Complete "The Artist's Way"

1. Make gingerbreadmen
2. Take some round to S
3. Bring my CD player out Set it up
4. Get some new CDs
5. Have a creative folder
6. Learn to meditate
7. Create a ‘dressing table’
8. Buy long slipper socks
9. Get a small Buddha head
10. Meditate and burn incense 15 mins a day morning and evening
11. Create a scriptwriting folder
12. Create vision walls + boards + collages
13. Buy some glue
14. Buy some art pencils
15. Get rid of old jewellery-Charity shop find some batteries for my clock
16. Make a cushion case out of my old top
17. Throw out holey socks and underwear
18. Own a beautiful bra
19. Read ‘A Tale of Two Cities’
20. Get my hair cut and dyed
21. Carry round a small sketch book

I began again today, but read through the chapters of both Walking in this World and TAW, and have completed WitW tasks including writing a list of 20 activities, which I’ll list here. I’ve decided to replenish the list once I’ve completed something off it. I’m also going to try meditation whilst doing TAW, and to read books that I think will help inspire me in some way. I’ve also been making quite a few vision boards, and am going to keep working on that. I did my morning pages (more like noon pages) today, and some affirmations, including working with blurts. I’m also going to try and read the Basic Principles each morning and evening which is recommended later in the course.

I got oh so close to completing this goal but sort of got lost along the last few weeks, I’ve tried to go back and complete certain weeks but I think for it to work you have to start from the beginning again, which means the dreaded reading deprivation week all over again.
I think I’m going to combine the weeks with the one’s in Walking in this World, and see how that goes as in comparison Walking in this world seems much lighter exercise-wise. I think I’m also going to summarise and put in my own words what each chapter is about and how it relates to me, so I get a deeper understanding and connect better to the chapters. So we’ll see how it goes again.
Areas I need to focus on are giving myself enough time to complete the chapters. For instance I often read that week’s chapter did a few exercises and then the next week read the next week’s chapter and tried to catch up with the previous week’s exercises, sometimes I skipped entire week’s exercises, this happened towards the end when I had a lot going on, from about week 6 onwards.
I also have to prepare an artist’s date and make it non-negotiable.
Consider having a number of small artist dates as well.
I really want to focus on the book and complete the tasks and get writing/drawing/creating!!

Well, I’m not officially done yet, but I’ve finished the course and it took me 14 weeks, for I’ve experienced a small creative U-turn during the last weeks of the course and it took me about 2 weeks to write my way out of it. Honestly, when I first ordered the book, I was very sceptical. All I saw was a huge book (well, al least the writings weren’t too small, lol), and it was in english too (since english is not my mother tongue in the first place) that was a HUGE challenge, oh yeah !!! Then, there was this tool : ‘the morning pages’..and I must admit, I always thought of me as someone not regular at all, then I was also addicted to facebook to the point that it would literally eat all my time, I was trapped in an abusive relationship, I was lacking self-esteem, frustrated by external pressures and I thought I was done with art and the concept of God,...gosh, was I wrong !!!!!! This book (if used properly) is a miracle !!! I can’t mention everything it has helped me realize, but all I can say is that in times when nobody would be there to encourage me, it just felt like an understanding friend, a perfect shoulder to cry on and a door to a great deal of possibilities. I am so grateful !!!! What a journey !!! :))))

Great Creator, grant me with the endless joy of

pursuing your work through me and expand my senses.

I allow Your art to flow through me,

for Your art is perfection.

I open myself to any possibility you put in my way,

in order to make your work come to good.

Let me be kind to myself and forcused on my well-being,

for YOU put me in charge of myself.

Make me strong and help me translate the language

of signs. Let me say what you always mean

and heal me from my misunderstandings. Protect

me from my ego and its evil and uncontrollable bursts.

Grant me with humility, always, and let me be

that never-ending spring of fresh water, to make

people recover through Your work operating. Talk to me

everyday and help me love my brothers and sisters.

Help me to remain true to myself above all, true

to how you created me and true to your purpose

for my life, and may Your strenght fill me all the time.

Amen.

... I’m officially through the introductory chapters. I want to get started on week one tonight.

Just started week 2!

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.

doing it again!

After much procrastinating and waiting for the right time, I just decided to go for it! I read the introduction and the first chapter last night and wrote my first set of morning pages this morning.

As a result, I felt much more focused in my classes today. It was cathartic to write out random thoughts. It made room for all the dense philosophical ideas brought up during my classes.

I might even try free writing on philosophy. I think it might help me figure out which theories I subscribe to.