💬 Let’s chat about Week 6 of The Artist’s Way
On recovering a sense of abundance
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 between creativity and recovery and it’s not too late for you to join us! Our goal is to explore our creativity in a gentle, low commitment way and to show up each week to cheer each other on. Here’s an overview of our approach if you’d like to learn more!
How did you get on this week?
I’m ending this week tired, but happy. I’m grateful to (hopefully 🤞🏻) have a little more rest on the agenda this weekend. Our rest/integration weeks always seem to come along when I need a little respite, so I’m grateful for that too. Big thanks to those of you who completed our mid-point survey this week. It was really heartening to see that you’re enjoying this exploration of The Artist’s Way, and I also appreciated the constructive feedback.
To the folks who just don’t like The Artist’s Way itself, I get it. As I re-visit the chapters through a trauma-informed lens and chat with you in the comments, I’m realising just how flawed the book is. One of the gifts of this experience for me has been thinking through my own approach to creativity as a tool for trauma recovery. If I ever get a chance to write a book on the subject someday, I know this experience will really inform my thinking. So thank you for that. I am very grateful for your presence here.
If you haven’t taken the survey yet, I’d still love to hear from you.
I wrote Morning Pages every day this week. My handwriting got pretty messy as the week progressed which is often an indicator of my tiredness, but I still got ‘em done! For my Artist’s Date, I’ve enjoyed doing the Minute Cryptic crossword clue everyday. It’s a fun, brain-twisty puzzle that incorporates word play and humour. I don’t always figure it out but the few minutes I spend on it each morning is consistently fun. I’m also planning an extended vision-boarding/rest/quarterly reflection day over the weekend. I’m excited for that!
One of the key requests from this week’s survey was that more folks would feel moved to share their experiences in the comments.
I would love that too. I love interacting with you in DMs/my inbox, but there’s something about the community conversation that feels especially nourishing. Even if you’re not actively participating in The Artist’s Way, you’re still very welcome to contribute. I’d love to hear your thoughts, reflections and ideas and will do my best to respond to every single one. (It sometimes takes me some time to get to everyone, but that’s always my goal!)
💬 If you’re finding The Artist’s Way difficult, please feel especially welcome to share. Lots of folks have said that they wouldn’t be doing this without the support of this community, so please lean on us. We are here to cheer you on! As always, I’ll get us started with some reflections on the tasks I completed this week.
Thanks so much for being here. It’s an honour to be in community with you 💕
P.S. If you’re new here, please review our community guidelines before participating too.
Hi Everyone,
I did manage to do my morning pages every day this week, and today marked 50 days straight. I’ve been letting everything out in those pages, whether two or three. Whatever arrives when I set pen to paper receives the space it begs for. I feel heard, even if it’s only being acknowledged by myself.
Haven’t completed all the tasks. I’m always on the lookout for rocks so as I walk this week I’ll see what I find. The wild crocus just began to bloom, and the aspen trees are ready to open. I didn’t get rid of 5 ratty pieces of clothing, but did get rid of some things in general around the place I didn’t need. This week of rest I will get some cards to friends, and I’m counting the birthday cards I’ve sent and am sending. This week I want to vision board because I just haven’t gotten around to it. And since I don’t have to read another chapter, I want to read through all of Clare’s posts for The Artist’s Way and the comments.
I had a hard time digging into the money exercises that asked what I wanted. Everything felt superficial; I felt put on the spot, my mind was blank, and I squirmed. I just couldn't seem to let myself play with the concept of anything significant instead of hollow. This morning, as I was sitting after meditation, I felt like something suddenly clicked in my mind, my imagination was unleashed, wild and alive with dreamy possibilities.
Yes, I did have an Artist Date. My Artist Date this week was even better than expected. I signed up for a short free writing workshop. Given the duration and price, I didn’t expect a lot, but it was fantastic. I had fun, felt validated and learned a lot about something I’ve struggled with, at least in my own mind. After the event, I felt empowered and confident, and later I tingled, feeling the motivation seep in.
I believe it did have a little synchronicity this week. I was visiting my 98-year-old dad at his care home and noticed his razor wasn’t working properly. I expected to have to replace it. Before I did that, a conversation with my son resulted in him delivering an almost-new shaver to my dad when he visited. My husband looked at the broken shaver I was about to throw out and, after a few minutes of tinkering, had the problem fully resolved. My son told his grandpa to keep the shaver, and his grandpa told me to keep his. What neither knew was that I’d been considering getting a shaver myself.
Morning pages helped me tease something else out this week as I wrote about my writing block and how I’m feeling about The Artist’s Way. It was like the pages tapped me on the shoulder and softly crooned in my ear, “But darling, didn’t you notice? You are writing again. Silly girl.” It was like a lens zoomed in, and what had been blurred was suddenly crystal clear. In the past seven weeks, I have been writing. I’ve written fifty days of morning pages. I’ve composed and shared my thoughts and ideas each week with strangers, who are also travelling The Artist’s Way, about the journey to unblock my creativity. While none of this is groundbreaking or earth-shaking writing that will change the world, it is changing me. I’m putting words and thoughts together. I’m giving them space to exist. Right now, that writing counts. It’s healing me.
Happy rest week to everyone here.
I am doing the morning pages without fail and artist’s dates tend to be my usual walk around my charming old Badalona/Barcelona neighborhood but each week I notice new things. I’ve not yet done any exercises. Still not sure why but just not calling to me as much as other writing/exploration I am doing in other parts of my creative life. Looking forward to a rest week, to keep mulling over how I can live with a sense of abundance in more than the money sense.