The Artist’s Way: Week Eight
Overview:
In this chapter, Julia Cameron talks about strength in regards to recovering Artists. She states that a recovering Artist has experienced a loss of some form - hope, belief in oneself, money, and the list goes on.
She also says that when we have a loss, this can be looked at as an ending. However, the end of something is always the beginning of a new chapter. It’s up to us to be able to listen and see when these new doors open up. Julia Cameron suggests that we do this through morning pages. She says that around a page and a half, we should start to see some kind of question or answer take form.
It’s never too late to start. You will be the same age four years from now regardless of whether you get a degree or not. Will you be more wise in four years?
Julia goes on to say that a lot of blocked creatives have an addiction to anxiety. It’s easier to stay blocked than to move into an unknown, so the use of anxiety holds them back and seems to be a good excuse for staying in place. Why do something new if it’s scary and causes anxiety? It’s bad for the health!
Morning Pages
My experience:
I’m not sure if I’ve gained traction with morning pages or not. Next week’s assignment is to read through my morning pages. It might take awhile - I started awhile before actually starting this course. I’m interested to see what I might find, but more on that next week!
I’ve still throughly been enjoying the process of writing. My hand sometimes still goes numb, so I take small, frequent breaks. I do notice that it’s been taking less time to write the three pages. Have I been getting more focused? I literally write whatever comes to mind, and by the next day I don’t remember what I wrote the previous day. The upcoming week should be interesting!
Artist Date
My experience:
Although I know this is not an excuse, my Artist Date did not get done because I was super busy this week. We travelled to visit family over the Labor Day weekend and it was also month end. This means I’m busy filming planner setups for the next month along with some administration tasks that keep me moving forward.
Tasks
My Experience:
I did four out of the eight tasks this week. I found the last one interesting. It was a “Style Search”. The task was to write down twenty things that I enjoy doing, and to list whether it was:
cost money or free?
expensive or cheap?
alone or with somebody?
job related?
physical risk?
fast paced or slow?
mind, body or spiritual?
Most of my tasks are cheap. low cost or free and I usually do them alone. They can be either be personal or job specific, but generally slow things that take my mind off of everyday life. Usually, they are for mind and spirit and have no physical risk. (No paragliding here!)
Another task I enjoyed was writing down my favourite color and writing in the first person as if I was that color. That seems like a very creative thing to do and it kind of gets you out of a box when you put yourself into another perspective that isn’t your own.
Conclusion
I enjoyed this week. There is nothing that sticks out to me specifically, but I did enjoy the tasks.
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you again next week at the end of Week 9!
❤️Sandra
