Seeking Wisdom Book Summary - Seeking Wisdom Book explained in key points

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Seeking Wisdom summary

Name: Seeking Wisdom
Rating: 3.9 (191 reviews)
Author: Julia Cameron

Julia Cameron

A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection (A Six-Week Artist's Way Program)

3.9 (191 ratings)

22 mins

Brief summary

Seeking Wisdom by Julia Cameron is an insightful guide on how to live a more creative life. Through personal anecdotes and exercises, Cameron encourages readers to tap into their inner creativity and find inspiration in everyday experiences.

Topics

Meaningful Living Spirituality Creative Flow

Table of Contents

Seeking Wisdom
Summary of 6 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 6

What’s in it for me? Harness the power of prayer to lead a flourishing creative life.

After years of struggling with alcoholism, author Julia Cameron found a way to sobriety by connecting with a deep creativity. Through the tools in this Blink, she was able to unblock herself as an artist and see a path forward for her creative life. In the four decades which followed, she has become the best-selling author of over forty books, including The Artist’s Way, which has been translated into forty languages and sold over five million copies.

In the late 70s, the author, Julia Cameron, hit rock bottom. Her husband left her because of her alcohol addiction and, to ease the pain, she took to the bottle again and again. Finally, she found herself at a complete loss over what to do next. So when a friend offered to introduce her to another alcoholic, she was finally prepared to admit she had a problem.

During the long journey to recovery, the most powerful tool the author learned was to pray.

Through prayer, she stayed sober. And, even more miraculously, she stopped feeling like a tortured writer. She was now able to create with increasing joy and ease. When she felt uncertain about what to write next, she continued to find answers through her personal practice of prayer.

These blinks will talk you through a six week program based on the author’s own experiences.

You’ll learn to harness the potential of creative prayer as a tool to overcome creative blocks.

If you don’t believe in God, this book is all about arriving at your own concept of God – a god that stems from you and your own creative instinct. Let’s start with week 1: How to adopt a more benevolent God concept.

Week 1: Adopt a more benevolent God concept.

You’ve all heard the story of Adam and Eve: Eve offers Adam an apple from the forbidden tree. Suddenly, God’s voice thunders from the parting sky above, banishing them from Eden and condemning them to a future of pain and suffering.

If this jealous and punishing version of God is the God you’ve grown up knowing, you’re not alone.

The story of Adam and Eve., as well as other stories in the Bible, have shaped a concept of divinity which teaches us to fear God and scold ourselves for having desires.

But what if we were able to flip the script?

What if we could rework our God concept, creating a God who is loving and encouraging – one who promoted original blessing instead of original sin?

In week one of this six-week program, you’ll be inviting a God into your life who encourages you to reach higher and higher. A God who wants you to eat the apple, so to speak.

By changing our God concept, we start to build a conversational relationship with God. We allow ourselves to believe in a benevolent and supportive world, a world which encourages us to pursue our dreams and desires, and no longer humble ourselves or shy away from talent.

If you’re like the author, you may have some trouble with this at first. Perhaps you were told all along to think of God as a man sitting high up in the sky. When the author was advised to pray during her recovery as an alcoholic, she was hesitant. As an agnostic, the idea of praying to God wasn’t something that came naturally to her.

But since she wanted to get sober and needed to pray to something, she admitted that she did believe in some things. She believed in a line written by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas: “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” While other people in her recovery group prayed to Mick Jagger or sunspots – the point, she discovered, is that God can be anything you choose God to be.

In order to arrive at this shift in thinking, try forming your own God concept, come up with a list of adjectives to describe the God you grew up understanding. And then, ask yourself, What if you could create a new, personal God? A God who likes to tango, a God who wants you to write a best-selling novel, a God who doesn’t want you to slog away at a 9-5 for the rest of your life. Construct a God who is tender, compassionate, a listening God.

Week 2: Prayers of petition open up a dialogue with God.

If you could ask God for anything you wanted, what would it be? Would it be something small? Or maybe something larger. The truth is, when it comes to your relationship with God, there’s no limit for what you can ask for.

In week two of the program, we’ll be experimenting with the first of three types of prayer: this week's prayer is called a prayer of petition.

Week 3: Prayers of gratitude give us a sense of joy and abundance.

When we look at the world with gratitude, we begin to take stock of the many blessings around us. We are attuned to the gifts that the world presents to us. We begin to cherish the people, nature, and things that we often take for granted.

In week three of our program, we’ll be practicing prayers of gratitude. Prayers of gratitude can take many forms. You might be thanking God for answering a prayer. Or you might simply be drawing your attention to the good in the world around you.

Week 4: Prayers of praise draw us closer to the miracles of the universe.

As you begin to communicate with God and your relationship to the world around you changes, you’ll realize that the universe is a thing that lives and breathes. When we open ourselves up to co-creating with God, the universe responds to our needs.

The third type of prayer for us to consider, in week four of our program, is the prayer of praise. Through prayers of praise, we celebrate the gifts of God that are all around us, noticing and appreciating small miracles.

Week 5: Creativity and spirituality go hand in hand.

Here’s some food for thought: what if God is creativity? In week five, you’ll learn to see the connection between creativity and spirituality, on your path to creative unblocking.

During the early stages of the author’s sobriety, she worried that abstaining from alcohol would hamper her creativity. But, in practice, the opposite was true. While her creative practice before sobriety was driven by her ego, as she attempted to write brilliantly and impressively, her new approach to writing was driven by a spirit of service. To her surprise, her writing became more accessible and clear, and a successful career soon followed.

Week 6: Routine prayer and praying with and for friends can strengthen your relationship with the divine.

God is an unlimited resource that we can tap into whenever we need. You’ve learned to witness this divine Higher Power in nature, people, and your creative endeavors. In the sixth and final week of the program, you’ll consider two more ways in which God can be your constant companion: routine and the power of friendship.

You can pray anytime, anywhere. But if you want to keep the line with God as open as possible, it’s a good idea to establish a routine for your prayers.

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What is Seeking Wisdom about?

Seeking Wisdom (2021) is a six week program for learning the power of creative prayer. Whether you are a blocked artist or an aspiring screenwriter, in these blinks, you’ll learn how one’s spiritual life can unlock creativity and create a meaningful artistic life.

Who should read Seeking Wisdom?

Blocked creatives
Fans of The Artist’s Way
People with a history of addiction

About the Author

After years of struggling with alcoholism, author Julia Cameron found a way to sobriety through discovering a Higher Power. Through the tools in this book, she was able to unblock herself as an artist and see a path forward for her creative life. In the four decades which followed, she has become the best-selling author of over forty books, including The Artist’s Way, which has been translated into forty languages and sold over five million copies.

Categories with Seeking Wisdom

Religion & Spirituality Creativity Mindfulness & Happiness

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