The Artist's Way: Week 5

As promised, I will be blogging lessons and activities from Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" every week to help you (and ME!) unleash the artist trapped underneath work deadlines, household responsibilities and the new fall TV lineup. So often we allow outside stressors keep us from finishing that script or novel or blog post, even though, out of everything we do all day, it's the one thing we want to do the most. Cameron's workshop is not a cure-all, but rather a way to get in the habit of putting your creative life among the other immediate priorities on your list.

Okay Week 5, I see you! This week Cameron gently attacks the limits we put upon our creative lives and asks us to be open to the possibilities of life. "One of the chief barriers to accepting god's generosity is our limited notion of what we are in fact able to accomplish." YUP. PREACH, Julia!!

I am 100% guilty of this, and my lackluster participation in the very workshop I initiated is more proof. Also, I say things to myself like:

"How are you ever going to get a writing career off the ground with all the other things you have to do?"

"You're too heavily in debt to ever dig your way out."

"Your writing is good, but it's not bestseller list, Stephen King good. Stick to blogging...which isn't that great either because how many views do you get? Right."

I have definitely lost sight of my own possibilities.

To help conquer this negative thinking Cameron invites us to participate in activities that expose the Virtue Trap we're in- always sacrificing the things we need for others. There's a wish list and tasks that ask what we'd do if we had the faith or money (and youth!) needed for the activity. She also makes you come face-to-face with what our payoff is for staying blocked. What are we getting out of this? Why do we like this payoff so much better than the rewards of a creative life? Tough questions but oh so necessary.

Think of the greatness we can unleash by just accepting our limitless possibilities!

xoxo,
Raquel Ivelisse