Can a Book Actually Reset Your Creative Soul?📚✨

I read "We Need Your Art" by Amie Mcnee and did her 2-week reset—here’s what cracked me open.

I think I finally hit my breaking point, it was the middle of April and my Dad had come to visit me, we had a 10+ hour power outage throughout all of Spain and Portugal and my anxiety was at an all time high.

At this time I had become talented at hiding my stress, anxiety, and isolation but something just kept on creeping up on me. Usually when I’m close to a breaking point I pretty much have to do ANYTHING to bring myself back up whether that be listen to positive affirmations, go on walks, play piano, do aerial silk classes to bring myself up.

I had to ask myself “What factors are bringing me down in this moment?”

• I recently (about a month ago) stopped going to my singing classes to focus on illustrating my childrens book

• I stopped playing piano to focus on illustrating my childrens book

• I slowed down meeting up with friends to focus on illustrating my childrens book

• I am not making any money and that scares me a lot

• I worry about my family & the currently political climate whenever I look at the news

• My dad had been visiting me for the past week and only talks about how scary & messed up the world is and how screwed we all are and how the world will end soon

• I recently set up an LLC and still haven’t made any money or done anything with it and the guilt was coming in

• I felt so behind on my book and as I continue to illustrate I continue to improve so when I look at my ealier pages in the book I see so many areas I need to redo.

Something needed to change, something BIG had to happen so I began reading a book titled “We Need Your Art” by Aime McNee which was honestly so helpful and refreshing.

I found her through a Ted Talk titled “The Case for Making Art when the World is on Fire” and you can watch it below.

She really spoke about how just making ugly art helps the world and it should be apart of everyones daily life just like Meditation, Exercise, and Therapy. Art heals the people creating it as well as the people reacting to it and the more people that create art the better the world can be. I began to realize how important art really is and started to feel less guilty about creating in a world with so many problems.

Here's the video that inspired me to read her book

"Creatives never leave the world the way they found it"

The thing is Art is one of the 3 pillars of Renaissance, with the other 2 being Spirituality and Technology. Seeking to grow in any of these 3 areas is an act of revolution and change. By creating you are taking back your power and revolting in a world trying to trap us all in fear.

To be honest when I look at my life I think about all of the artists who have changed me as a person and I try to imagine if they never created their art and how messed up I would be. Artists have impacted me more than any other type of person in the world and I know I can do that too, even for just one person that would be my reason for not giving up.

In the book she has a 2 Week Reset Challenge where you spend 2 weeks doing something creative for a short amount of time everyday. Here are the steps:

Step One: Pick a small creative goal.

So you would pick a small creative activity to do such as playing piano, writing poetry, drawing etc. for a small amount of time every day. She says whatever amount of time you plan to do it (ex. an hour) to cut it in half. So if you want to journal for 2 hours a day cut it down to 1 hour, maybe even cut it again to 30 minutes. She really emphasizes to keep it so easy that there is absolutely no pressure at all in doing these tasks.

Step Two: Pick 1-3 Constraints

I love this step because this is usually the part where I would just give up because I always have so many ideas of things to do but having some constraints really help me take away all of the choices I have to make. Some examples could be:

• The painter can only use 3 colors each day

• The artist can only draw food items

• The illustrator is not allowed to start over once they made the first mark

• The actor can only practice monologues shorter than 3 minutes

• The poet can only use up to 12 syllables per line

  
  

Step Three: Pick a Time

For this step you would choose a specific time every day for your creative practice. This would be the time that fits best within your schedule and won’t be hindered by any daily routines such as meetings, family stuff etc. I would assume either first thing in the morning or in the evening everyday would be best but of course choose what fits best with your needs.

Step Four: Set up your space

This is a small but important step, make sure you’ve cleaned up and made your creative space an inspiring one. Wipe up your table, add some art on the walls, play some calming music, or make sure whenever you start your practice you turn your phone on airplane mode.

Step Five: Do this everyday for 2 weeks

Lastly aim to do this everyday for 2 weeks, she even mentioned it’s ok if you miss a day which really helps with the pressures of everyday life.

Blockages

There is a full section that goes over blockages such as jealousy, trauma, and perfectionism and how to beat them which is very helpful since I personally deal with all of these blockages.

Building a continuous practice

Lastly and for most of the book she really goes over the steps to creating a steady practice as a creative and how to manage it long term for daily life. She speaks about finding your voice and using it the right way. On finishing projects whether big or small. On dealing with patience when working on a big creative project and how to celebrate your wins whether big or small.

Thoughts

I have to say this is a lot easier and less stressful than other books such as “The Artists Way” which is an absolutely amazing book but there is a crazy amount of prompts and journaling 3 pages a day for 12 weeks straight can be a lot for most people to handle but for this book I honestly think anyone can manage in their everyday life.

She also really makes it clear you must make bad art along the way, you basically have to accept it’s not going to be good and making bad art is part of the process of getting back to your creative self.

This is a great book if you have any fear or guilt around making art at all. She really talks about how important and healing making art is to the entire world and states very valid reasons why.

Anyway, I hope this sparks something in you because now more than ever, the world needs your art. ✨✨✨