And so we are in Week1. Growing up, we have all been implicitly or explicitly ridiculed, dismissed, hurt, shamed, disheartened or downright forbidden by people in our lives whose opinion and approval mattered to us, to keep our “creative self” in check, minimised or starved. Ofcourse the well meaning advice is.. if you become an artist you will starve.) And slowly their voices of disapproval became our voice of disapproval inside our head. And so, NOT feeling safe, we slowly learnt to push, the creative self away..hide it.. dismiss it, critic it or shame it ourselves or worse – Ignore it completely. And with that we stopped noticing the beauty of things around us, taking risks, dreaming, being audacious, wander, be ok with uncertainty, be vulnerable, be ok with wanting more or wanting less – all the things an Artist experiences. And then we find ourselves, not able to feel, the fullness of Joy, of grief of Abundance of deep connection to everyone and everything – and so, need for safety from ‘outside‘ rules our decisions, thoughts and lives. and yet.. We are expected to “manage change”, be innovation, be agile, be kind, be less controlling, be expressive, be on purpose etc etc etc.
This Week 1 objective is to slowly start to Provide the Safety to that self from Inside. Through the rituals oof Morning pages, artists dates and the Various Tasks.
Summary of Week 1 – Experiences from “The Artist’s Way”
Morning Pages:
- Discovering ‘Energy Maps’ through stream-of-consciousness writing.
- Noticing positive alignments between thoughts, actions, and words.
- Observing personal affirmations and self-love through writing.
- Feeling no resistance in the body while writing, which felt magical.
Artist Date:
- Enjoyed solitude and shifted focus from perfection to progress, in thinking of dates also
Tasks:
- Simplified and balanced numerous goals.
- Experimented with creative affirmations, noticing immediate positive feedback.
- Converted negative beliefs (blurts) into positive statements.
- Found ‘Monster Hall of Fame’ messy and uncomfortable, but recognized many champions.
- Wrote a letter to a champion (Dad).
- Uncovered belief in a false dichotomy between professional success and personal abundance.
- Recognized existing financial abundance but noted the importance of feeling it.
- Realized being a primary blocker to personal progress.
- Emphasized decluttering space and mind, embracing essentialism as a practice.
Blurts: (Things that your inner critic ..Blurts.. Something that keep the Creative self..a prisoner” – the ‘Monsters that raise their head. ‘ . Some of these may sound familiar…
Caught in the preoccupation of relationships, their either or of “professional success” or relationships.
The core negative belief of not being good at anything, being too fat to dance, being too busy with pursuing many things, not being able to focus on any one thing for too long.
The constant.. is there a perfect way to go on an artists date? – My handwriting is not good. I have to make up or exaggerate some experiences just to “fit”. I dont fully feel the abundance even though I have it. I often get caught up in doing and wanting too many things at once.
Sudden thought of creating ‘Energy Maps’ – Steam of consciousness – Acknowledging good things that are happening – New – Converting my thoughts to words – happy to notice, my things are actions and words are aligning – Blurts: My handwriting is not goo throughout – When I write – I love myself more – As I start to write there is NO resistance in my body – Its MAGICI enjoyed just being by myself – Shift in stressing about how a “perfect” artists date should be. – Not perfection but progress – I want to do many things Ned to Simplify and Balance – Was sceptical about Creative affirmations – but when I did it just as an experiment – I got more Bumbles immediately . – Was shocked to notice my own Negative Belief (Blurts) – did not know where they came from – and the I converted them to I am Awesome – I am good. – Monster hall of fame was – Messy. And uncomfortable – Had lots of ‘champions’ – Write letter to the champion (my Dad) – Discovered the Blurt of – Either or. Between Professional success OR relationship and abundance – Notice that there actually was financial abundance- BUT it not a Feeling YET (so does not matter what actual proof of abundance is there until it FEELs like it its still not there) – I realised that while there were other blockers – I was 99% my own blocker. – I am unravelling myself and life by the grace of god. – Need to Declutter – my space and mind – Essentialism as a practice
A bird doesn't sings because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song
