When Mindy Mendelsohn first participated in The Artist’s Way, a Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity it had not yet become the international best-selling book that it is today.
In 1987 she was part of a small group of students that met in author Cameron’s tiny Victorian living room in Chicago. One of Cameron’s earliest students, those twelve weeks dramatically altered how she approached her life.
Daily, she still practices the principles that she learned in the class nearly thirty three years later and has been teaching for twenty eight. She has facilitated workshops internationally for thousands of students yet still the process leads her to profound discoveries as part of a greater journey within.
Beginning Tuesday, May 5, she is facilitating two of Cameron’s workshops online: The Artists’s Way on Saturday mornings (May 9) from 10 a.m. to noon and Walking In The World on Tuesday evenings (May 5) from 7-9 p.m.
The basis of The Artist’s Way is that we are all meant to be creative. That our creative unfolding at its core a spiritual unfolding. This means different things for different people and takes many different forms. When we experience the feeling of being stuck, anywhere in our lives, is it essentially a creative block.
For some people it is the courage to even admit to themselves a cherished creative dream. For others they may be great at the actual production part of creating yet find themselves unable to take the steps forward to put their voice out into the world.
Walking In This World, part two in the series, at its core is about creative alignment. It is meant to demystify creative obstacles found along the path and to deepen out connection within. Where The Artist’s Way is designed to launch the journey, Walking In This World deepens the process bringing additional clarity and encouragement.
It was two years after that first class Cameron began urging her to facilitate The Artist’s Way. In the 1990s, Mendelsohn became an internationally renowned facilitator of the acclaimed workshop, winning awards for her style in the classroom.
She was also the keynote speaker at the international Reading Association Conference in New Mexico using the tools of the course to help educators in the classroom.
Julia Cameron says of Mindy “Mindy knows my work intimately and brings to it her own considerable creativity.”
To Mendelsohn, this work, these practices, are part of the larger journey of creative unfoldment. Essentially she sees herself as peeling back yet another layer of her psyche, going deeper within and embracing herself and her creative voice, whatever the form.
“After The Artist’s Way I found myself more open to actively pursuing my dreams,” says Mendelsohn “When we open to our inner life, our outer life also shifts. People say that they want to do something but then inside themselves have all these “reasons” appear they can’t or it won’t work. It may appear to be outside circumstances but at its core an interior belief that stops them time and time again.”
She is a passionate believer in the power and magic of people, one of her former students said that working with her was like using a key that finally unlocked something that has lain dormant within them.
Mendelsohn sees The Artists Way as an organic living dynamic process and thus tailors each workshop both to the overall group needs as well as the individual. “I’ve never been a fan of the cookie cutter experience,” she says, “I’m working with people’s dreams both the ones they’ve spoken of and the ones that often they are too afraid to admit even to themselves. I consider that sacred territory.”
Over the years Mendelsohn has worked with people from all walks of life from professional actors and artists to teachers, housewives and stockbrokers. Each person had a different goal that they were moving toward at the end of the workshop.
“Taking The Artist’s Way Workshop from Mindy Mendelsohn gave me the tools to get my first photography book published.” Says acclaimed landscape photographer Larry Lindahl, “Her guidance and encouragement in following the program kept me writing on a regular basis with the daily Morning Pages. From that practice I grew more confident in my writing. Becoming a published author and photographer of the award-winning book Secret Sedona: Sacred Moments in the Landscape comes directly from her leadership in the Artist’s Way workshop. I highly recommend Mindy as a workshop teacher.”
During the twelve-week period students often find themselves getting in touch with parts of themselves that they had long ago left behind. Past participants have compared this process to peeling back the layers of the onion. Over time the students become open to their own dreams. More importantly, after participating in the workshop they find themselves willing to take the risks necessary to pursue their own dreams. Many have even returned to take the workshop a second or third time finding that the class helps keep them on track.
Mendelsohn facilitates the original workshop that the acclaimed book “The Artist Way; A Path to Higher Creativity” is based upon. While it has a similar structure to the book, the workshop has a very personal tone containing both the exercises that are in the book and personal exercises that are designed specifically to address the needs of the individual.
The Artist’s Way Workshop will run from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturday Mornings beginning May 9. Walking in This World Takes place on Tuesday evenings, from 7-9 p.m., beginning May 5. Each class is twelve weeks in length and will be taught online via Zoom. Class size is extremely limited to provide intimate one on one experience for participants. For more information regarding The Artist Way Workshop, Walking In this World. For other classes and coaching please call Mendelsohn on her cell phone at 213-0268-0641 or email her at Mendelsohnpr@gmail.com