💬 Let’s chat about Week 1 of The Artist’s Way
On recovering a sense of safety
Welcome to Life after Trauma; I’m Clare Egan. We’re currently taking part in The Artist’s Way, a community exploration of the intersection of creativity and recovery and it’s not too late for you to join us!
Don’t worry about doing it “perfectly”, or having the time to complete every single activity. Our goal is to explore our creativity in a gentle, low commitment way and to show up each week to cheer each other on.
How did you get on this week?
I’ve had a pretty good week. I managed to do my Morning Pages most days (though not Wednesday, when I had to rush to an early meeting).
For my Artist’s Date, I planted some seeds. I didn’t have the proper supplies, but I made it work with old egg boxes. I also used expired seeds which I know is risky, but I wanted to see what would happen. I had some initial success (pictured!), but I’m not feeling very optimistic. 😬
Over to you….
How did you get on with your Morning Pages this week? 7/7 is always the goal, but I actually think it takes more commitment to come back to the practice after you’ve skipped a day or two (or 6!)
How was your Artist Date? Or maybe you have something planned over the weekend? Remember it doesn’t need to be anything fancy. A simple walk in the park works. Or taking the time to serve your lunch on nice dishware with a cloth napkin. I ate too many meals out of tupperware this week!
I’m also curious about your reflections on chapter 1. Did you have any insights on shadow artist’s, core negative beliefs or creative affirmations that you’d like to share?
💬 In the comments, please share your experiences from Week 1. I'll get us started with some reflections on the tasks I completed/skipped this week.
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I ticked off most of the tasks I outlined in my post on Tuesday.
Saving the basic principles of The Artist’s Way as my desktop background was a great idea. They were there to greet me every time I opened my laptop. I probably won’t see them over the weekend, but I think that’s OK.
I made my Monster Hall of Fame which ended up being quite emotional. I remembered so many mean, critical people especially from childhood! 😭 But it was a useful exercise and I’m glad I did it.
I didn’t make the time to dip into my “Nice Things People Have Said About My Writing File”. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that I made time for the difficult task, but didn’t prioritise the nice one so I guess I’ll need to journal my way through that one.
I’ve been writing morning pages since Wednesday and have already experienced how they can spark ideas for my writing so I’m excited to continue.
I’ve done some of the tasks and would like to do more of them. I did list out a few enemies of creative self-worth, but they’re mostly internal - general ideas/feelings rather than specific people and events. Maybe something will come to me later, but I cannot recall any specific words said or events against creativity. I don’t have many recollections from childhood and beyond, and I feel like I have been my worst enemy (although I can psychologize why that is from my overall childhood experiences). Does anyone else feel similar?
I haven’t made a purposeful artist date yet - maybe I can before the weekend is over. I may take the time to finish a small art project I started over the holidays.