Reflections from The Artist’s Way, Week 7: Recovering a sense of connection
This week, we focus on cultivating the right attitudes towards creativity. Listening to what interests and moves us is a key part here, and it is this listening skill that we should practice. It's true that since the beginning of the program I've become more attuned to listening to my creative ideas and hunches. Cameron stresses a crucial point regarding the nature of art and listening:
“Art is not about thinking something up. It is about the opposite - getting something down. The directions are important here. If we are trying to think something up, we are straining to reach for something that’s just beyond our grasp, "<<up there, in the stratosphere, where art lives on high…>>”
“When we get something down, there is no strain. We’re not doing; we’re getting. Someone or something else is doing the doing. Instead of reaching for inventions, we are engaged in listening”.
It's funny how, for the longest time, I thought of art as making things up. But it is surrendering to and turning to the creative force that truly allows our creative ideas to emerge. I used to be concerned that if I don't write about something soon enough, someone else will. Only recently have I realized that only I am capable of telling some stories in a unique way and that no one else can write from the same point of view as me.
Cameron also addresses perfectionism in more detail this week. I was expecting this.
“Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with standards. Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop - an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting or making and to lose sight of the whole”.
My entire life, I've struggled with perfectionism. The heavy toxic type of perfectionism that feeds on envying other people and paralyzes you from living your authentic life. The interesting thing here is that I have less of it when it comes to doing creative things according to my vision. It appears that when doing work for others, I was always more crippled by perfectionism, fearful of what other people might think of me based on the quality of my work. While acting on my creative ideas remains daunting, it appears to be more manageable. Is it because the prospect of not acting on them and being denied the ability to express myself appears to me even scarier?
It turns out that Cameron has a jealousy exercise as well. The next time it happens, create your jealousy map on paper using the example from the book below. That way, you'll be able to use it as a catalyst for action.
Morning pages: Even though I wrote in the morning, my entries were brief and less reflective. I spent a lot of time confronting my feelings about applying for a position that was once my dream job, visualizing what my future work might look like, and thinking of how I want my professional career to progress in general.
Artist date: Last weekend was particularly sunny, so I spent a few hours on Saturday at a nearby forest preserve, having a picnic and reading Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis. I’m so happy that warm days are coming and I’ll be able to make reading outside my habit. Cameron suggests that you enter a sacred space this week. For me this is nature.
It is also recommended this week to be open to and welcome new smells. It’s been ages since I had burned some incense, but creating an atmosphere that encourages you to be calm felt great.
