Artist Way – Week 6 Harvest – Recovering Sense of Abundance

“If we take care of God’s business – God will take care of ours”

This week, today, I entered Abundance. Literally. Today on Mother’s Mary birthday Feast, I did my home Blessing Pooja. And its abundance – Feast personified (well the house equivalent of it). Many of us were not ging to show up. But everyone did.  Many of us don’t really consciously ask ourselves what our ideas and beliefs around money are, but those ideas are deeply embedded in us and hugely affect the decisions we make and the way we experience life. We have not always been “respectful” of money or talked about it. When it comes to creative recovery and nurturing our inner artist, not only do our beliefs around finances affect our actions (or inaction) towards our creative dreams, but they shape our overall feelings about creativity. We have given money often to people and not thought much about it.

Week 6 of  focus on “Recovering a Sense of Abundance.” During this week, the focus turns to how creative individuals frequently grapple with ideas of abundance and scarcity, especially in relation to financial concerns, self-esteem, and perceived limitations of resources. It’s almost as if  a creative life MUST be non luxurious, and poverty stricken. Artist way confronts the notion that creativity must be accompanied by financial sacrifice, encouraging artists to cultivate a broader, more positive perspective on abundance in their lives.

Money and Creativity

Many artists harbour a deep-seated belief that pursuing creativity leads to financial instability. This scarcity mindset can block creative flow and foster anxiety around material wealth.

 “Am I enough?”

Cameron encourages participants to reflect on their beliefs about money and how those beliefs impact their ability to pursue creative projects. She suggests that nurturing creativity should be seen as compatible with material success and abundance.

Here’s an exercise from the book that might help you identify your mindset around money and the meaning it holds in your life.

Try this activity from the book – Complete the following phrases:

1. People with money are __________________.
2. Money makes people ___________________.
3. Id’ have more money if __________________.
4. My dad thought money was ______________.
5. My mom always thought money would _____.
6. In my family, money caused ______________.
7. Money equals __________________________.
8. If I had money, I’d _______________________.
9. If I could afford it, I’d _____________________.
10. If I had some money, I’d __________________.
11. I’m afraid that if I had money I would _______.
12. Money is ______________________________.
13. Money causes _________________________.
14. Having money is not ____________________.
15. In order to have more money, I’d need to ___.
16. When I have money, I usually _____________.
17. I think money __________________________.
18. If I weren’t so cheap I’d __________________.
19. People think money _____________________.
20. Being broke tells me ____________________

LUXURY

For those of us who have become Creatively anorexic, yearning to be creative and refusing to feed that hunger in ourselves, becoming more and more focused on deprivation, a little authentic luxury goes a long way. The key word is AUTHENTIC. Often we don’t even allow ourselves to say the word. Keep the “good china”, godo perfume etc…. for a better occasion. (it’s too luxurious for just me)

We need to pamper ourselves, art is born in expansion. This pampering takes different forms for different people, it can mean having a flower in a vase by your bed, or listening to your real favourite music, or buying a new pair of jeans, or a course subscription, or a new favourite colour t-shirt,   or just treating yourself to an hour of doing nothing but just luxuriously breathing the sky. And FEELING abundant. Perspective is am Amazing thing. Remember for those who are not able to breathe, just a fill lunged Breath ….is.a Luxury.

Money is NEVER an authentic block. The block is our feeling of constriction, powerlessness. Art requires us to empower ourselves with a sense of choice. This means, at it’s most basic, to take care of ourselves and your Mind and its patterns of Beliefs that have gone way beyond it’s expiry date.

This stems from denying yourself luxury… not white dogs, diamonds, and a yacht, but the luxury of time with real friends, time to just kick back and relax, time to think for yourself, to explore your dreams. The luxury of enjoying your life. (Because deep down you didn’t feel you are worth it. But You ARE Worth it.)

We have a deep belief that it’s RESPONSIBLE to discount joy.

What gives you true joy? That is the question to ask regarding luxury. Fresh raspberries is as valid an answer as a day on the beach. Blocked creatives are the Cinderellas of the world. Focusing on others at our own expense, we may even be threatened by the idea of spoiling ourselves. Don’t lose Cinderella, just focus on that glass slipper.

So what is creative luxury and what does it look like?

Here’s the simple answer:

• “What gives us true joy? That is the question to ask concerning luxury, and for each of us the answer is very different.”

Here are some examples of what creative luxury might look like for different people:

• Carving out 15 minutes of uninterrupted time every day for you to sit and do something creative
• Claiming one small corner of the house as your creative space and organizing it with all the things that make you happy
• Treating yourself to those art supplies that you’ve been eyeing for months
• Just going and sitting in a park, by the sea or simply on a bench with your drawing book. (even pretending you are sketching)
• Signing up for that creative workshop or online course
• Feel free to add your own

For many of us, if we dig a little deeper, we may find some hidden toxic beliefs about money and art ,often the two not in the same sentence. For example.

• Artists are always broke.
• Real artists are crazy and irresponsible (or broke)
• Creative people aren’t good at managing money.
• Creative people aren’t good at maths or numbers of any kind.
• Being poor is romantic and virtuous.
• Having a vocation means accepting poverty and precarious employment.
• Talking about money is rude or embarrassing, and asking for more money is greedy and selfish.

You get the gist.

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