62: The Artist‘s Way: Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection (Week 10)

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁'𝘀 𝗪𝗮𝘆: 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟭𝟬
𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

This episode is about week 10/12 in the course and book The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. 

Week 10 is all about identifying what addictions we use to block our creativity and growth. This can be food, alcohol, drugs, sex, work or anything else that you use to protect yourself from the discomfort in the possibility of success and creative action. We all have one particular vice that we would have a hard time giving up. For me, as a Capricorn and overachiever, it's definitely workaholism which is discussed in the episode.

When we remove the blocks, we have to look at our real emotions and fears that are hiding in the shadows. Our ego tries to protect us from the unknown by making our blocks more comfortable and familiar than growth. We have to learn that sitting with the emotions and choosing to find the joy in creating are ways that we can make ourselves feel safe in the process. Even when there aren't any ideas coming, we can still come back to our morning pages and express the feelings that are coming up.

Your artistic work is the most important part of the process. This is important to remember when we are tempted by comparison, competition and fame. Social media makes it difficult to focus on what makes us unique but we need to remember that what others do can serve as inspiration to show us possibilities!

The tasks for Week 10 were:

1. The Deadlies: On 7 strips of paper, write: sex, money, alcohol, drugs, work, food, family/friends. Draw a paper 7 times and write 5 negative impacts that subject has had. Put the strip back in each time, making it possible to need to go deeper into some topics.

2. Touchstones: Make a list of things that are comforting to you such as baked bread, smooth stones, chipmunks, coffee etc.

3. The Awful Truth: Answer the following questions honestly:
- What habit gets in the way of your creativity?
- What do you think might be a problem? How will you solve it?
- What is your payoff?
- What friends make you doubt yourself?
- What friends believe in you and your talent?
- What is the payoff for spending time with destructive friends?
- What do you have in common with the destructive and constructive friends?

4. Setting Bottom Line: For workaholism, create self boundaries around what you determine to be "overwork" when looking at your schedule. 

5. Cherishing: List 5 small victories; 3 nurturing actions for your inner artist; make 3 nice promises to yourself and keep them; do one lovely thing for yourself each day this week!

𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨!