Last weekend I headed up to Sedona for a writing workshop with Julia Cameron, inspirer of artists and champion of creativity, whose book The Artist’s Way is so popular and venerated that the hardcover edition is currently sold out on amazon.com.

I love examples of those who move past their human fears and choose to live their soul’s purpose. In doing so they thrive. Not necessarily because they are more talented or luckier than you and me. Because they dare to stay true to themselves.

Going to Sedona always reminds me of an Abraham-Hicks story from years ago, when Esther and Jerry Hicks still lived in Phoenix and Esther first began to bring in Abraham’s energy. She asked Abraham whether it would be good for her to go to Sedona and access more energy from the vortexes there.

Abraham told Esther that she, not those beautiful red rocks, was the vortex.

Most of us desperately look for something outside of ourselves to attribute power to. We look everywhere but within.

Which is not to say that getting up close to the rocks in Sedona isn’t a sublime and beautiful experience.

Only that we would do well to appreciate and radiate, vortex-like, our own powerful self expression as aspects of spirit. Imagine if Julia Cameron had given in to despair and stopped writing, composing and teaching. Or if Esther Hicks had given in to self doubt and stopped allowing Abraham to come through her.

Bell Rock vortex, Sedona, Arizona, photographed by Andrea Conway April 2008