Changing Your Creative Routine and THE ARTIST'S WAY by Kathy Halsey

 

Changing Your Routine and The Artist's Way

We are blowing through March in a hurry.  My wintering season is waning, a season where I intentionally slowed down to nurture myself and in my 13th yearsof writing, changed up my routine. Maybe you feel you need something new to light you up also.

 It began with the decision to take the seminal writing book The Artist Way and really commit to the craft of it and the 12-week course. I am now on week 9. I have finished 60+ Morning Pages (3 notebook pages written long-hand, every morning.) You may have picked up this book or done morning pages, even taken an artistic date. or two. But the power of it is the consistency of devoting time to yourself to spill what's in your reptilian brain and retrain yourself to put your creativity and yourself above all else.

 Here's what I know I must do for this practice, your way of using the book may be different.

1. There is no wrong way to do it, except not to do it. Knowing there are no mistakes is freeing. I cross things out, use stream-of-conscious style, review my previous day, and my gleanings on what was helpful. I mope, give myself room to dream, and hold a mirror up to observing myself as a creative person.

2. The silly things and odd exercises the book asks you to do daily DO matter. These include writing, an affirmation each day, reading/reciting the BASIC PRINCIPLES every morning, (I don't do them again at night, but it's suggested.), create a "safety circle graphic" showing your creative boundaries. Inside your circle you write what you need to protect and name people who support you. Outside the circle boundary name things and people you must be self-protective around. (I find these change--some people go on the edges of the boundary.)  Make up your own mantra and affirmations. 

3. Keep your artistic date with yourself every week, even if it is small. I began my Artist Dates in a big way, signing up for a 2-hour watercolor class at The Franklin Park Conservatory. It was easy as all the materials were given to us. The instructor gave us notes and lists for supplies afterwards. She circulated among the students to demonstrate techniques, too.

Other dates have included repotting my Christmas cactus along with buying it a proper mister, going on a rock walk, using cartoon panels to frame my # #haikusaturday posts, going to a "sketch-in" at the Columbus Art Museum, buying watercolor pens, redecorating my office with my own art and hanging a painting I never mounted. 

4. Don't share your Morning Pages, but further in Week 9, you will begin reading your pages to highlight new insights and actions needed. I found recurring issues over time, procrastination, and fear of not knowing how to do something "right". I noticed giving myself advice and a way to counteract a block. I became more protective of my own time. I listened to my heart and gut first. I feel more confident, calmer and more accepting of who I am. 

5. Trust the process for reclaiming your artistic self. Yes, you will find more abundance in your life, more time, more gifts that seem to drop in your lap. At first, I didn't believe this. But the more I open myself up, the more opportunity I find magically appears in my life. This is synchronicity, the Creator, God, the universe opening. By now I have learned that, "As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle, but powerful changes are to be expected." - Julia Cameron