AWers...Let's see how many more we can add to this list! (Just click edit post and add to the top of the list. Put your name next to it)
Go for a bike ride; include the steep hill you loved to fly down as a child
Go to the circus
Take a walk during your lunch break and really notice everything around you
Listen to your favorite music while sipping on a cup of hot cocoa or cappuccino
Take a long soak in a hot bathtub
Browse a craft gallery -- the stores that sell what other crafters/artists make
Fly a kite
Make a snow creature
Take a walk while it is snowing and listen for the gentle sound of the flakes coming to
rest, make a snow angel before you go inside for a rest by the fireplace or a mug of cocoa or soup
Color in a coloring book
Read aloud several children's books to yourself; have fun creating different voices for the different characters or adding expression to your reading
Watch the sun rise or set
Go to an art museum or art fair
Meditate to the sound of a water fountain
Visit an artist’s supply shop.
Spend some time outdoors with your journal, sketchbook, craft supplies, etc.
Go for a walk, and take your camera with you to document the experience.
Stop by the library, and check out some CDs.
Set a timer, and spend an hour working on something you’ve been putting off.
Create an artist’s workspace in your home.
See an Oscar-nominated movie or a foreign film.
If you don’t have an artist’s blog, start one.
Visit a “creative” shop that has nothing to do with what you actually do–an art supply store, a fabric shop, a music store.
Grab a stack of magazines, and clip whatever looks interesting or cool to create your own inspiration board.
Support the local arts scene. Go to a local festival, music event, art show, play, museum exhibit, etc.
Plant something. Start your own herb garden. Butterfly garden. Plant a tomato or some bulbs. Try a “guerilla garden,” and scatter seeds randomly somewhere to see what grows.
Spend an hour going through your books. Pick ten to read or re-read and ten to donate to charity.
Go to a thrift store. Give yourself 5$ to spend and find something really great that you can do something creative with.
Take a walk on a nature trail. Take your camera.
Write a letter - longhand, on pretty paper - to an old friend.
Give yourself a beauty treatment - a cuticle treatment, a foot soak, exfoliation, hot oil treat, etc.
Go sit at the pond and play in your sketchbook.
Visit all of your childhood playhouse and fort sites.
Sit in the driveway and make designs with pretty rocks. Sing campfire songs.
Sit in the porch-swing and lean your head back as far as you can and look up at the tree branches backward. Think of as many Shakespearean poems as you can while you are doing this.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Artist's Way- Basic Tools
The Artist’s Way --
A Living Channel: The basic Tools
1) The Morning Pages:
Simply, three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness. There is no way to do the Morning Pages wrong. They are the primary tool of creative recovery and are non-negotiable. Just write anything until you have three pages.
2) The Artist’s Date:
Simply, a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. You do not take anyone with you but your inner artist/creative child. This is a sacred time commitment, and a way to open to your imagination-at-play, which is the heart of all good work.
This is a two-step, two directional process: out and then in. doing your morning pages, you are sending out. Doing your artist’s date, you are receiving in. Doing your morning pages, you identify problem areas and concerns. Doing your artist’s date, you being to hear solutions.
Be peaceful at this work/play.
A Living Channel: The basic Tools
1) The Morning Pages:
Simply, three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness. There is no way to do the Morning Pages wrong. They are the primary tool of creative recovery and are non-negotiable. Just write anything until you have three pages.
2) The Artist’s Date:
Simply, a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. You do not take anyone with you but your inner artist/creative child. This is a sacred time commitment, and a way to open to your imagination-at-play, which is the heart of all good work.
This is a two-step, two directional process: out and then in. doing your morning pages, you are sending out. Doing your artist’s date, you are receiving in. Doing your morning pages, you identify problem areas and concerns. Doing your artist’s date, you being to hear solutions.
Be peaceful at this work/play.
Artist's Way-Basic Principals
The Artist’s Way --
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Basic Principles
Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure, creative energy.
There is an underlying, in-dwelling, creative force infusing all of life – including ourselves.
When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.
We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.
As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Basic Principles
Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure, creative energy.
There is an underlying, in-dwelling, creative force infusing all of life – including ourselves.
When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.
We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.
As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.
Week One- Recovering a Sense of Safety
The Artist’s Way --
Recovering a Sense of Safety
This week initiates your creative recovery. You may feel both giddy and defiant, hopeful and skeptical. The readings, tasks, and exercises aim at allowing you to establish a sense of safety, which will enable you to explore your creativity with far less fear.
KEY IDEAS:
Shadow Artists
needing a sense of support
harsh self-judgment
Protecting the Artist Child Within
baby steps – go gently and slowly
find and protect the artist child
be willing to be a “bad” artist to begin
Your Enemy Within: Core Negative Beliefs
fear of the unknown
list of reasons “not to” – beliefs, not facts
Your Ally Within: Affirmative Weapons
affirmations to achieve a sense of safety & hope
watch for the censor / objections / blurts
observe, reflect, dissolve negative blurts
Your Process of Creative Recovery
-- Read through to the end of Chapter One – feel free to make notes in the book.
-- Begin your Morning Pages tomorrow morning.
-- Plan and do an Artist’s Date this week.
-- Do the tasks at the end of the chapter (try completing at least half of them).
Recovering a Sense of Safety
This week initiates your creative recovery. You may feel both giddy and defiant, hopeful and skeptical. The readings, tasks, and exercises aim at allowing you to establish a sense of safety, which will enable you to explore your creativity with far less fear.
KEY IDEAS:
Shadow Artists
needing a sense of support
harsh self-judgment
Protecting the Artist Child Within
baby steps – go gently and slowly
find and protect the artist child
be willing to be a “bad” artist to begin
Your Enemy Within: Core Negative Beliefs
fear of the unknown
list of reasons “not to” – beliefs, not facts
Your Ally Within: Affirmative Weapons
affirmations to achieve a sense of safety & hope
watch for the censor / objections / blurts
observe, reflect, dissolve negative blurts
Your Process of Creative Recovery
-- Read through to the end of Chapter One – feel free to make notes in the book.
-- Begin your Morning Pages tomorrow morning.
-- Plan and do an Artist’s Date this week.
-- Do the tasks at the end of the chapter (try completing at least half of them).
Week 2- Recovering a Sense of Identity
The Artist’s Way --
Recovering a Sense of Identity
This week addresses self-definition as a major component of creative recovery. You may find yourself drawing new boundaries and staking out new territories as your personal needs, desires, and interests announce themselves. The essays and tools are aimed at moving you into your personal identity, a self-defined you.
KEY IDEAS:
Going Sane -- Going sane may feel, at first, like going crazy
-- Making changes and accepting those changes
Poisonous Playmates -- Friends giving negative feedback may also be blocked
-- Blocked friends may find your recovery disturbing
-- Be careful to safeguard the newly recovering artist
Crazymakers -- These are personalities that are enormously destructive
-- Crazymakers sabotage you – destroy schedules, expect special treatment, discount your reality, spend your time/money, triangulate, blame, prioritize only their schedules, hate order, deny they’re crazymakers
Skepticism -- The secret doubt – “I can’t believe_____________________”
-- We keep our own thoughts about what’s possible and what’s not
-- Accept “coincidences” and flow with them
Attention -- Attention, not aimlessness, is a way to connect & survive your unfolding creative energies
-- The quality of life is in proportion to the capacity for delight
Read Chapter Two and do Tasks at the end
Read “Rules of the Road”, page 55.
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read created Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Recovering a Sense of Identity
This week addresses self-definition as a major component of creative recovery. You may find yourself drawing new boundaries and staking out new territories as your personal needs, desires, and interests announce themselves. The essays and tools are aimed at moving you into your personal identity, a self-defined you.
KEY IDEAS:
Going Sane -- Going sane may feel, at first, like going crazy
-- Making changes and accepting those changes
Poisonous Playmates -- Friends giving negative feedback may also be blocked
-- Blocked friends may find your recovery disturbing
-- Be careful to safeguard the newly recovering artist
Crazymakers -- These are personalities that are enormously destructive
-- Crazymakers sabotage you – destroy schedules, expect special treatment, discount your reality, spend your time/money, triangulate, blame, prioritize only their schedules, hate order, deny they’re crazymakers
Skepticism -- The secret doubt – “I can’t believe_____________________”
-- We keep our own thoughts about what’s possible and what’s not
-- Accept “coincidences” and flow with them
Attention -- Attention, not aimlessness, is a way to connect & survive your unfolding creative energies
-- The quality of life is in proportion to the capacity for delight
Read Chapter Two and do Tasks at the end
Read “Rules of the Road”, page 55.
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read created Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 3- Recovering a Sense of Power
The Artist’s Way --
Recovering a Sense of Power
This week may find you dealing with unaccustomed bursts of energy and sharp peaks of anger, joy, and grief. You are coming into your power as the illusory hold of your previously accepted limits is shaken. You will be asked to consciously experiment with spiritual open-mindedness.
KEY IDEAS:
Anger
“Anger is fuel.”
Synchronicity
“watch out what you pray for – you might just get it!”
Shame
“The act of making art exposes a society to itself.”
Dealing with criticism
“Artistic child abuse creates rebellion creates block.”
Detective work: An exercise
Page 73.
Growth
“Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one
step back”
Read Chapter Three and do Tasks at the end (reserve tasks 8, 9, and 10 for the next class meeting)
Do the “Detective Work” on page 73.
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Recovering a Sense of Power
This week may find you dealing with unaccustomed bursts of energy and sharp peaks of anger, joy, and grief. You are coming into your power as the illusory hold of your previously accepted limits is shaken. You will be asked to consciously experiment with spiritual open-mindedness.
KEY IDEAS:
Anger
“Anger is fuel.”
Synchronicity
“watch out what you pray for – you might just get it!”
Shame
“The act of making art exposes a society to itself.”
Dealing with criticism
“Artistic child abuse creates rebellion creates block.”
Detective work: An exercise
Page 73.
Growth
“Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one
step back”
Read Chapter Three and do Tasks at the end (reserve tasks 8, 9, and 10 for the next class meeting)
Do the “Detective Work” on page 73.
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 4- Recovering a Sense of Integrity
The Artist’s Way --
Recovering a Sense of Integrity
This week may find you grappling with changing self-definition. The essays, tasks, and exercises are designed to catapult you into productive introspection and integration of new self-awareness. This may be both very difficult and extremely exciting for you. Warning: do not skip the tool of reading deprivation!
KEY IDEAS:
Honest Changes
What do we mean by, “I feel okay”?
When we have engaged the creator within to heal us, many changes
and shifts in our attitudes begin to occur.
Buried Dreams: An Exercise
Page 86.
Are you remembering more of your dreams?
Reading Deprivation
No reading – by emptying our lives of distractions, we are actually
filling the well.
Read Chapter Four and do Tasks at the end
Do the “Buried Dreams” on page 86.
Start the Reading Deprivation
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Recovering a Sense of Integrity
This week may find you grappling with changing self-definition. The essays, tasks, and exercises are designed to catapult you into productive introspection and integration of new self-awareness. This may be both very difficult and extremely exciting for you. Warning: do not skip the tool of reading deprivation!
KEY IDEAS:
Honest Changes
What do we mean by, “I feel okay”?
When we have engaged the creator within to heal us, many changes
and shifts in our attitudes begin to occur.
Buried Dreams: An Exercise
Page 86.
Are you remembering more of your dreams?
Reading Deprivation
No reading – by emptying our lives of distractions, we are actually
filling the well.
Read Chapter Four and do Tasks at the end
Do the “Buried Dreams” on page 86.
Start the Reading Deprivation
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 5- Recovering a Sense of Possibility
The Artist’s Way --
Recovering a Sense of Possibility
This week you are being asked to examine your payoffs in remaining stuck. You will explore how you curtail your own possibilities by placing limits on the good you can receive. You will examine the cost of settling for appearing good instead of being authentic. You may find yourself thinking about radical changes, no longer ruling out your growth by making others the cause of your constriction.
KEY IDEAS:
Limits
We tend to draw very limited amounts of the power actually available to us – we believe in scarcity.
Finding the River
Acquiring a sense of movement and change in our lives.
We are becoming less rigid.
Replacing “no way” with “maybe”.
The Virtue Trap
For an artist, guiltless withdrawal is necessary.
The artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude.
The urge toward respectability and maturity can be stultifying, even fatal.
The Virtue Trap Quiz, page 101.
Forbidden Joys; An Exercise Page 101
Wish List; An Exercise Page 102
Read Chapter Five
Do the exercises on pages 101- 02
Do Tasks #2, #4, #5, and #7 – be prepared to share next week
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Recovering a Sense of Possibility
This week you are being asked to examine your payoffs in remaining stuck. You will explore how you curtail your own possibilities by placing limits on the good you can receive. You will examine the cost of settling for appearing good instead of being authentic. You may find yourself thinking about radical changes, no longer ruling out your growth by making others the cause of your constriction.
KEY IDEAS:
Limits
We tend to draw very limited amounts of the power actually available to us – we believe in scarcity.
Finding the River
Acquiring a sense of movement and change in our lives.
We are becoming less rigid.
Replacing “no way” with “maybe”.
The Virtue Trap
For an artist, guiltless withdrawal is necessary.
The artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude.
The urge toward respectability and maturity can be stultifying, even fatal.
The Virtue Trap Quiz, page 101.
Forbidden Joys; An Exercise Page 101
Wish List; An Exercise Page 102
Read Chapter Five
Do the exercises on pages 101- 02
Do Tasks #2, #4, #5, and #7 – be prepared to share next week
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 6- Recovering a Sense of Abundance
The Artist’s Way --
Recovering a Sense of Abundance
This week you tackle a major creative block – money. You are asked to really look at your own ideas around God, money, and creative abundance. The essays will explore the ways in which your attitudes limit abundance and luxury in your current life. You will be introduced to counting, a block-busting tool for clarity and right use of funds. This week may feel volatile.
KEY IDEAS:
The Great Creator
Many of us equate difficulty with virtue and art with fooling around.
Expecting divine help, we tend to receive it.
If you want to make some art, make some art.
When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open to us.
Luxury
It is critical that we pamper ourselves for the sense of abundance it brings to us.
In order to thrive as artists, we need to be available to the universal flow.
Luxury is a learned practice for most of us.
What we are talking about when we discuss luxury is often a shift in consciousness . . .
Creative living requires the luxury of space and time.
Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.
Counting: An Exercise
Buy a small pocket notepad and write down every nickel you spend.
Money Madness: An Exercise Page 113
Read Chapter Six
Do Tasks at end of chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Recovering a Sense of Abundance
This week you tackle a major creative block – money. You are asked to really look at your own ideas around God, money, and creative abundance. The essays will explore the ways in which your attitudes limit abundance and luxury in your current life. You will be introduced to counting, a block-busting tool for clarity and right use of funds. This week may feel volatile.
KEY IDEAS:
The Great Creator
Many of us equate difficulty with virtue and art with fooling around.
Expecting divine help, we tend to receive it.
If you want to make some art, make some art.
When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open to us.
Luxury
It is critical that we pamper ourselves for the sense of abundance it brings to us.
In order to thrive as artists, we need to be available to the universal flow.
Luxury is a learned practice for most of us.
What we are talking about when we discuss luxury is often a shift in consciousness . . .
Creative living requires the luxury of space and time.
Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.
Counting: An Exercise
Buy a small pocket notepad and write down every nickel you spend.
Money Madness: An Exercise Page 113
Read Chapter Six
Do Tasks at end of chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 7- Recovering a Sense of Connection
The Artist’s Way --
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of connection
We turn this week to the practice of right attitudes for creativity. The emphasis is on your receptive as well as active skills. The essays, exercises, and tasks aim at excavating areas of genuine creative interest as you connect with your personal dreams.
KEY IDEAS:
Listening
Art is about getting something down – being engaged in the listening.
We are the instrument more than the author of our work.
Learn to accept that the universe is helping you.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead.
The perfectionist creates with one eye on the audience, grading the results.
A normal part of creativity is the ability to let go.
Risk
In order to do something, we must first be willing to do it badly.
Safety is a very expensive illusion.
“So do it – if you win, you win; if you lose, you win.”
Jealousy
Jealousy is always a mask for fear.
Jealousy strips us of our will to act when action holds the key to our freedom.
The Jealousy Map: An Exercise Page 124
Even the biggest changes begin with small ones.
Archeology: An Exercise Page 125
Read Chapter Seven
Do Tasks at end of chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of connection
We turn this week to the practice of right attitudes for creativity. The emphasis is on your receptive as well as active skills. The essays, exercises, and tasks aim at excavating areas of genuine creative interest as you connect with your personal dreams.
KEY IDEAS:
Listening
Art is about getting something down – being engaged in the listening.
We are the instrument more than the author of our work.
Learn to accept that the universe is helping you.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead.
The perfectionist creates with one eye on the audience, grading the results.
A normal part of creativity is the ability to let go.
Risk
In order to do something, we must first be willing to do it badly.
Safety is a very expensive illusion.
“So do it – if you win, you win; if you lose, you win.”
Jealousy
Jealousy is always a mask for fear.
Jealousy strips us of our will to act when action holds the key to our freedom.
The Jealousy Map: An Exercise Page 124
Even the biggest changes begin with small ones.
Archeology: An Exercise Page 125
Read Chapter Seven
Do Tasks at end of chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 8- Recovering a Sense of Strength
The Artist’s Way --
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Strength
This week tackles another major creative block: time. You will explore the ways in which you have used your perception of time to preclude taking creative risks. You will identify immediate and practical changes you can make in your current life. You will excavate the early conditioning that may have encouraged you to settle for far less than you desire creatively.
KEY IDEAS:
Survival
All artists must learn the art of surviving loss.
Our artist is a child.
Unmourned disappointment becomes a barrier that separates us from future dreams.
The Ivory Power
Creativity cannot be quantified in intellectual terms.
The thrust of intellectualism runs counter to the creative impulse.
Gain Disguised as Loss
Art is the act of structuring time . . . every end is a beginning.
When hit by loss, ask the right questions – “what next?” instead of “Why me?”
Age & Time: Product & Process
“I’m too old” – an excuse to save ourselves from the emotional cost of ego deflation involved in being a beginner.
Creativity occurs in the moment, and in the moment we are ageless.
Filling the Form
Taking the next small step instead of skipping ahead to a large one for which you may not yet be prepared.
Early Patternings: An Exercise Page 144
Affirmations Page 145
Read Chapter Eight
Do Tasks at end of chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Strength
This week tackles another major creative block: time. You will explore the ways in which you have used your perception of time to preclude taking creative risks. You will identify immediate and practical changes you can make in your current life. You will excavate the early conditioning that may have encouraged you to settle for far less than you desire creatively.
KEY IDEAS:
Survival
All artists must learn the art of surviving loss.
Our artist is a child.
Unmourned disappointment becomes a barrier that separates us from future dreams.
The Ivory Power
Creativity cannot be quantified in intellectual terms.
The thrust of intellectualism runs counter to the creative impulse.
Gain Disguised as Loss
Art is the act of structuring time . . . every end is a beginning.
When hit by loss, ask the right questions – “what next?” instead of “Why me?”
Age & Time: Product & Process
“I’m too old” – an excuse to save ourselves from the emotional cost of ego deflation involved in being a beginner.
Creativity occurs in the moment, and in the moment we are ageless.
Filling the Form
Taking the next small step instead of skipping ahead to a large one for which you may not yet be prepared.
Early Patternings: An Exercise Page 144
Affirmations Page 145
Read Chapter Eight
Do Tasks at end of chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 9- Recovering a Sense of Compassion
The Artist’s Way --
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Compassion
This week finds us facing the internal blocks to creativity. It may be tempting to abandon ship at this point. Don’t! We will explore and acknowledge the emotional difficulties that beset us in the past as we made creative efforts. We will undertake healing the shame of past failures. We will gain in compassion as we re-parent the frightened artist child who yearns for creative accomplishment. We will learn tools to dismantle emotional blocks and support renewed risk.
KEY IDEAS:
Fear
Blocked artists are not lazy – they are blocked & frightened.
The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist at all.
Use love for your artist to cure its fear.
Enthusiasm
Being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline.
Our artist child can best be enticed by treating the work as enthusiastic play.
Creative U-Turn
Those who are recovering but still addicted to sympathy can create self-sabotaging behaviors or U-turns.
The ability to avoid or recover from U-turns is powerful.
A successful career is built on surviving failures.
Once we admit the need for help, help arrives.
Blasting Through Blocks
5 steps to working through a block – page 159
Read Chapter nine
Read your Morning Pages (see task 1)
Do the rest of the Tasks at the end of the chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Compassion
This week finds us facing the internal blocks to creativity. It may be tempting to abandon ship at this point. Don’t! We will explore and acknowledge the emotional difficulties that beset us in the past as we made creative efforts. We will undertake healing the shame of past failures. We will gain in compassion as we re-parent the frightened artist child who yearns for creative accomplishment. We will learn tools to dismantle emotional blocks and support renewed risk.
KEY IDEAS:
Fear
Blocked artists are not lazy – they are blocked & frightened.
The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist at all.
Use love for your artist to cure its fear.
Enthusiasm
Being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline.
Our artist child can best be enticed by treating the work as enthusiastic play.
Creative U-Turn
Those who are recovering but still addicted to sympathy can create self-sabotaging behaviors or U-turns.
The ability to avoid or recover from U-turns is powerful.
A successful career is built on surviving failures.
Once we admit the need for help, help arrives.
Blasting Through Blocks
5 steps to working through a block – page 159
Read Chapter nine
Read your Morning Pages (see task 1)
Do the rest of the Tasks at the end of the chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 10- Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
The Artist’s Way --
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
This week we explore the perils that can ambush us on our creative path. Because creativity is a spiritual issue, many of the perils are spiritual perils. In the essays, tasks, and exercises of this week, we search out the toxic patterns we cling to that block our creative flow.
KEY IDEAS:
Dangers of the Trail
Creativity is God energy flowing through us.
Knowing yourself as an artist means acknowledging what things you abuse when you want to block yourself.
It is always fear that leads us to grabbing for a block.
Workaholism
Workaholism is an addiction that blocks creative energy.
Play can make a workaholic very nervous – fun is scary.
The Workaholism Quiz – pg. 167
Drought
In every creative life there are dry seasons.
Stumble on – stay on the morning pages.
Droughts do end.
Fame
Fame is addictive and it always leaves us hungry.
Focusing on fame creates a continual feeling of lack.
The only cure for the fame drug is creative endeavor.
Competition
Competition lies at the root of much creative blockage.
The need to win is the need to win approval from others – learn to approve of yourself.
Read Chapter ten
Do the Tasks at the end of the chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
This week we explore the perils that can ambush us on our creative path. Because creativity is a spiritual issue, many of the perils are spiritual perils. In the essays, tasks, and exercises of this week, we search out the toxic patterns we cling to that block our creative flow.
KEY IDEAS:
Dangers of the Trail
Creativity is God energy flowing through us.
Knowing yourself as an artist means acknowledging what things you abuse when you want to block yourself.
It is always fear that leads us to grabbing for a block.
Workaholism
Workaholism is an addiction that blocks creative energy.
Play can make a workaholic very nervous – fun is scary.
The Workaholism Quiz – pg. 167
Drought
In every creative life there are dry seasons.
Stumble on – stay on the morning pages.
Droughts do end.
Fame
Fame is addictive and it always leaves us hungry.
Focusing on fame creates a continual feeling of lack.
The only cure for the fame drug is creative endeavor.
Competition
Competition lies at the root of much creative blockage.
The need to win is the need to win approval from others – learn to approve of yourself.
Read Chapter ten
Do the Tasks at the end of the chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 11- Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
The Artist’s Way --
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
This week we focus on our artistic autonomy. We examine the ongoing ways in which we must nurture and accept ourselves as artists. We explore the behaviors that can strengthen our spiritual base and, therefore, our creative power. We take a special look at the ways in which success must be handled in order that we not sabotage our freedom.
KEY IDEAS:
Acceptance
I am an artist.
I need to create what wants to be created.
As an artist, my self-respect comes from doing the work.
Success
Creativity is spiritual practice . . . it is not a business.
The stringent requirement of a sustained creative life is the humility to start again, to begin anew.
The Zen of Sports
Blocked creatives are cerebral – move out of the head and into the body via exercise, a moving meditation.
Exercise moves us from stagnation to inspiration, from problem to solution, from self-pity to self-respect.
Building Your Artist’s Altar
The artist child speaks the language of the soul: music, dance, scent, shells . . .
Read Chapter Eleven
Do the Tasks at the end of the chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
This week we focus on our artistic autonomy. We examine the ongoing ways in which we must nurture and accept ourselves as artists. We explore the behaviors that can strengthen our spiritual base and, therefore, our creative power. We take a special look at the ways in which success must be handled in order that we not sabotage our freedom.
KEY IDEAS:
Acceptance
I am an artist.
I need to create what wants to be created.
As an artist, my self-respect comes from doing the work.
Success
Creativity is spiritual practice . . . it is not a business.
The stringent requirement of a sustained creative life is the humility to start again, to begin anew.
The Zen of Sports
Blocked creatives are cerebral – move out of the head and into the body via exercise, a moving meditation.
Exercise moves us from stagnation to inspiration, from problem to solution, from self-pity to self-respect.
Building Your Artist’s Altar
The artist child speaks the language of the soul: music, dance, scent, shells . . .
Read Chapter Eleven
Do the Tasks at the end of the chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Week 12-Recovering a Sense of Faith
The Artist’s Way --
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Faith
In this final week, we acknowledge the inherently mysterious spiritual heart of creativity. We address the fact that creativity requires receptivity and profound trust – capacities we have developed through our work in this course. We set our creative aims and take a special look at last-minute sabotage. We renew our commitment to the use of the tools.
KEY IDEAS:
Trusting
Creativity requires faith and faith requires relinquishing control.
“I trust my own inner guide.”
By trusting, we learn to trust.
Mystery
The creative process is one of surrender, not control.
At the heart of creativity is mystery and surprise – trust the darkness.
Creativity requires respectful reticence.
the Imagination at Play
We must get serious about taking ourselves lightly – we must work at learning to play.
Life is meant to be an artist date – that’s why we were created.
Escape Velocity
Learn to keep your own counsel, to move silently among doubters, and to voice plans only among allies.
Read Chapter Twelve
Do the Tasks at the end of the chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Recovering a Sense of Faith
In this final week, we acknowledge the inherently mysterious spiritual heart of creativity. We address the fact that creativity requires receptivity and profound trust – capacities we have developed through our work in this course. We set our creative aims and take a special look at last-minute sabotage. We renew our commitment to the use of the tools.
KEY IDEAS:
Trusting
Creativity requires faith and faith requires relinquishing control.
“I trust my own inner guide.”
By trusting, we learn to trust.
Mystery
The creative process is one of surrender, not control.
At the heart of creativity is mystery and surprise – trust the darkness.
Creativity requires respectful reticence.
the Imagination at Play
We must get serious about taking ourselves lightly – we must work at learning to play.
Life is meant to be an artist date – that’s why we were created.
Escape Velocity
Learn to keep your own counsel, to move silently among doubters, and to voice plans only among allies.
Read Chapter Twelve
Do the Tasks at the end of the chapter
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)