The Artist’s Way: Week Four
This week, Julia Cameron detailed how to recover your integrity as a recovering artist. As we dive farther into this minefield, we start to develop strong emotions. We might have before said “I’m Okay” when someone asked us how we are. The beginning of a successful recovery is to break through this “Ok” business, and to explore how you really feel.
The morning pages are meant to explore these strong feelings you may begin to have. As you begin to unravel who you actually are, you are losing the old identity you thought you have and you’ve uncovered a new identity. This brings feelings of anger and resentment. You may feel lost or volatile - the waves of change are coursing through you. It’s at this time Julia Cameron calls for solitude to really discover who you are at the core.
One of the things I do not agree with (at all) is the reading deprivation.
I have a reading goal to read 100 books by the end of the year. This reading deprivation exercise would put me even further behind than I already am.
I think you should try to round out or balance your life. As long as you’re not sitting on the couch reading all day and neglecting everything else in your life, it shouldn’t be a problem.
I don’t watch tv. My reading for thirty minutes every day isn’t going to harm me or anyone else.
My life can be very stressful: I need an escape, even if it is between the pages of a book for 30 minutes or so a day.
Thoughts:
I think it’s easier to tell someone you’re okay rather than how you’re actually doing. Not only does it save time, it saves energy too. Sometimes telling someone how you feel can be an emotional drain. It can also be an emotional release too, depending on who you are talking to.
Personally, I wear my heart on my sleeve. As my family would tell me, they think I’m too open. Does this leave me open to criticism and embarrassment? Sure, but the payoff for me is greater than the risk. I’ve always been like that and I’m not going to change myself for other people. I’ve never been shy or afraid of expressing my emotions.
I’ve been journaling for years and years. I express all my thoughts and emotions in between the pages and it helps me, as morning pages do, to process things in a safer way without that feeling of judgement you would get if you told someone those same things.
I do not agree with reading deprivation at all. Unless it’s for work. Then it should be called work deprivation. (lol)
Morning Pages
My experience:
I struggled this week…badly. I did indeed write morning pages every day this week, however not for the full three pages.
Now, this is going to sound like an excuse - as Julia puts it, not writing your morning pages can come across as your artist throwing a tantrum at the changes taking place.
In my case, this was my extremely busy week - it’s the last week of the month, which means I film between four to five videos in three days. Also, it was month end on Friday, and, I said goodbye to my best doggie friend of almost 14 years on that same day.
With all things considered, I say I did pretty good. I vowed to myself that I would allow myself a lot of self care this week. The fact that I didn’t give up on morning pages - I still kept at it. I tried writing out my emotions but it was still very fresh, so I kept it light and vowed to do better the next week.
Artist Date
My experience:
I did not complete an Artist Date this week. To be honest, I completely forgot about it. I was super busy on Friday and I allowed myself the weekend to do absolutely nothing (I was in mourning, and I felt like I owed it to myself to take a break).
Tasks
My Experience:
I did five out of the ten tasks this week. I found the tasks pleasant to complete. I enjoyed talking about my favourite things when I was eight. I would like to continue doing some of those things. Considering I grew up on a farm, some of them will be harder to do, but I will try.
Knowing ahead of time that this was a busy week, I ended up completing all the tasks on Monday. (Super early, I know).
The check-in wasn’t done until Tuesday of the following week however. With everything going on, I kind of forgot about it. I usually wait until Sunday because I need to know if I will complete all the morning pages each and every day. Since I hardly did anything at all Sunday (my planning suffered too because I just wasn't in the right frame of mind).
Conclusion
This week’s reading and tasks were easy for me to complete. I’m glad I did the work early on in the week so I could focus on my personal life. Sometimes things come up and it’s important we prioritize our tasks. They can either be rescheduled, or cancelled completely.
If you notice a lot of changes taking place in your life, it’s easier if you can become more adaptable. The more rigid you are, the harder you will push back on those changes. You might as well make it easier on yourself. Enjoy the small pleasures in life, and relax into the changes as they happen!
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you again next week at the end of Week 5!
❤️Sandra
