For all of you who have a yearning or even just a curiosity for a more creative life I urge you to give The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron serious consideration - it's a book that carries you through 12 weeks of a Creative Journey or 'recovery' as the book puts it. I'm only in Week 3 but it's amazing the results I've already had. We are all creative by the way! Never say you aren't, you just need to start nurturing that part of you. You will need an open mind and you will need some discipline, but you will not regret it for a minute if you do commit.

The other book I've been reading is an oldy but a goody - it's called The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson and this feels truly life-changing; the concepts and strategies he explains, it's not that I haven't heard of many of them before, but he makes it so simple and almost easy to achieve whatever it is you want for your life. I could go on but I won't - if you're looking for a book to start 2023 (or the rest of your life) on the right foot I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND: The Slight Edge.

Part of The Artist's Way is 'morning pages' in which you write three full pages of your stream of consciousness. It's crazy what can come out, it's therapeutic, it's surprising, it's revealing and it's magic. I thought I'd share what came out for me this morning. It literally just tumbled out of me, no effort, no looking up words that rhyme, it just seemed to appear on the page before me:

How is it that I wake up with a head so full of thoughts?
Why is it that the dreams I have put me out of sorts?
How come I feel equal parts of overwhelm and equal parts of hope?
Why is it that I have these doubts and feel that I won't cope?
I know I need to trust myself and believe in all my dreams,
that everything is more possible than it might once have seemed.
I have talent and a desire that can burn right through the night,
and now I have the steps laid out, an edge if only slight.
It will take me to the place I dream, all I have to do,
is work at it every single day, stay focused and stay true.
Well, goodbye 2022 you taught me many things,
I'm ready 2023 in you I'll spread my wings.