Week 3 of The Artist's Way, is all about emotions. The chapter starts with Anger. It continues with further discussion about Synchronicity. I found the passage about Anger extremely synchronous, given that prior to reading it, I had just had a blow-out argument, centered around my struggle to make decisions about what I want, what I need, and what I am striving for, both in this process and beyond.
Helpfully, Cameron explains that Anger is useful, and is there to be listened to. That said, she does note that it is "to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out." Oops… Nonetheless, I am glad that the emotional turbulence that surrounds me, has some context, and I am relieved that I'm not an anomaly in my confusion.
In my first post, I wrote that one of my motivations for embarking on this process, was to become unselfconsciously creative, and find clarity around what it is in life that makes me fulfilled, makes me feel excited, makes me feel proud of what I do.
It's a big ask to be honest. Those are big questions. In my case, they are also complicated by the fact that as I write this, I'm sitting in Kaffe 1668 in New York, which means that in the three weeks since embarking on this course, I've travelled to five cities; cities which are all inspiring, creative and full of people and opportunities which all contribute to my decision-making process.
However, despite all that, the biggest thing that's holding me back, is without doubt, me. Cameron spends some time talking about Shame, which I think is deeply tied to self-esteem and confidence. Shame is often what prevents people from pursuing creative projects; "What if my work/my idea isn't any good?", "I can't write about that, it's too embarrassing!", "If I'm not honest, this won't have integrity, and I'm too scared to be honest". They are all understandable fears, but fears that keep us wedded to analytical work, and logic-based activities, which are all very safe. And very boring.
Cameron therefore suggests, that you find a couple people who can nurture and protect your early work. Your prototypes, test-cases, scribbles, stories. They are probably not the people you go to for constructive criticism - that’s a whole different thing - but instead they are simply proud of you and your aspirations, and have the creative and emotional intelligence to help you along.
Throughout all this, Cameron advises you to be nice to yourself. To not beat yourself up, and to accept compliments and nice things from people along the way - things like an invitation to dinner, or new socks. She acknowledges that yes, you will be babying yourself, but that thinking positively, and kindly, will go a lot further towards aiding your productivity; creative or otherwise, than tough-love or deprivation.
Next week, Week 4, is about Integrity. And it requires a whole week of reading deprivation!!!!!! A whole week!! Beyond the books, magazines and newspapers I read, I have at least 50 RSS feeds and hundreds of bookmarked articles that I look through all the time... Help!
'The Artist's Way' is by Julia Cameron and can be found at amazon.com
Lizzie Shupak is a Digital and Brand Strategist. She is also one half of the international social experience, Wok+Wine. She is currently on a journey of creative discovery, which may or may not affect her biography, in the weeks and months ahead.
Wok+Wine - The World's Most Delicious Social Network
Global Lifestyle Project - A Global Experiment in Lifestyle Design
Reading deprivation week is the best thing (or it was for me). It leaves you with yourself in a big way. Especially if you also cut out radio, TV etc. You may find yourself more productive and creative; a couple of insights may pop out. Enjoy it. It's like removing the bad glasses and seeing everything in focus.
Posted by: Karen Macmillan | August 25, 2011 at 10:32 AM