The Artist’s Way: Week Ten

Overview:

In Chapter ten, Julia Cameron talks about recovering a sense of self protection. In this chapter, she discusses ways in which we can find ourselves off course from our artist path. As per usual, most of these are self-sabotage (because it’s easier to stay blocked rather than keep moving forward.)

Some of these things that we need protection from are:

• addictions (this can be addictions to food, alcohol, drugs or even work).

• drought (life becomes lacklustre and everything becomes grey and mundane).

• fame.

• competition.

  Addictions are pretty obvious - instead of concentrating on your art, or work, or whatever, you dive into drugs, alcohol, over-eating, or, over-working. I feel like overworking (i.e. workaholism) is an underrated addiction. No one ever considers over-working a bad thing since in our westernized culture, working hard means you provide for your family and you (generally) stay out of trouble. Also, the more you work, generally the more you make or move ahead in your job. In North America, working hard (aka: a lot) is considered a positive trait.

  Drought, or in some cases depression, can lead you to feel nothing, and hence, want to do nothing. Nothing seems worthwhile in life, because everything is the same old, and nothing is exciting.

  Fame is easy to let it go to your head. You get caught up in the excitement, but as Julia Cameron states, you can’t lose your artist - you need to keep creating and not worry about what getting famous looks like or feels like. Fame interferes with the act of creating.

  Lastly, competition - the biggest part of being an artist is creating because the art needs to be released to the world. When you compete with someone else, you lose your individual artistry. Now it becomes something only because you are trying to out-do someone else. Don’t let other people define you - keep it personal, pour your heart into it and let it shine on in it’s own merit.

  Thoughts:

  Truthfully, I’m very uninterested in the reading. I feel like a lot of the chapters are really repetitive and I’m reading the same thing that was said one hundred times before.

  Perhaps I this is because I have discovered that I’m actually not a blocked artist and this course doesn’t really apply to me. Truth will tell, but I am looking forward to the conclusion of this course.

Morning Pages

My experience:

I’ve come to realize that Julia Cameron talks about morning pages as if they’re going to solve all my problems. With every chapter I read, morning pages are the answer to all.

Although I probably won’t give morning pages up once this course is done; doing them every day now since June has created a habit for me - I find myself looking for answers in my writing and coming up empty.

Is it too much to hope that my brain logically solves all my issues overnight as I sleep and then I write them out the next day? I don’t know, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Even though my hand gets sore and eventually goes numb after the first page, I really do enjoy the act of writing for 30 plus minutes. It really does act as a calming process - similar to meditation in that it dispels the thoughts from my head as I think them.

I also still have not finished reading my previous morning pages. My tasks have surely run away with me some days these last couple of weeks. That’s what I get for being a full time working parent from home (also trying to work on personal and professional development). Remember - we set intentional goals for a reason so we don’t burn out and try to do all the things at once. Some days I work on my business, some days it’s the house and other days it’s my own learning and growth.

Artist Date

My experience:

No artist date this week to speak of. I did do some singing practice again late in the week - Friday I think. I don’t consider than an actual Artist Date as it wasn't intentionally held.

Tasks

My Experience:

I think I have maybe been getting more out of the tasks than the reading and the morning pages together. Sometimes the tasks are really thought provoking, and I really enjoy completing them.

I completed all four out of the four tasks. I gave myself some bottom lines, because even though I don’t feel like I’m addicted to work, I do feel like working from home where my family is present, I need a really good balance for that work/home life. It’s easy to get frustrated when I have a thought in my head for my business, and I lose it when my kids are grabbing my arm to come play.

Conclusion

Is it bad to say that I’m glad this course is coming to an end? I’m getting a bit tired of the repetition of it all. But I think morning pages will stick with me for the long haul. I think I deserve a break for a bit, especially before the holidays!

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you again next week at the end of Week 11!

❤️Sandra