This team of 7 people wants to…

Complete "The Artist's Way"

See everyone with this goal (393 people)


 



Entries from people on this team:

Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 9 entries…)
taken from The Artist way webpage.... 20 hours ago

The Basic Tools
There are two pivotal tools in creative recovery: the morning pages and the artist date. A lasting creative awakening requires the consistent use of both. I like to introduce them both immediately, and at sufficient length to answer most of your questions. This chapter explains these tools carefully and in depth. Please read it with special care and begin the immediate use of both tools.

In order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it. I ask you to do this by an apparently pointless process I call the morning pages.
You will do the pages daily through all the weeks of the course and, I hope, much longer. I have been doing them for a decade now. I have students who have worked with them nearly that long and who would no more abandon them than breathing.

Morning Pages
Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages—they are not high art. They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind—and they are for your eyes only.

The Artist Date
The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic”—think mischief more than mastery



Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 9 entries…)
Day two- of week one..... 1 day ago

Morning pages – check
Tasks: one thru four- check

I’m happy with the work I’ve done so far!!!



oye vey is exiting retrograde

Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 2 entries…)
team player 3 days ago

Hi everybody, I’m new to this team.
And actually I’ve never done anything on a 43t team before, so I’m new to teams too.
I’m just starting with The Artist’s Way. I’ve done two days of morning pages and read the introductory chapters.
I wonder: is everyone reading their chapters on the same days? Or … what is it that makes us a ‘team’ beyond having the same desire to work on this goal?
Also is anyone else just starting out? I have not yet begun my week 1 lesson … if anyone else is at the same stage I am, maybe we can be ‘classmates’ – discussing the chapters / assignments as they come. That is what I am looking for in joining up with a team.
Ok, good luck everyone! j



Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 9 entries…)
well it's about time.... 4 days ago

I read this book ages ago and then filed it away and forgot about it.. but I found it yesterday cleaning up and re-arrnaging, so I am going to start today! and even better my good friend Lady James is going to be a team with me so we can egg each other on!!

I’m going to start my pages today.. although I do journal each morning before I get out of bed!



oye vey is exiting retrograde

Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 2 entries…)
just getting started 5 days ago

I’ve got the book and the workbook, today I got a lovely little notebook for my morning pages, and finally I have enough stability in my life that the idea of routine seems feasible. Time to get started. This is a program I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now; finally I feel ready.

I’ve finished reading the introduction … think I’ll get into the practice of morning pages for a few days before I jump into chapter one. Maybe in the meantime maybe I can convince one of my flatmates to join me. So much nicer to enter into discipline with some company.



lovingeveryminute loves cleaning the house ♥ ♥ ♥

Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 32 entries…)
Week 11 Revisited -- Exploring My Sense of Autonomy 1 month ago

LOL. I had to laugh when I saw that I checked in for Week 10 on March 21st. That was nearly seven months ago, and I haven’t even been letting this sit on the proverbial back burner. It’s just that I’ve had so many other things going on that I only get to it once in a while. That in itself is an exercise in Autonomy (Independence) – studying at my own pace.

MORNING PAGES: I first started doing them 2 years before I started Week 11 for this second go-round. I’m still at it. I don’t feel the need to rid myself of extra words EVERY single morning anymore, but I have filled 364 sheets of notebook paper over the past 210 days, and that averages out to 1.7 pages per day, so I’m keeping up. In fact, when we went to Europe this summer, I didn’t write a single “morning page” (my ramblings and affirmation, etc), but I did fill an entire journal with our travelogues and my impressions of Nice, Florence, Rome, Venice, Lake Maggiore, Lucerne, Paris, Calais, Dover, London, and everywhere in between. Then when my mom and I went to Maine, I kept another journal of that trip, and she thought it was cool, so I bought her a journal, too. She started Artist’s Way many years ago, probably when it first came out, so she knows about morning pages and did them for a while. She told me keeping her journal reminded her of that.

EXERCISES: By the time I was done, my Chapter 11 re-write was sectioned off into seven exercises, most of which are outlined in the book. My rendition of Week 11 is 22 pages long, while the original is only 13. This is significant to me because I already did this once and, really, completing it again is simply accomplishing Task 10 of Week 12. The first time I went through the book, my writing was in a little journal, 56 pages total. I am studying myself much more carefully this time.

This time through Week 11, I concentrated on one particular area of difficulty in my life that needs better Autonomy (self-government). My favorite reminder was no matter what my goal is, I should go at it like a beginner. ;)

TASKS: OK, 1, 2, and 3 were stupid drivel and a waste of time. Julia Cameron asking people to worship her instead of finding their own things to stand for. Whatever. I changed them around to suit my needs. Task 4 was enlightening. I liked the part on page 85 where she says that writing morning pages symbolizes a willingness to communicate with God. That’s what my affirmation does for me. Well, that’s what prayer and daily scripture study do for me, but my affirmation acknowledges His Hand in my Life and I write it IN my morning pages every day. I dutifully wrote out Tasks 5, 6, and 7, and did find a good insight. I’ve changed my daily routine to include working on my 43T goals, so a year from now, my Life List should look a LOT different. That will be interesting. The letter for Task 8 turned into a package full of goodies that will help me achieve my various art goals, but I didn’t mail it. No sense in wasting the money. I was outraged at Task 9. Julia Cameron is cracked. “Re-examine your God concept” ?! God is not a “concept” that can be rearranged to suit a mood. I know Him. He gave each one of us Life and all things exist to remind us that He loves us. Just look around. God does help those who help themselves—like this: Here’s all the Joy in the Universe. Help Yourself! I’ll make more. Too many people leave the blessings sitting on the table. Task 10 allowed me to ponder on some of mine.

ARTIST’S DATE: Oh, my goodness. What have I done since last March that wasn’t an Artist Date?! I made several gorgeous flower arrangements for a church conference in April and got tons of compliments, even from people I didn’t know. I had wedding flowers, sewing projects and my Spring piano recital in May. We went to Europe in June, primarily Italy, and if going to the place where Art was invented and learning about the old Masters isn’t an Artist Date, I don’t know what is! A camping trip in July was very nurturing. The trip to Maine in August was for a painting class, so that was an Artist Date anyway. Plus, my mom and I had a blast exploring Maine and New Hampshire together. I made a wedding cake in September, which used my artistic skill as well as my very last ounce of patience. And just last weekend, I finished editing my daughter’s book. My life has been full and full of nice things and that’s why it took seven months to do one “week” worth of activities in The Artist’s Way. :D

ISSUES: Heh, heh. Well, I know I do NOT want to go into the wedding cake business.

SYNCHRONICITY: Everything! Everything works together to bring me the things I want and need. I get what I focus on, which is the FACT that Life is BIG and wonderful and trials are there for me to prove that I am strong, and blessings are there to remind me that trials pass anyway. Oh, and this quote: Time flies whether you’re having fun or not.



spiraljetty Stop bending my right arm and let it rest

Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 30 entries…)
Finished reading! 4 months ago

I read Chapters 9-12 and now I’ll finish the tasks! The end is in sight and it feels great to have learned so much.



spiraljetty Stop bending my right arm and let it rest

Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 30 entries…)
Yet again, I continue 4 months ago

Got stuck in chapter 8. Had some life issues to work through apparently. Just got back from my Artists Date. Wrote many days this week. Had some syncronicity that should get an award. Putting the best of the artist date events into my gratitude list and off to read.



lovingeveryminute loves cleaning the house ♥ ♥ ♥

Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 32 entries…)
Week 10 Revisited -- Exploring My Sense of Self-Protection 8 months ago

First of all, I think taking my time and not letting anyone else’s idea of what I should do and when I should do it is an important step in self-protection. Of course, I have to be at school at designated times, but that still, is a choice.

I checked in on Chaper Nine four MONTHS ago. In that time, the Artist’s Way book and my journal haven’t been sitting around forgotten at all. I was working on it between Thanksgiving and the trip to Cancun and making Christmas cards and enjoying the holidays with all my girls home from colleges, and the long-term sub stint throughout February. I was lucky to squeeze in the dozen or so days I did!

MORNING PAGES: Let’s see. I do them MOST mornings. I’ve cut down to about 2 pages per day, but it’s both sides of a full-size sheet of notebook paper, which is much more writing than 3 pages in a 5×8 journal. Just for the record, I’ve only written 26 days since November 21, 2008, but I’ve filled 73 sheets of notebook paper. A lot of days, I would write 5-8 pages, and then sometimes just 2.

EXERCISES: There were 10 exercises in chapter 10, or at least that’s how I broke it down for myself. I realized that I never have bothered to protect myself effectively from people who want to hurt me. I still don’t, but now I don’t have as much of a need to. I don’t take anything personally anymore. I know I don’t own anyone else’s problems, so when they lash out at me, or try to use me, or attempt to guilt me into something, I can look at their actions objectively and calmly and either support them in their stress or tell them where they can stick their evil intentions.

There is an entire section about workaholism. I’ve never had it, so the quiz was just a long way around to tell me to stop putting off fun until the house is clean.

Drought. A whole section on drought. A few of the insights JC shares on drought are interesting, but I doubt she has ever lived through a real, real one. Like having no water for 14 years. That’s what Arizona has been like. We haven’t had any substantial rainfall since 1995. This year it feels different. Maybe because we redid our yard and I now live in an oasis of peacefulness, but I think our drought may really be coming to an end. There is a lot to learn from having to live without water. Ms. Cameron says personal “drought” is fighting with God. Not so with REAL drought. WE pray, even if it is just for rain, but it’s usually not. We have come closer to God through this drought. Drought makes a person stronger if they have the wherewithal to withstand it.

Fame: Near the bottom of page 171, she says, “The point of the work is the work.” How true. If you don’t like doing something, find something else to do or someone else to do it. To me, Fame is an exercise in futility. Being known for greatness is not a bad thing, but depending on being known is. There are an awful lot of people out there who can’t be happy for the success of others. Everything is a competition. If one person gets a compliment, they think, “What about ME?”
How can I help others to see that one person’s success takes nothing from them. There’s a few of these people around me. I can feel myself being separate from this trap and I am glad. :)

Interesting: the first time through the book, I just read the chapter and didn’t even take notes on the Drought or Fame parts. Now my discoveries take up 4½ pages!

Another great quote in the Competition section: “All work is influenced by other work.” page 174. Great perspective!

TASKS: The Deadlies was stupid. 5 pages of dumbness. I wrote that much on it, so there are probably some insights in there, but the whole pulling paper gimmick was lame.

On the other hand, I LOVED THE TOUCHSTONE EXERCISE!!! I wrote three whole pages and loved every minute of it. =D

Task 3 was useful. Task 4 was rather pointless, considering there was no follow-through activity assigned to any of the so-called “bottom lines.” Task 5 was full of nice reminders.

ARTIST’S DATE: Hmmm. Over the past four months, I’ve done tons of stuff by myself, any of which could be considered an artist date, but I think, really, what I’ve done that promotes self-preservation the best is simply sitting in my big comfy chair on my front patio first thing in the morning, reading my scriptures, writing my morning pages, listening to the mocking birds, doves, sparrows and finches, and watching my hilarious little hummingbirds flitting around and clicking at me. My Dearest gave me the best Artist Date ever by tearing out the old overgrown garden, building that courtyard and landscaping the front yard.

ISSUES: Overall, I think my need for self-protection leans toward NOT being taken advantage of and NOT being sucked into the emotional game-playing of people who might enjoy hurting me. There are a few of those folks scattered around my life. My focus is to be an objective observer to their words and actions. Then even if their intentions are to cause me pain, I can watch and listen without internalizing any of their crap.

SYNCHRONICITY: I have been writing “invitations” for things or experiences that I want in my life experience. MANY of these have come to fruition! Just a few that have “synchronized” in the past few months are: a trip to Cancun with the invited Travel Vouchers; a new, beautiful courtyard and a fun, welcoming home; new kitchen counters, sink and faucet; new wood flooring; new behaviors from my Dearest that have brought us closer (such as reading together at night and going on walks, plus a lot more good stuff); a support system in my efforts to get back into size 10 jeans; and last, but certainly not least, PINK PENS! I love pink ink and have been searching diligently for pink pens. The other night, I found something on Amazon that had free shipping, but I needed to buy another $6 worth of stuff. I found some pink pens for $7.99/doz and they came yesterday and I am very happy about it! =D



spiraljetty Stop bending my right arm and let it rest

Complete "The Artist's Way" (read all 30 entries…)
Back to writing on the bus 11 months ago

I really get a chance to do this only on the bus. It works. I’m back to putting my life back together. Always have to redefine what I want.




 

43 Things Login