caused ________________. 7. Money equals ________________. 8. If I had money. I’d ________________. 9. If I could afford it. I’d ________________. 10. If I had some money. I’d ________________. 11. I’m afraid that if I had money I would ________________. 12. Money is ________________. 13. Money causes ________________. 14. Having money is not ________________. 15. In order to have more money. I’d need to ________________. 16. When I have money. I usually ________________. 17. I think money ________________. 18. If I weren’t so cheap I’d ________________. 19. People think money ________________. 20. Being broke tells me ________________ .

See you soon!

Zsuzsanna