This Week may find you dealing with unaccustomed bursts of energy and sharp peaks of anger, joy, and grief. You are coming into your power as the illusory hold of your previously accepted limits is shaken. You will be asked to consciously experiment with spiritual open-mindedness.
This weeks chapter on the following:
ANGER - ANGER IS FUEL. We feel it and we want to do something. Anger is meant to be listened to. Anger is a voice, a shout, a plea, a demand. Anger shows us what our boundaries are and where we want to go. Anger is meant to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out.
SYNCHRONICITY - Answered prayers are scary. They imply responsibility. You asked for it. Now that you've got it, what are you going to do?
SHAME - Shame is a controlling device. Shaming someone is an attempt to prevent the person from behaving in a way that embarrasses us. Often we were wrongly shamed as creatives. From this shaming we learn we were wrong to create. Shamed by such criticism, an artist may become blocked or stop sending work out into the world.
DEALING WITH CRITICISM - It is important to be able to sort useful criticism from the other kind. Often we need to do the sorting outdoor ourselves, without the benefit of a public vindication. As artists, we are far more able to this sorting than people might suspect. Pointed criticism, if accurate, often gives the artist an inner sense of relief: "Ah, hah! so that's what was wrong with it." Useful criticism ultimately leaves us with one more puzzle piece for our work. Useless criticism, on the other hand, leaves us with the feeling of being bludgeoned.
"Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything." - Eugene Delacroix
QUESTIONS
THE ARTIST’S WAY WEEK 3: RECOVERING A SENSE POWER
1. Describe five traits you like in yourself as a child.
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2. List five childhood accomplishments.
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And a treat: list five favorite childhood foods.
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3. Make a list of friends who nurture you—that’s nurture (give you a sense of your won competency and possibility), not enable (give you the message that you will never get it straight without their help). List three nurturing friends. Which of their traits, particularly, serve you well?
4. List five people you wish you had met who are dead. Now, list five people who are dead whom you’d like to hand out with for a while in eternity. What traits do you find in these people that you can look for in your friends?
5. List five people you admire. Now, list five people you secretly admire. What traits do these people have that you can cultivate further in yourself?
CHECK-IN
1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? How was the experience for you?
2. Did you do your artist date this week?
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.
THE ARTIST’S WAY WEEK 3: RECOVERING A SENSE POWER
1. Describe five traits you like in yourself as a child.
1. Curiosity 2. Kindness 3. Happy 4. Dreamer 5. Strong
2. List five childhood accomplishments.
1. Perfect attendance throughout elementary and middle school.
2. Earning a spot on my high school softball team.
3. Out of 18 flutists, I was second chair.
4. Teaching myself to play the piano.
5. Wining a poetry award
And a treat: list five favorite childhood foods.
1. Lasagna 2.most form of porridge 3. Pepper shrimp. 4. Oxtail w/rice and peas and shredded cabbage 5. Most types of “rundown” (any kind of meat simmered in a creamy curry coconut sauce with seasonings.
3. Make a list of friends who nurture you—that’s nurture (give you a sense of your won competency and possibility), not enable (give you the message that you will never get it straight without their help). List three nurturing friends. Which of their traits, particularly, serve you well? There are many but the three friends that come immediately to mind are: Margaret Young, Julia Maddox, and Dr. Helen Andretta. They are never short on encouragement. They often have more faith in me and my abilities than I have in myself. They not only encourage me but they constantly tell others how ‘good’ I am, and they back it up with giving me every available opportunity to show others what they see and believe in me. They are kind, honest, encouraging, and provide constructive criticism.
4. List five people you wish you had met who are dead. Now, list five people who are dead whom you’d like to hand out with for a while in eternity. What traits do you find in these people that you can look for in your friends? Martin Luther King, Jr. Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Harriet Tubman, and Socrates. I’d love, absolutely love to hang out with my grandmother, Ma, followed by: my aunt lovey, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, and Booker T. Washington. Each of these people possessed an amazing amount of love, courage, endurance, foresight, vision, knowledge, and wisdom. Each of them was open to the universe’s guidance and accomplished remarkable things.
5. List five people you admire. Now, list five people you secretly admire. What traits do these people have that you can cultivate further in yourself? I admire Michelle Obama, President Obama, Helen Andretta, Viola Davis, and the Dalai Lama. I need to develop more patience, focus, and resilience. I don’t secretly admire anyone. If I admire them, there’s no shame in admitting that truth.
CHECK-IN
1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? How was the experience for you? I managed to do all five days this week. Like I said, it’s getting easier to just sit down and write. Sometimes it’s easier to write at 4 in the morning and or late at night on that same day.
2. Did you do your artist date this week? This week’s artist date is part a continuation of last Saturday’s Women’s March. Since so many photos were taken by me and friends and strangers, I wanted to organize many of them and create an online scrapbook. The Women’s March was such a powerful gathering that I wanted to put a collection together of the many fantastic signs videos that were taken.
How did it feel? Looking over and reflecting on the images and videos of the march, awakened to not only how powerful we are as women but how creative and witty we are at driving our messages home. Being an artist, one must reflect the times in his or her work, so, for me personally, being out there with my camera taking photos and speaking with others widens my aperture. ? How did it feel?
3. Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it? I didn’t experienced any synchronicity this week; however, the chapter on synchronicity/ serendipity triggered memories of the countless time I did experience it, but, like in the previous chapter where Cameron spoke aboutskepticism and giving back to the universe it what we desire because we don’t believe that the universe is on our side, “One of the things most worth noting in a creative recovery is our reluctance to take seriously the possibility that the universe just might be cooperating with our new and expanded plans.” We continually reject what the universe extends to us because of self-doubt and skepticism and the same is true of synchronicity. We discount its presence; however, synchronicity is the universe’ subtle ways of trying awaken us to our creative self, “the possibility of an intelligent and responsive universe, acting and reacting in our interests”. It’s alarming how many serendipitous moments I’ve had throughout my life but never really accepting that it was the universe saying, “Hey, I’m with you, and for you, and let’s do this. I believe in your creative soul.” Like, I am truly moved by this truth. There was always encouragement of one form or another. Always some “coincident” that I ran into someone who shared my dreams or loved what it was I wanted to do or was doing. I’ve had the right person to guide me but skepticism, self-doubt, and constantly giving back to the universe—God—what is given has been my blockage. I found myself smiling as I read this chapter because it was a subtle acknowledgement of what I’ve been doing wrong to sabotage my own creative growth and success.
4. Where there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery? Describe them. None.
We take bits from the book The Artist's Way only to allow people to follow our journey and maybe encourage others to buy the book and start on their own creative journey.