FEATURE SECTION HEALTH ON AGING
Miriam Knight : So you have us divide our age into 12 and then review one chunk of years each week , going sequentially through your life . I found that that made it a much more manageable task than sitting in front of a blank computer screen or piece of paper . Oh , and you are a great enthusiast of writing longhand . Why is that ?
Julia Cameron : Well , one of the things we ’ ve discovered , courtesy of UCLA , is that when you write longhand you open up far more neural pathways . And so , I ask people to write longhand because they will have a greater sense of discovery . And I find that when people write on the computer it ’ s as if they ’ re in a car going 75 miles an hour , and they ’ re whizzing along the freeway . And they go , “ Oh , oops , was that my exit ? And then , when I ask them to write longhand , it ’ s as if they ’ re going about 30 miles an hour . And they are going along the freeway , and they go , “ Oh , here comes my exit . Oh , look , a convenience store .”
Miriam Knight : It ’ s the slow writing movement , kind of like the slow eating movement . Now , what do you say to people whose childhood was very traumatic , and they just don ’ t want to revisit it ?
Julia Cameron : I coax them . I say , “ Now , amid all the trauma , there were also good things . So what I want you to do is to recall both .” And I find that actually people who have traumatic childhoods have more of a desire to write the memoir ; they want to sort of even up the score , and so they are in effect tattling . And when they tattle on the trauma in their childhoods , they find freedom .
I ask people to write longhand because they will have a greater sense of discovery . And I find that when people write on the computer it ’ s as if they ’ re in a car going 75 miles an hour , and they ’ re whizzing along the freeway .
Miriam Knight : There is an interesting relationship between the pages and the memoir . How does that work ?
Julia Cameron : Well , when you write pages , you ’ re dealing with your current life , so you are writing , “ This is what I like , this is what I don ’ t like , this is what I want more of , this is what I want less of .” And you ’ re directly addressing the present tense part of your life .
When you write the memoir , you ’ re casting back over life that has been lived , and I find that the two tools work in conjunction . What happens with the morning pages is that you are in effect miniaturizing your censor , because there ’ s no wrong way to do morning pages . But , your censor , your inner critic , will perk up and say , “ Oh , Miriam , you ’ re being so negative .” And you say to your censor , “ Thank you for sharing .”
And you keep right on writing . And that process of miniaturizing the censor is something that translates over to writing the memoir . So , you start writing the memoir , your censor perks up and starts criticizing you , and you say to your censor , “ Thank you for sharing , but I think I ’ m going to just keep writing .”
Miriam Knight : I should point out that you describe many , many ways in the book of expressing creativity . It doesn ’ t have to be writing or painting . It can be baking !
Julia Cameron : Yes , absolutely . I think what we ’ re after is we want people to realize that whatever form their expression takes , it can be viewed as creative – we had people redecorating their houses , moving their furniture , repainting a kitchen chair a more vivid color . We have people adding window boxes . We have people say , “ Gee , I wish I had a pet .” And having a pet can be a very potent form of healing .
Miriam Knight : So , this isn ’ t just about being creative . This is actually about living well beyond retirement or as you move into the next phase of your life .
Julia Cameron : Yes . What I say is that we ’ re practicing creativity and that our life , in effect , becomes our work of art .
29 | New Consciousness Review