For one of my New Year’s goals, I’ve gone back to “The Artist’s Way” Program by Julia Cameron. It’s a 12-week program designed to unblock your creativity. I had embarked on this program many years ago when my daughter was small…remember doing the pages but not the rest of the program.
The Morning Pages consist of your writing 3 pages first thing every morning. Basically they are a “brain dump” of sorts…enabling you to get rid of all of the mental meaningless chatter so that you can move on to the important stuff.
One concept I remember from doing it before was that if I would be complaining about something day after day in my morning pages, eventually one day the thought would be, “well, what are you going to do about this?!”
I realize some days it’s not going to happen first thing in my day…like today…and I did it as soon as I got home…I believe the consistency of doing it daily is the key. I have found in the five days I’ve been doing it is that the first page seems like the dumping of everything that is on my mind…what I am worried about, thinking about…and then I start thinking of a possible problem I need to solve and answers start coming…not all of them are useable but sometimes it’s totally out of the box answers or suggestions. I have used some of them already and know that it is imperative to continue doing the pages.
Another concept of the program is to have an “artist” date every week…doing something that your inner child would love to do with you…maybe going somewhere you haven’t before to look at stuff, making something different, can be cooking something different, taking a walk…
“The Artist’s Way” is for everyone…it’s basically giving yourself the ok to open your creative self again and go where it leads you. I have included some quotes that were in the book to give you more insight…
“All that angry, whiny, petty stuff that you write down in the morning stands between you and your creativity.”
“The morning pages are the primary tool of creative recovery.”
“words are a form of action, capable of influencing change.” Ingrid Bergman
“In order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it”
“Anyone who faithfully writes morning pages will be led to a connection with a source of wisdom within. When I am stuck with a painful situation or problem that I don’t think I know how to handle, I will go to the pages and ask for guidance.”
“pages are my way of meditating. I do them because they work.”
“Boredom is just ‘what’s the use?’ in disguise. And “what’s the use?” is fear, and fear means that you are secretly in despair. So, put your fears on the page. Put anything on the page. Put three pages of it on the page.”
Hoping you will be enticed to do the morning pages as well…
til next time..Eva
Every Day A New Chance 