The Artist Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity: Part One
The Artist Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity: Part One
The Morning Pages
The Morning Pages
We were recently gifted with a live webinar with the author Julia Cameron, taking notes as she spoke. This subsequent introduction is part one of a three part series. We begin with the morning pages that are an integral part of the daily pathway to creativity. In September, we plan to attend The Gathering of the Creatives in Santa Fe, NM. During a pre-conference workshop, we will spend a day with the author in a writing workshop. Through the events of 2020, we have faced loss, change and disappointments. It is a challenging season where we have choices to make. Let’s make this the year of the comeback!
Introduction
Do you experience feeling blocked, procrastinating, afraid & angry? Does your inner-critical voice accuse you of being flaky and unrealistic about ever pursuing & taking actionable steps to live your dream? Can you even conceptualize what your passion is? This is a bully trying to discourage. While growing up were you discouraged from your desires, lacking in the critical nurturing needed to tap into and express your creativity? Join us in, “The Artist Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity,” thank our inner critic collectively for sharing, and pave the pathway to express, listen, and be moved to action!
Due to the pandemic, we have experienced forced solitude. This is an ideal time to start the morning pages, in order to channel the solitude. The workbook, ‘The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity,’ contains 10 tasks at the end of each chapter, among a total of 12 chapters. Completing the tasks creates optimism and this is what we need daily during our current pandemic situation. We need a sense of structure, otherwise we will be left with time and solitude. Establishing a daily routine around morning pages, and a weekly artist date, gives us a sense of benevolence. These tools will help us reach higher creativity & spirituality as the two go hand and glove.
Part One: The Gift of the Morning Pages
Welcome to collectively create space to expand our creative dreams. Daily we will handwrite three 8” x 10” one sided pages; with thoughts, expressions, & emotions of how we feel & think, not how we should feel & think. This is an activity we will give priority first thing when we awaken. Take care of basic needs including coffee, nestle into your writing space, and honor the first 40 minutes of awakened time. According to Carl Jung, it takes time for our ego to awaken and provide defenses. This is the perfect time & opportunity to be moved into authenticity with ourselves. We are catching our consciousness before our safeguards arise. We show no one these pages, as this is our safe place to vent. Be prepared to review them after the first 8–9 weeks with awareness of boredom, highlighting the sparkles of ideas. Our daily thoughts do not follow a specified theme, only our thoughts, feelings, & reactions to events in a very raw light.
Questions:
Morning Pages
An invitation to share about your Morning Pages this week:
Did you complete them daily?
What was the experience like?
What did your inner critic say?
What was a sparkling idea & how did you feel to find this among your writing?
An open invitation to share some of your resentments, fears, or frustrations.