I'm doing 43 things
“The Artist’s Way Week 1: Recovering a Sense of Safety deals with realizing what negative beliefs and hurts from the past are blocking or restricting your creativity and replacing them with positive affirmations.”
Morning Pages: I did Morning Pages every day. Just sitting there with the Journal and waiting expectantly, something to write always came to mind. I was tempted to switch from 8.5×11” pages to a 6×9” steno pad, but found that if I do the journaling as prescribed by writing out the full three pages quickly, I push beyond the surfacey stuff of life and break through to address deeper personal issues which limit my creative expression.
Artist’s Date: I enjoyed this week’s Artist’s Date, which Julia Cameron says is for “receiving-opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance.” I know I need that. My date time was spent at the library reading and looking at quilting magazines. Later I pulled my collection of scrap fabrics out from the back corner of a closet and took stock of what’s there. I’d really like to make the quilt I found at the library sometime in the New Year.
Other Issues: As I do Morning Pages and work through the exercises (completed the Monster Hall of Fame, one written account of a specific monster encounter which injured me, Affirmations and Blurts, the Hall of Champions which built up my creative self-worth, started the Image File assigned in a later chapter, and walked daily outdoors enjoying the beautiful weather while quietly speaking my new affirmations) I am actually engaging in the hard work of therapy. At times this week it has been very distressing. I even started getting physically ill, so chose to pull back and simply take care of myself. I think I accomplished a lot this week, but feel I may have pushed too much. I want to learn how to best pace myself along The Artist’s Way journey, so that I can hang in there until completion. I’m thinking I may give myself a Sabbath break, skip tomorrow’s Morning Pages, just chill out with family, then get back to the work of creative recovery first thing Monday morning…:)
