The Artist's Way (Week Four)
Jun. 26th, 2021 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
toricopiesThe Artist's Way: Buried Dreams, An Exercise
1. List five hobbies that sound fun: playing an instrument, creating pottery, gardening, bowling, poledancing
2. List five classes that sound fun: cooking class, painting class, Spanish class, candlemaking class, dance class (this is taking too long... I had to find a list!)
3. List five things you personally would never do that sound fun: skydiving, bungee-jumping, horseback riding, salsa class, improv class
4. List five skills that would be fun to have: read music/play instrument, killer chef, watercolor/drawing, hair styling, home decor
5. List five things you used to enjoy doing: writing fiction, dancing, basketball, tennis, being a leader
6. List five silly things you would like to try once: sex toy class, dance in public, sing in public, slacklining at Muscle Beach, coffee shop people watching musings
The Artist's Way: Reading Deprivation
No reading for a week! No newspapers, no novels, no reading for work or school! Some things to do instead of reading:
Listen to music. Knit. Work out. Make curtains. Cook. Meditate. Wash the dog. Fix the bike. Have friends to dinner. Sort closets. Watercolor. Get the stereo working. Pay bills. Rewire the lamp. Sort bookshelves (a dangerous one!). Write old friends. Paint the bedroom. Go dancing. Repot some plants. Rearrange the kitchen. Mend.
The Artist's Way: Week 4 Tasks
1. Environment: Describe your ideal environment. Town? Country? Swank? Cozy? One paragraph. One image, draw or clipped, that conveys this. What's your favorite season? Why? Go through some magazines and find an image of this. Or draw it. Place it near your working area.
2. Time Travel: Describe yourself at eighty. What did you do after fifty that you enjoyed? Be very specific. Now, write a letter from you at eighty to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself? What interests would you urge yourself to pursue? What dreams would you encourage?
3. Time Travel: Remember yourself at eight. What did you like to do? What were your favorite things? Now, write a letter from you at eight to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself?
4. Environment: Look at your house. Is there any room that you could make into a secret, private space for yourself? Convert the TV room? Buy a screen or hang a sheet and cordon off a section of some other room? This is your dream area. It should be decorated for fun and not as an office. All you really need is a chair or pillow, something to write on, some kind of little altar area for flowers and candles. This is to help you center on the fact that creativity is a spiritual, not an ego, issue.
5. Use you life pie (from Week One) to review your growth. Has that nasty tarantula changed shape yet? Haven't you been more active, less rigid, more expressive? Be careful not to expect too much too soon. That's raising the jumps. Growth must have time to solidify into health. One day at a time, you are building the habit patterns of a healthy artist. Easy does do it. List ongoing self-nurturing toys you could buy your artist: books on tape, magazine subscriptions, theater tickets, a bowling ball.
6. Write you own Artist's Prayer. (See page 223.) Use it every day for a week.
7. An Extended Artist Date: Plan a small vacation for yourself. (One weekend day. Get ready to execute it.)
8. Open your closet. Throw out—or hand on, or donate—one low-self-worth outfit. (You know the outfit.) Make space for the new.
9. Look at one situation in your life that you feel you should change but haven't yet. What is the payoff for you in staying stuck?
10. If you break your reading deprivation, write about how you did it. In a tantrum? A slipup? A binge? How do you feel about it? Why?
Saturday Check-In
1. List five hobbies that sound fun: playing an instrument, creating pottery, gardening, bowling, poledancing
2. List five classes that sound fun: cooking class, painting class, Spanish class, candlemaking class, dance class (this is taking too long... I had to find a list!)
3. List five things you personally would never do that sound fun: skydiving, bungee-jumping, horseback riding, salsa class, improv class
4. List five skills that would be fun to have: read music/play instrument, killer chef, watercolor/drawing, hair styling, home decor
5. List five things you used to enjoy doing: writing fiction, dancing, basketball, tennis, being a leader
6. List five silly things you would like to try once: sex toy class, dance in public, sing in public, slacklining at Muscle Beach, coffee shop people watching musings
The Artist's Way: Reading Deprivation
No reading for a week! No newspapers, no novels, no reading for work or school! Some things to do instead of reading:
Listen to music. Knit. Work out. Make curtains. Cook. Meditate. Wash the dog. Fix the bike. Have friends to dinner. Sort closets. Watercolor. Get the stereo working. Pay bills. Rewire the lamp. Sort bookshelves (a dangerous one!). Write old friends. Paint the bedroom. Go dancing. Repot some plants. Rearrange the kitchen. Mend.
The Artist's Way: Week 4 Tasks
1. Environment: Describe your ideal environment. Town? Country? Swank? Cozy? One paragraph. One image, draw or clipped, that conveys this. What's your favorite season? Why? Go through some magazines and find an image of this. Or draw it. Place it near your working area.
2. Time Travel: Describe yourself at eighty. What did you do after fifty that you enjoyed? Be very specific. Now, write a letter from you at eighty to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself? What interests would you urge yourself to pursue? What dreams would you encourage?
3. Time Travel: Remember yourself at eight. What did you like to do? What were your favorite things? Now, write a letter from you at eight to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself?
4. Environment: Look at your house. Is there any room that you could make into a secret, private space for yourself? Convert the TV room? Buy a screen or hang a sheet and cordon off a section of some other room? This is your dream area. It should be decorated for fun and not as an office. All you really need is a chair or pillow, something to write on, some kind of little altar area for flowers and candles. This is to help you center on the fact that creativity is a spiritual, not an ego, issue.
5. Use you life pie (from Week One) to review your growth. Has that nasty tarantula changed shape yet? Haven't you been more active, less rigid, more expressive? Be careful not to expect too much too soon. That's raising the jumps. Growth must have time to solidify into health. One day at a time, you are building the habit patterns of a healthy artist. Easy does do it. List ongoing self-nurturing toys you could buy your artist: books on tape, magazine subscriptions, theater tickets, a bowling ball.
6. Write you own Artist's Prayer. (See page 223.) Use it every day for a week.
7. An Extended Artist Date: Plan a small vacation for yourself. (One weekend day. Get ready to execute it.)
8. Open your closet. Throw out—or hand on, or donate—one low-self-worth outfit. (You know the outfit.) Make space for the new.
9. Look at one situation in your life that you feel you should change but haven't yet. What is the payoff for you in staying stuck?
10. If you break your reading deprivation, write about how you did it. In a tantrum? A slipup? A binge? How do you feel about it? Why?
Saturday Check-In
1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? (Tantrums often show up as skipping the morning pages.) How was the experience for you?
2. Did you do your artist date this week? (Does your artist get to do more than rent a movie?) 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.
2. Did you do your artist date this week? (Does your artist get to do more than rent a movie?) 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.
