:: Final Check-In ::

{ Apologies for being late with this check-in.
My Internet was on the blitz last night.}

1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? Have you accepted them as a permanent spiritual practice? How was the experience for you?
2. Did you do your artist date this week? Will you allow yourself these on a permanent basis as well? What did you do? How did it feel?
3. Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it?
4. Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery? Describe them.

Also… We plan to do a “Week 13″ here on the blog where we discuss our breakthroughs, where to go from here with the blog, etc. so please stay tuned! We aren’t finished yet. And as always, your comments and suggestions are appreciated.

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.  ~ Andre Gide

Escape Velocity

ve.loc.i.ty

1. speed

2. rate of change in position

“There’s this time for blast-off, like a NASA space launch, and you’re heading for it when wham, you draw to you the Test.”

“The Test?”

“Yeah. The Test. It’s like when you’re all set to marry the nice guy, the one who treats you right, and Mr. Poison gets wind of it and phones you up…The whole trick is to evade the Test. We all draw to us the one test that’s our total nemesis.”

DON’T BE FOOLED.

As recovering creatives, many of us find that every time something heats up we reach for our nearest Wet Blanket. We blurt out our enthusiasm to our most skeptical friend – in fact, we call him/her up. If we don’t, he calls us. This is the Test.

Zip the lip. Button up. Keep a lid on it. Don’t give away the gold.

Always remember: the first rule of magic is self-containment. Keep your own counsel, move silently among doubters, voice your plans only among your allies, and name your allies accurately.

**Make a list: those friends who will support you. Make another list: those friends who won’t. Name your Wet Blankets for what they are. Wrap yourself in something else—DRY ONES.**

Intention + Self-Determination = Escape Velocity

“Set your sights and don’t let the ogre that looms on the horizon deflect your flight,” Julia Cameron.

Life is an artist’s date…

… We want to do something but we think it needs to be the right something, by which we mean something important.

We are what’s important, and the something that we do can be something festive but small…

Synchronicity has struck again.

I’ve not written a post more poignant to me than this one on “imagination at play”.  Wow.  Did you all read it?  Very powerful, for me anyway, and I hope for each of you too.

Hobbies.

For so long I thought I had a LOT of hobbies and then, one day, I realized that I had hobbies that I TOLD people I had but that I really didn’t put any practice into.  They were more like “show hobbies”.  That realization left me in a bit of a limbo wondering what my real hobbies were and what I really wanted my real hobbies to be, what I wanted to spend that time and energy on.

Whatever they are or might be, they are important.  I’ve always been one to want to turn a hobby into a profitable little business endeavor but we all need to have something in our lives that isn’t about that, that simply feeds our souls for no reason but for color and flair and fun and passion.  Not only do they feed our souls on a very deep level, they fuel us for our professional thinking in a way that nothing else can, as J.C. suggests.  You’ve heard the old saying many times, I’m sure, that if you are stuck on something to leave it for awhile, do something else and come back to it.  The same principle applies here.

Hobbies are our safe spot, they are a place and a time that our spirits know they can just be themselves, be free, where good enough is wonderful.

So, let’s not resist nurturing that, shall we?

::: What are your hobbies?  What are some hobbies you would like to learn more about and pursue some, if any?  Do you plan to put any energy toward those in the near future? :::

You’re either losing your mind — or gaining your soul.  ~ Julia Cameron

Mystery

When I was younger, much younger in fact, I would grow my own vegetables. I liked growing pumpkin, tomatoes and beans. I enjoyed seeing them grow and ripen. I also grew potatoes and carrots too, however I found it difficult to know when they were ready. I would find myself getting impatient with these vegetables and would pluck a few carrots from the ground, or dig up the potatoes. I was always disappointed to find a tiny carrot not even worth eating or nothing at all. I stopped growing potatoes and carrots after that.

Carrots and potatoes are a bit like some of the creative ideas we have. They need to grow in the dark quietly and slowly. If they are disturbed and picked early, then like a carrot they are half done, incomplete and sometimes incomprehensible. We need to be patient and let these creative thoughts grow on their own until we can see them poke out like a carrot coming out of the soil.

Ideas can come to us like light bulbs or bolts of lightening, however often before that, there is a dark period that is necessary for these ideas to come about. All too often we find ourselves trying to push these ideas out onto paper, a canvas, a cake, when we should be giving them time to hatch by themselves.

The truth is that this is how to raise the best ideas. Let them grow in the dark. By trusting this slow and seeming random drip, we will be startled one day by the flash of ‘Oh! That’s it!’ (Julia Cameron)

Trusting

We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way – John Holt

As we begin the final week of TAW, we are given a map. A sort of flow chart documenting how we operate. So, here is our guide to Trusting:

Creativity —–> faith
Faith —–> relinquish control
Relinquishing control —–> Fear
Fear —–> resistance
Resistance —–> roadblocks
Roadblocks —–> depression, anxiety, confusion

But we aren’t really confused. We do know what we want. We know what we know. We must find the courage to admit our inner dreams so that they may unfold. And then we must have faith in that admission…so that we can…resist yet again.

What! Why so much resistance? JC says it is because we are not accustomed to the idea that the will of the Universe and our own inner dreams can coincide. In contrast to cultural and societal messages, our truest dream for ourselves is always the Creator’s will for us.

At the very start of the program we talked about commitment: mainly committing to the 12 weeks it has taken to plow through TAW. But now we ponder commitment on a deeper level: the inner commitment to be true to ourselves and to follow our dreams. When we are ambivalent the Universe will also seem ambivalent.

We may not know what is right around the bend, but we know what is right. By trusting, we learn to trust.

Follow your bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before – Joseph Campbell

Week 12: Recovering a Sense of Faith

What’s next?

That seems to be the big question in this final week.

For the next few days, we’re going to talk about trusting in our dreams, having a hobby as a spiritual practice, and surrounding ourselves with supportive people. We’re going to discuss going with the flow instead of planning every step.

We’re going to learn how to live every day as an Artist’s Date.

Here’s another big question: ARE YOU READY?

***Are you ready for Week 12? Are there areas where you’re still struggling or things (i.e. exercises or personal goals) you really want to accomplish by the end of the week? Let’s finish strong!***

Week 11: Check-In & Feedback

1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? How was the experience for you? Have you recommended morning pages to anyone else? Why?
2. Did you do your artist date this week? (Have you considered scheduling an entire artist’s day? Whew!) What did you do? How did it feel?
3. Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it?
4. Where there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery? Describe them.
5. Bonus: Did you work on your artist’s alter at all?

As we come toward the close of this program, I’d like some feedback from you all on what you want to do with this group / blog. Would you like to embark on another book? Leave it open for TAW discussion? Completely disband? 

:: Let’s have your suggestions! ::

Art happens — no hovel is safe from it, no prince can depend on it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about. ~ James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Building an Artist’s Alter

Your artist is fed by images so creating an alter – a nook where you can go to reflect on and acknowledge your creative soul – is essential to keeping your creativity in good working order.

Here are some tips that might help you get started on creating a space for your inner art god/dess:

• Pick a spot that is cozy, that really speaks to you, that beckons you to spend time in it – just make sure that it is a bit out-of-the-way of the main traffic of your house for a bit of peace and quiet!
• Even if it is small, bring into it a comfortable place to sit – even a cushion on the floor! – and a little table. These are all you need to start with; the fun parts should be added with care and don’t have to be done all at once.
• Consider hanging a beautiful curtain, sheer drapery or beaded hanging for a bit of privacy. This also adds a lot to the visual aspect of your alter.
• Also consider putting up a small bulletin board so that you can hang different things that inspire you at different times. Or, hang a string and use clothespins to clip different images up. Use your imagination on how to display the images that speak to you… Just be sure and don’t clutter!
• And of course you will need your “alter staples”: candles, incense, a couple of art books or books on creativity, a plant or two, a sumptuous throw blanket, a journal, a favorite teacup, a CD of beloved, soothing music and perhaps a mala.

Take this starter and run! Of course, the REAL creation of your alter will come in when you add the things to your space that feed and inspire YOUR inner art god/dess. Small apothecary bottles of beads? Go for it! Pictures of cakes? Yes, ma’am! Several small books of poetry? You got it! Your favorite tiny watercolor? Why not?

Let your spirit and your imagination soar here. This is YOUR space! Make it so!

::: What will your artist’s alter include? Tell us about it! :::

The Zen of Sports

Blocked creatives spend a lot of time thinking about all the things they want to do but can’t. In early recovery we begin to think of all the things we want to do but don’t. In order to recover as a blocked artist and make it last, we need to alter the way we think. ‘We need to move out of the head and into a body of work (Julia Cameron).’

To be creative, we need action, which must be physical, but also meditative. This is when exercise comes in to assist us on our journey of recovery. Twenty minutes a day is all that is required. You may walk, run, cycle or workout. Keep in mind the goal is to give the mind a workout rather than the body, so find an exercise that works for YOU.

Personally, I find going to the gym or a bike ride works for me. It is a time when the working day has finished. During this period I can relax and clear my mind of the days events. In between workouts, I often gaze outside the window into a beautiful view of snowcapped mountains in winter, or rust colored leaves in fall. In this time, my mind is wandering, creativity is reborn every time, and problems are solved.

As a result of exercise, you may find yourself left with a natural high, leaving you feeling energized and ready for creativity. ‘From stagnation to inspiration, from problem to solution, from self-pity to self respect. We do learn by going. We learn we are stronger that we thought. We learn to look at things with a new perspective (Julia Cameron)’ That is the gift we receive from exercise.

$uccess

What’s next? Is a pretty popular question we creatives start to ask ourselves once a project is finished or close to completion.

Successful movies generate a business demand for sequels. Successful books generate a demand for further, similar books…and so on. As artists, we are asked to repeat ourselves and expand on the market we have built. There is a term the music industry uses called, “The Sophomore Slump.” That’s when a musician storms onto the music scene with a grand [successful] entrance who must then follow-up with urgency. The tension and anxiety from the record company’s “Gimme, Gimme” attitude forces the artist to put out something for quantity while the quality tends to suffer. And so, their sophomore album slumps.

Forcing artists to repeat themselves can stymie the creative flow. Reinvention is key. Proof of this can be summed up in one word: Madonna. Whether you like or loathe her, the woman is an icon. And her creativity was always at the forefront.

In short, success is what you make it. Continue with the morning pages. They may be holding the key to your creative success.