The Artist’s Way, Week Five: Recovering a Sense of Possibility
This is my series on The Artist’s Way, a workbook focused on creative recovery. Check out my posts on Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and Week 4 if you haven’t already. This week examines the cost of remaining stuck and settling for a life you do not want.
Limits
Cameron starts this chapter by explaining that many of us set limits on God’s generosity and what we can accomplish. We often shrug off and talk ourselves out of pursuing these grand ideas that come to us out of fear or unbelief.
“We decide how powerful God is for us. We unconsciously set a limit on how much God can give us or help us. We are stingy with ourselves. And if we receive a gift beyond our imagining, we often send it back.”
The idea here is not that we wish for something to happen, wave a magic wand of sorts, and God will deliver anything we desire. It is a slow, gradual process of clearing away negative beliefs, defining your vision, and learning to accept small pieces of that vision until, one day, you’re living in the middle of it. Cameron so eloquently writes that we must “pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can.”
We must first accept that we are allowed on the bus, that God’s abundance is unlimited and everyone has equal access to this universal supply. To run as fast as you can, you must clear away the inner barriers that are keeping you from achieving these goals and act on concrete steps to achieve them, believing the whole time that the vision will come to fruition.
So, ask yourself: what dream are you discounting as impossible given your resources, and what payoff are you getting for remaining stuck?
“By holding lightly to an attitude of gentle exploration, we can begin to lean into creative expansion. By replacing “No way!” with “Maybe,” we can open the door to mystery and to magic.”
The Virtue Trap
Cameron details a way in which many creatives defer the endeavors that will bring them joy and expansion to satisfy the wants of loved ones. She calls this out as self-sabotage or martyrdom. Afraid to appear selfish, we lose ourselves.
I relate a lot to this sentiment; I spent my adolescence in the church and my early 20s in the missions field, volunteering with evangelical Christian organizations. It was ingrained into me that the purpose of my life was to serve others. The hierarchy of who you are to care about and submit to is first, God, second, others, and lastly, yourself. I have been working in the non-profit sector for over a decade and have made my entire livelihood one of helping others while ignoring my own needs - for sleep, for a fair wage, and for making time for things that bring me joy. After a while, this unrelenting service to others becomes self-destructive.
An exercise Cameron suggests to get back to knowing your true self is to make a list of forbidden joys. What would you try if it weren’t considered too crazy, or too selfish? List ten things you would love to do but are not allowed to do. Here is mine:
Pose nude for a live-art drawing class.
Spend a month at a cabin by the ocean to finally write the book that is trapped in my head.
Buy a one-way plane ticket back to Brazil and visit all my friends I am dying to see again.
Learn to roller skate.
Start a YouTube channel.
Do yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, India, and then take a train down to Kerala to swim in the Indian Ocean and lay under coconut trees.
Drive down to Mexico in my Safari van.
Carry my camera with me wherever I go.
Learn pole dancing.
Learn to drive a motorcycle.
Tasks
At the end of every chapter, Cameron lists several ways we can take action on this week’s lesson, we are meant to choose a couple that speak to us and complete them throughout the week.
A lot of tasks this week revolved around collecting images. This goes along amazingly with my love of scrolling through Pinterest and creating dream boards. Here are some of the tasks I’ve chosen:
If I had either faith or money I would try … List five desires. For the next week, be alert for images of these desires. When you spot them, clip them, buy them, photograph them, draw them, collect them somehow. With these images, begin a file of dreams that speak to you. Add to it continually for the duration of the course.
If I were twenty and had money … List five adventures. Again, add images of these to your visual image file.
If I were sixty-five and had money … List five postponed pleasures. And again, collect these images.
Ten items that I would like to own that I don’t are … And again, you may want to collect these images.
