The Artist Way – Week 6: Recovering a Sense of Abundance

Hello and welcome to this Artist Way check in Week 6. The Artist Way is a book written by Julia Cameron that is meant to guide artist and creatives of all walks of life through a 12 week process of self discovery and unlock of your creative freedom. If you’re curious to know more about it, check out my blog where I describe the different components of the 12 week journey and tools included in the book.

The weekly check ins in this blog answer the questions Julia asks to put your progress into perspective. I added the weekly tasks to the list and categorized the questions as follow:

• Morning Pages:
  How many days this week did you do your morning pages? 
• Artist Dates:
  Did you do your artist date this week? What did you do? How did it feel?
• Weekly Tasks:
  I added the weekly tasks here.
• Check In:
  Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it? 
  Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery? Describe them.

Without further a do, let’s have a look at these weeks’ check ins!

Morning Pages

• How many days this week did you do your morning pages? 7/7

Artist Dates

• Did you do your artist date this week? What did you do? How did it feel? 

Weekly Tasks

Money madness, an exercise

Complete the following phrases:

1. People with money are privileged.
2. Money makes people rich / out of touch.
3. I’d have more money if I had a normal / more valued job.
4. My dad thought money was disposable / an asset.
5. My mom always thought money would bring safety / education.
6. In my family, money causes stress, constrictions.
7. Money equals peace of mind.
8. If I had money. I’d travel the world.
9. If I could afford it. I’d go to art school.
10. If I had some money. I’d move overseas.
11. I’m afraid that if I had money I would try to compensate for when I didn’t have it / don’t know what to do with it.
12. Money is annoying.
13. Money causes fatigue.
14. Having money is not important.
15. In order to have more money. I’d need to sell my soul.
16. When I have money. I usually save it / spend it on travel.
17. I think money is necessary.
18. If I weren’t so cheap I’d buy lots of paint / fabric.
19. People think money gives people value / status.
20. Being broke tells me nothing.

TASKS 

Natural Abundance: Find five pretty or interesting rocks. I enjoy this exercise particularly because rocks can be carried in pockets. They can be small. constant reminders of our creative consciousness. Now pick five flowers or leaves. You may want to press these between wax paper and save them in a book.

Clearing: Throw out or give away five ratty pieces of clothing.

Creation: Bake something. (If you have a sugar problem, make a fruit salad.) Creativity does not have to always involve capital – A art. Very often, the act of cooking something can help you cook something up in another creative mode. When I am stymied as a writer, I make soups and pies.

Communication: Send a note to five friends you would love to hear from.

Favorites: List your “ favorites ” in the following categories. Cars Dogs Flowers Trees Fruits Vegetables Desserts Entrées Musical Groups Colors

Clearing: Any new changes in your home environment? Make some.

• Shelf back over the sliding door and curtains
• New nook with marvel table and floor chairs
• Swap keys drawer with collapsable table at entrance
• Framed a bunch of chinese paper cut art and travel postcards
• Rearrange white storage cubes
• Bought outdoor shelf for pot storage and display
• Bought recycling box
• Bought a new white storage cube under Jono’s table?
• New body pillow for Jono
• Hang frames? 

Acceptance: Any new flow in your life? Practice saying yes to freebies.

Prosperity: Any changes in your financial situation or your perspective on it? Any new — even crazy — ideas about what you would love doing? Pull images around this and add to your image file.

Reread the Basic Principles and your Artist’s Prayer from Week 4. Do this once daily.

Week Recapitulation

Monday 5th – Walk, beach, pizza, smore, hide & seek

Tuesday 6th – Fly back with Sounds Air

Wednesday 7th –

Thursday 8th – Dinosaurs walk through

Friday 9th – Digby reunion George

Saturday 10th – Visit mom Chinese New Year

Sunday 11th – Frames Artist Date

Check-In

• 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?

• 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?