The Artist’s Way, Week Three: Recovering a Sense of Power
This is my series on The Artist’s Way, a workbook focused on creative recovery. Check out my posts on Week 1 and Week 2 if you haven’t already. This week focuses on dealing with strong emotions like anger and shame, and how to both embrace and combat these powerful forces.
Anger
Cameron urges readers to re-think everything they know about anger, instead of muffling it or dampening it, she suggests seeing it as a friend, as a map, as a voice that is to be respected, and as a sign of health. Feeling anger helps us know where to set boundaries and points us in the direction we are meant to go. Anger demands that you take action, it is a fuel that propels you from your old life into your new one.
““[Anger] tells us that our old life is sying. It tells us we are being reborn, and birthing hurts.””
Synchronicity
Do you believe in God? Maybe not a single-minded Christian God, but an all-knowing, all-powerful force that holds the universe together? Cameron invites readers to expand their minds to try to encapsulate this concept of God, and not just any old God, a God who is invested in your seemingly mundane life and pushes you into the unknown so you may achieve all you have ever wished for. Instead of seeing serendipitous moments as sheer coincidence, consider them “the hand of God … activated by our own hand when we act in the belief of our truest dreams.” As soon as you start trusting God, in this creative force that sees the deepest desires of your soul, these synchronous moments will start to pop up everywhere. First, choose what you want to do then trust the how will follow.
“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.”
Shame
Shame is when we get bogged down in fear so much that we cannot take action. Creating art means exposing yourself to the world, and when you bring to light all that you previously held in darkness, you are open to criticism. The fear of being known is something I’ve struggled with for a long time, I talked about it in a previous podcast episode with the artist, Catherine Campbell. Criticism, starting from childhood, can wound your inner artist enough to stop creating art altogether in an act of self-preservation.
The antidote for shame is self-love and self-praise and the best comeback for criticism is to keep creating art. Practice concrete self-love daily, and use the affirmations you wrote in Week 1. Keep a note on your phone of all the compliments and praise you receive and read over this note whenever you feel lifeless. Allow synchronicity to flow into your life and freely accept the gifts that slide into your life.
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. These are the ones I chose to engage in:
Many journaling prompts were thinking back to childhood, such as: describing your childhood room, describing five traits you liked about yourself as a child, what your favorite movie was as a child, your favorite childhood foots, and the accomplishments from your childhood you’re most proud of.
Habits: Take a look at your habits and try to identify blockages during your day when you’re investing too much time in activities that you don’t like doing. Try to identify these forms of sabotage and plan to break these habits.
Thanks for tuning in! Come back next week for Week Four!
