Artist Way Week 1: Reflections and Takeaways
What is the Artist Way?
I am completing the Artist Way this Summer. The Artist Way is a 12 week artist recovery program designed to help you uncover your inner artist. The Artist Way requires its students to complete weekly artist date and daily morning pages. Artist Dates are solo dates you complete to inspire your artistic self. The daily morning pages are 3 pages of stream of conciousness thoughts on 8 x 11 paper. I began this program to harness my creative energy and kickstart a consistent journaling practice.
Why the Artist Way?
From as young as I can remember, I have enjoyed writing and sharing my ideas. As soon as I had access to the internet, I began sharing them online. The intimate takewaways and insights I gain from the program will remain just with me, but I wanted to share some of the big takeaways I have from the program.
What was your Artist Date this week?
I completed all 7 days of my morning pages and this weekend I had my first Artist Date. orginally wanted to go to the public library to get a library card and rent some books to inspire me. But I learned that the library hours online were infact incorrect – and the library was closed to commemorate Memorial Day weekend. Rolling with the punches, I went to Boardwalk Billy’s for lunch and took a brief walk around the Boardwalk. I ordered the fried flounder and shrimp platter, a hugo spritz and sat near the windows in the resturant. I love fried seafood and I have decided that the hugo spritz is my drink of the summer. I enjoyed my meal and didn’t take the leftovers because I wasn’t enough worth taking. While I was on my solo date, I people watched. I saw families spending a sunny Sunday together, I saw couples paddle boating on the water, and I saw ducks swimming.
What did the Morning Pages teach you this week?
I am very proud of myself for completing my morning pages everyday this week and intentionally going on my artist date. Because morning pages are 3 full pages of writing, I have noticed that. I usually find the first page of writing is the easiest, the second is the most challenging and the third page is where the breakthrough happens. The breakthroughs have been about habits I need to break, self sabotaging behaviors I have identified and desires I have uncovered. But I haven’t had breakthoughs each time I have journaled, and I am adapting to the inconsistent results of the practice. Writing is predictable, what I end up writing is not.
What changes did the Artist Way inspire?
One of the things I learned doing my first week of morning pages is that it takes me around 30 minutes to write and I enjoy writing more when I do it before I have to begin my work for the day. I have to prioritize waking up early enough to write for about 30 minutes — my current habit has been waking up about an hour before I have to begin my work day. That is not enough time. If i don’t schedule an additional 30 minutes to write, it often goes into the beginning of my workday or happens while I am doing something else. For example, the day I am writing this reflective blog post, I had to do my morning pages while my hair was getting braided. I am more than happy to make the time to do it no matter what because following through with a commitment I have with myself feels good, but it also reminds me that
What were your Week 1 Takeways?
I like writing daily, I like the fact hat I am making time and space for it.
I notice that the days I don’t schedule 30 minutes, i end up rushing through the writing process.
If I don’t write out my daily plan the evening before, my morning pages ends up becoming my to-do list for the day.
What are we looking forward to for Week 2?
Going into week 2, I am looking forward to waking up earlier and going to sleep earlier to write everyday. I want to write in silence downstairs on the kitchen table before I go to the gym. I want to focus more on the prompts that are in the book. I decided to do the artist way knowing the 2 key principles of the book were morning pages and the artist date that I didn’t use or reference the book enough
Leave your thoughts below!
Have you heard of the Artist Way? Would you complete an Artistic Recovery Challenge? Here are a few of the prompts from the Artist Way to begin your journey!
