The Artist’s Way, Week Four: Recovering a Sense of Integrity
This is my series on The Artist’s Way, a workbook focused on creative recovery. Check out my posts on Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 if you haven’t already. This week focuses on productive introspection and self-definition.
Surrender
I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t done my Morning Pages every single day. Not necessarily because I’ve forgotten or don’t have time, but because the practice’s nature of demanding honesty and attention to the present moment makes me uncomfortable. Cameron points out the normalcy of these feelings in this chapter. The act of Morning Pages forces us to come to terms with feelings and situations that demand change, and this change can often be painful.
Cameron likens this feeling to the Sanskrit word kriya, meaning spiritual surrender. Letting go of what you know you must let go of only leads you closer to the truest version of yourself. This surrender, this moment when you take action, connects you to your creative identity.
“People frequently think the creative life is grounded in fantasy. The more difficult truth is that creativity is grounded in reality, in the particular, the focused, the well observed or specifically imagined.”
Shift
As you undergo this process of transformation, Cameron points out that you may be led to purge items in your life that no longer suit you. This shift makes it easier to get rid of what we no longer need to make room for the things that might truly enhance today. This process of elimination will come with waves of grief for the life you’re saying goodbye to, and excitement for the one you’re looking forward to creating. This change will also be accompanied by a shift in energy patterns — more vivid dreams, a change of taste and perception, and bursts of creative inspiration.
“The Morning Pages symbolize our willingness to speak to and hear God. They lead us into many other changes that also come from God and lead us to God. This is the very hand of God moving through your hand as you write.”
Reading Deprivation
This week’s challenge is to stop reading, this includes consuming content of all kinds - TV, podcasts, social media, etc. I’m very wary about this challenge and don’t know how well I’ll do, but Cameron emphasizes the utmost importance of this challenge in clearing out the sludge of blockages to once again move freely in your most creative self. By practicing this deprivation, we make room to hear our voice again, a voice we are so used to drowning out with other, louder voices.
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:
Environment: Describe your ideal environment. Town? Country? Swank? Cozy? One paragraph. One image, drawn or clipped, that conveys this. What’s your favorite season? Why? Go through some magazines and find an image of this. Or draw it. Place it near your working area.
Time Travel: Describe yourself at eighty. What did you do after fifty that you enjoyed? Be very specific. Now, write a letter from you at eighty to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself? What interests would you urge yourself to pursue? What dreams would you encourage?
Time Travel: Remember yourself at eight. What did you like to do? What were your favorite things? Now, write a letter from you at eight to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself?
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?
