While I love writing of all the angst and deep thoughts, I find it hard to sit and write like that regularly, so I am going to try and write some rambling easy read posts more often. Welcome to cheap and cheerful Vol. 1!
I have been working through the 12-week program in ‘The Artists way’. I’m just coming up to the end of week 5, and figured it was about time I talk a little about what I am finding as I am hitting the half way mark.
To be honest, I have taken it pretty easy and haven’t thrown myself head first into to program. The book suggested doing 2 tasks a week minimum, which is loosely what I have stuck to. But really, the most I have gained from this has been through the morning pages and artist dates.
The morning pages sound pretty simple and un-revolutionary, just hand write 3 free flow pages in the mornings. Put aside the reality that actually doing this every single day isn’t always an option, the process of dumping all of those random thoughts and worries onto paper before the day even starts has been a great tool for unblocking my mind. It has brought things up to the surface so I could address them before I even realised that I had an issue. It also highlights some of the ideas that I am brewing in the back of my mind and has pushed them forward and into the limelight (*funfact* limelight was a type of stage light used in the 1860s. Thanks Wikipedia). Even if I wasn’t looking to gain something creative from the program, it has been surprisingly useful in helping me manage cycles of BPD and depression. Prehab for the mind.
Artist dates are another surprisingly effective tool. Living the single life with no kids, I thought I was pretty good at doing what I wanted when I wanted, but having these set 2-3 hour times once a week that focus on meeting my creative needs has done wonders. I have done things for myself which I haven’t done in years- cooked myself an amazing dinner from scratch, watched movies that I love but would put aside for some Netflix brain-numbing, taken myself on slow and mindful bush walks rather than intense calorie burning extravaganzas. I take something inspiring out of each ‘date’ and now I don’t think I would live without them.
Final thought- each week has a theme and I have had some great synchronistic experiences with them. Now, the book is very… spiritual (I should have picked it from the tag line ‘A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity’). Pretty much every page not only alludes to but also straightforward requests you consider giving yourself to God and embrace the creativity flowing through you from a higher source. I have had my own journey with religion and spirituality and I am now at a point where I comfortably brush these kinds of iterations to the side and move on. That has been much harder to do while working through ‘The Artists Way’, as spirituality is very clearly the largest block in the foundation that the program was built on. Years of experience and intensive self-searching has lead me to see that attributing my creativity (or any part of my self) to a being outside of myself diminished my belief in my own power and abilities, and took away my personal responsibility for what was or was not working in my life. I found this kind of belief very disempowering, so I struggled to move comfortably past these requests to ‘let go and let God’ (clearly, I still have some hang ups). If you read this last paragraph and think ‘hey, that kind of makes me feel something’, go watch yourself some Alan Watts. If you read it and think that I am all wrong and faith is the way then clearly we are on two different paths, even if we are in the same forrest. I’m not judging your belief, I’m happy that you have joy in your life and (believe it or not) I greatly admire people who hold their faith. It’s just not my kind of cup of tea.
My point is that even if I have not thought much about the theme of the week, the act of reading that chapter and doing a couple of the tasks planted a seed for me to take notice of what is benefiting and/or hindering my creativity. It put some things at the front of my mind which lead to some real ‘ah ha’ moments in regards to that theme, and I have had some great breakthroughs. I am motivated to prioritise my art, feed my creativity and fuel my inspiration. No, I do not think these are messages from above, but the reading and tasks have been pretty powerful tools that started my mind working around the day to day blocks I have unknowingly put in place or allowed to exist.
I’ll no doubt have more to share at the end of the program, and will try to write more about a few of my experiences in the coming weeks.
Whipit good 😉