The Prosperous Heart: Creating a Life of "Enough" [Hardcover]

Julia Cameron (Author), Emma Lively (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 5, 2012

A dynamic new creative-renewal program from the woman who has inspired millions to discover and recover their creative souls.

In The Prosperous Heart, Julia Cameron presents a ten-week program for using your creative heart and soul to lead you to prosperity in all the areas of your life. With inspiring new daily tools and strategies that follow in the footsteps of Cameron's groundbreaking The Artist's Way, this book guides readers in developing a life that is as full and as satisfying as they ever thought possible.

Drawing on her decades of experience working with artists as an expert on the creative process, Cameron shines a clear light on the path to forging a direct relationship between the passion that ignites our creative work and the more practical aspects of living our lives (for example, how one can keep a roof over their head without losing track of their soul!) In this wise volume, Cameron gives readers the courage and permission to live their lives as they create their art: purposely and fully.

Editorial Reviews

Review

You'll soon have enough money to take care of your needs and fulfil your desires. Spirit & Destiny magazine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than thirty years. She is the author of more than thirty books, both fiction and non-fiction, including bestselling works on the creative process: The Artist's Way, Walking in This World and Finding Water. Also a novelist, playwright, songwriter and poet, she has multiple credits in theatre, film and television. Emma Lively has served as Julia Cameron's business manager for a decade, and has contributed music and lyrics to Julia's musical works. This is their first literary collaboration. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; 1st Printing edition (January 5, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585428973
• ISBN-13: 978-1585428977
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than thirty years. She is the author of more than thirty books, fiction and nonfiction, including her bestselling works on the creative process: The Artist's Way, Walking in This World, Finding Water, and The Writing Diet. A novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television.

Latest endeavor: Julia Cameron Live, an online course and artists' community led by Julia. It is the most comprehensive discussion she has ever done on The Artist's Way, and the first time she has allowed cameras in her home. www.juliacameronlive.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 64 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Financial Recovery and Prosperity Based in Faith and Spirituality Rather Than Money Alone January 15, 2012

By Richard Szponder

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Best known for her groundbreaking book and workshop about creative recovery, The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron returns with an uplifting and inspiring book about the true spiritual meaning of prosperity, The Prosperous Heart. Laid out in the same format as The Artist's Way, Cameron has designed a 12-week recovery program for those suffering from financial instability and an unhealthy relationship with money. Focusing on improving one's financial condition while incorporating faith and spirituality into the process, Cameron once again helps her readers realize that what seems impossible may in fact be within their reach.

The foundational principle of The Prosperous Heart is that prosperity is not a financial concept, but rather a spiritual one. While many seek money as their sole source of stability and abundance, Cameron explains that money alone cannot bring happiness or stability. In actuality, it is faith that provides prosperity, and Cameron freely utilizes her own definition of God as the Great Creator and her personal spirituality to demonstrate her ideas. Fans of Cameron will find familiar tools, such as Morning Pages, three hand-written stream-of-consciousness journal pages written first thing in the morning, and a 20-minute daily walk. New tools for financial recovery include Counting, keeping a small journal of every penny earned and spent over the course of the 12-week program, and Abstinence, a complete abstaining from any further incurrence of debt. These tools were both first presented in Cameron's previous book, Money Drunk, Money Sober.

Over the course of the 12 weeks, the reader discovers his or her own unhealthy money spending patterns, whether they be overspending on credit cards, obsessively seeking out bargains, not spending money if when it is absolutely necessary, or enabling others in their own unhealthy spending habits. Cameron explains that debt is simply a mask for fear and anxiety, and through writing prompts and exercises, she helps her readers uncover the underlying issues for their unhealthy relationship with money. Often making comparisons to other 12-step programs, she demonstrates her examples with real-life tales from her own life and the lives of her many eccentric and creative friends.

The Prosperous Heart is as much about creativity as it is about financial recovery, as Cameron explains that financial instability is often a result of abandoned creativity. Throughout the course, she uses several familiar exercises intended on improving her readers' focus and attention on what they truly love, as doing what you love often promotes an attitude of prosperity and will likely attract further abundance.

Grief and loss are topics explored, as Cameron deals with some of the tougher issues of financial recovery, including examining your current list of friends and acquaintances and determining if you should continue in your current social circle. Working through the course, readers may also find that they are exploring trust issues with both themselves, in the form of fear of falling off the wagon, with others, and with God. She teaches how a gratitude and affirmative prayer can mend those trust issues. Often touching on New Thought concepts of spirituality, Cameron quotes familiar spiritual leaders such as Ernest Holmes, Charles Fillmore, and Catherine Ponder. Also present is the influence of Cameron's longtime friend and spiritual counselor, Sonia Choquette.

Generosity, forgiveness, and an attitude of expecting only the best round out the last few chapters of the book. Cameron explains that a truly prosperous heart is one that makes plans but is also open to unexpected gifts and answers that may not materialize in the exact form in which they were expected. Being open-minded and seeking the best possible solution as dictated by one's Higher Self is a heart that is on the true path of financial recovery and spiritual enlightenment.

The exercises and essays in Julia Cameron's The Prosperous Heart are designed to help her readers achieve financial stability through the instillation of spiritual concepts already familiar to her readers who have endeavored her creative recovery programs. Light-hearted and gentle, this is a valuable book to anyone demonstrating an unhealthy relationship with money and in need of getting to the root, spiritual cause of financial instability.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars We all need "Enough" February 29, 2012

By Story Circle Book Reviews

Format:Hardcover

I have been a follower of Julia Cameron for many years. This new book, The Prosperous Heart, and its message, takes techniques from The Artist's Way and applies them to how we look at money. The subtitle, Creating a Life of "Enough," is a message that we all need to read, hear, and implement in our lives.

This is a twelve week program of regaining your balance and connection with your money and your financial perspective. Cameron "trains" you through these lessons in using your creative spirit to connect with your prosperity in all aspects of your life. Her message--you cannot separate your finances from your spirituality or any other portion of your life--resonates with me, and will probably be a factor in how any reader relates to the message.

The key? "Prosperity is a spiritual bottom line." We are works in progress, evolving, the goal is not to be completed, but to be enriched, growing, learning and experiencing it all from a healthy, balanced perspective.

Cameron gives us the basic tools to practice and learn during the twelve weeks.

* Morning Pages have been an element of Cameron's teachings for many years. The author calls it "...the primary tool of a creative recovery...(and) also a primary tool for establishing prosperity."
* The next basic tool is Counting. It's a simple technique: you learn to habitually count money in and money out.
* Third is Abstinence. STOP going into debt. No more borrowing. Period.
* Fourth is Walking. What? What does walking have to do with growing in prosperity? It is an opportunity to "immerse yourself in the present." It is a way to embrace our own inner connections to the greater world.
* Next up is Time-Out. Yup. Just what it sounds like. Taking time for "self-appraisal" and "self-approval. Twice a day.

Once you have these five techniques under your belt you're ready to read on and learn during the twelve weeks how to change and embrace growth when dealing with prosperity.

Cameron encourages us not to get hung-up on labels. She uses "God" often in this book, but reminds us that whatever approach we take to the good in our lives, and whatever our religious base, we can take a renewed, healthy approach to develop our creative, prosperous heart. Each of the twelve weeks of study (from The Money Myth to the Prosperity Plan) will give you guidance in finding your own path to that life we are all seeking--flourishing, resourceful, imaginative and enriching in all its permutations.

Twelve weeks is a guideline--if you take longer reading/participating in one chapter to establish a comfortable understanding of the techniques, then give that to yourself. One chapter a week is enough though, for as Cameron reminds the reader, "be gentle with yourself." After all, twelve weeks (three months) is not too long to devote to yourself and your well-being, is it? There are optional exercises at the end of most chapters, which you can do, or not do. Some chapters will resound with you, providing "ah-ha" moments, others will be arduous and uncomfortable. Sometimes, she says, "when my students shake the apple tree, oranges fall. And oranges may have been just what they were looking for, after all."

by Laura Strathman Hulka
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm So Excited January 19, 2012

By Monique Y. Egelhoff

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I came across this book by accident. I love Julia Camerons work, but didn't know about this books release until yesterday. Yes, yesterday. I did what she says not to do and I read it all in one day. I plan on going back and doing each chapter as she says to do. The book resonates within me. Fo so long I've needed a solution for my finances and when she addresses the issues and the how-to's for fixing them I say YES! That makes sense and it's something I can do. Also, her statements that money is a spiritual problem is another Yes! moment for me. Knowing firsthand what she writes about has confirmed for me that this book is going to help get my financial and spiritual house in order. If you are creative and need help with your financial life and your spiritual life, this book is for you. As a kindle owner, I am very particular about spending money on books, since I can get so many for free.This one is worth every penny. Thank You Julia.