I enjoyed this week’s tasks perhaps more than any other week.
I tried to write some poetry, which was much harder than I remembered. The last time I did it was on a beach last summer and it felt fun and playful. It was much harder this time, probably because I tried to squeeze it in around work, with an enormous to do list looming over me. But I’m glad I tried. It was nice to stretch my mind in a different direction and while I didn’t complete a full poem, it was nice to challenge myself to engage with language in a new way.
The archeology exercise was interesting to explore. It felt a little repetitive after tasks in earlier chapters of the book (I’m thinking of the one where we had to grieve our creative losses, in particular) but it was also nice to reflect on the positives during this task. I found myself writing more about my life more generally, rather than just my creative work. Maybe I’m beginning to see how much overlap there is between creativity as an artistic practice, and the other things we create in our lives. Things like relationships, families, communities.. My understanding of creativity is expanding beyond the practices we need artistic supplies for. This might also have been due to the fact that I completed the exercise while in Rome with my partner’s family. Sitting around the family table celebrating my in laws 50th wedding anniversary, I was struck by all they built together. They have two children, who now have families of their own. Sitting at that table, it was remarkable to feel how much life has grown from that single choice to make a life together. It’s a beautiful thing. 💕
Curious to hear how you all got on this week too...
Although I am not actively participating in The Artist's Way, I find it inspiring to read about the weekly activities, prompts and challenges. This week has been very difficult and it feels like I am drowning in my own fear and confusion. I've struggled to find the motivation within me to journal daily, which is a practice I lean on during difficult periods.
Instead, inspired by a few of this weeks tasks about writing lists, I started sketching out my feelings, worries and dreams. I mapped out my emotions, desires and fears, and while it was difficult to untangle the endless stream of feelings built up inside of me, I'm glad I tried. Like Clare said, it activated and challenged my mind in a different way, and I think I gained a lot of helpful insights from this new type of journal entry.
Love this Eloise. Art journaling was such a big part of my recovery too. There were times when I found language too stiff and cerebral to really communicate how I was feeling. I used art and imagery to access deeper parts of myself and it really helped 💕
Like you, Clare, I connected with Cameron’s thoughts on creative work being about deep listening. Being a deep listener has greatly affected my creative endeavours and life. The ability to think deeply and make connections makes me feel Cameron is onto something when she writes, “We are more conduit than creator of what we express.” I don’t consider god an external or separate entity, so that might be a factor in how I relate to this, too.
Other things I noted from the book this week:
“It is as though all the stories, paintings, music, performances in the world live just under the surface of our normal consciousness.” I have felt this all my life, and Cameron captured it beautifully.
“These moments of clear inspiration require that we move into them on faith. We can practice these small leaps of faith daily in our pages and on our artist dates.”
Cameron refers to Michelangelo: “The painting has a life of its own.” I experienced this a few times when writing or painting. It’s like the project guided my hand more than my brain or thought process did. It’s not that the quality of the project was “better” than other work, but the coming about felt different, like there was a collaboration.
My brain screamed yes when I read, “I remind my students that their movie already exists in its entirety. Their job is to listen for it, watch it with their mind’s eye, and write it down.” That’s what creating inevitably feels like to me when it’s flowing freely. “…books, plays, and poems wait for us, too. Our job is simply to get them down. To do that, we drop down the well.”
“The minute you are willing to accept the help of this collaborator, you will see useful bits of help everywhere in your life.” I refuse to get too hung up on who or what “this collaborator” is, but I’ve experienced it enough to acknowledge it.
While I argue I’m not a perfectionist, I know I can fall into the trap. I liked what Cameron had to say. “Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop-an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting and lose sight of the whole.” I know I can end up doing exactly what she warns against. “We correct our originality into a uniformity that lacks passion and spontaneity.” To combat this tendency, I’ve written out Cameron’s note. “This is pretty good. I think I’ll just keep going.” My new rule is write first, edit later.
Remembering that “A painting is never finished. It simply stops in interesting places” was a huge aha for me. I’m not after “finished,” I’m after a wonderfully interesting place to end.
“Living within these bounds, [assurance of success], we may feel stifled, smothered, despairing, bored. But, yes, we do feel safe. And safety is a very expensive illusion.” I think the world lately has been reminding us how safety can be an illusion.
I wish I didn’t relate to this as well as I do. “Usually, when we say we can’t do something, what we mean is that we won’t do something unless we can guarantee that we’ll do it perfectly.” I am so good at reminding others they don’t have to be perfect, but I’m still harder on myself. More morning page fodder.
“Once we are willing to accept that anything worth doing might even be worth doing badly our options widen.” They sure do! And, the results are often amazingly good.
The ‘if I didn’t have to be perfect’ exercise was fun and showed me just how much I hold myself back. Maybe I can start taking more risks and doing things imperfectly just for the sake of taking the risk.
I related to Cameron on jealousy when she said, “…fear that we aren’t able to get what we want; frustration that somebody else seems to be getting what is rightfully ours even if we are too frightened to reach for it.” When I saw some of the Substack drama begin to unfold with the arrival of Glennon Doyle, this part of the chapter came to mind.
The jealousy map is also one I’m going to come back to. It was a helpful reflection that motivated me.
I had a hard time with the archaeology exercise, but it showed me that I really am my biggest road bump, and my morning pages are helping me work on that.
The mantra didn’t resonate with me, maybe because I think precious things are fragile and delicate. I replaced precious with cherished, and it felt better.
I listened to a playlist for sheer joy while I drove alone and focusing on the music rather than absently thinking was joyful.
I spent time in our trees and prairie grass seeking out the latest buds and blooms, and it really did feel sacred.
To get my tasks started I jumped in at the easiest, which was lighting a candle I got for Christmas. Why did it take Cameron to get me to indulge myself in such an easy and glorious way?
I tore out pictures for my collage – but alas, got interrupted and just realized I didn’t get back to it. Maybe I can cozy up this weekend and finish it. I was drawn much more to the present, future and dreaming, but that might have been the selection of magazines I had available too.
I played with poetry for my artist’s date and loved it, even though I didn’t have as much time as I’d planned this week so I might revisit the exercise. I’ve written poems and enjoy reading poetry, but the results of this date are short on skill and talent while being big on heart and feeling. Calling it a win.
After my Artist’s date, I got an email and ended up “taking a risk” by signing up for the NYC Midnight Flash Challenge at the end of May. I’ve entered before and loved it every time, but it’s been a long while. Maybe the risk was less deciding to sign up than asking my family for their support during the 48 hours to let me focus on the challenge, and for a bit of enthusiastic cheering. Sure, I’d love to win, but I want to have fun, while I write and read in community. Can’t wait to find out what my genre, location and item are.
I consider the artist date and email synchronicity. I read a note from the universe (Mike Dooley) today that fit in with what we’ve been discussing here the last few weeks. “Create space for the unexpected, through non-attachment to everything that may show up within each journey, even as you attach to your wisely chosen results.” I like to frame it as Perceive, Conceive, Believe, Receive, Achieve
I did complete morning pages every day this week. Here’s to a great week 8. Looking forward to reading the comments and hope to be there Sunday bright and so early! Thank you again, Clare, for leading us through the pages and sharing your personal thoughts and experiences along the way.
Thanks for sharing this Jewel. 💕 I love reading your thoughtful reflections.
I also don't think of myself as a perfectionist, and yet have lots of thought-processes and behaviours that reflect a perfectionist's mindset. It's been a fruitful thing for me to journal on this week.
I had the same thought about Glennon Doyle's arrival on Substack while we're all talking about jealousy. It seems like there are lots of complicated things at play (misogyny perhaps greatest among them all), but I'm acutely conscious that lots of folks don't feel welcome on this platform. I'm not sure I have much space for deep self-reflection on this at the moment, but I know it'll play on my mind over the weeks and months to come.
I love reading about how you interact with the book, Jewel. It seems like you are rigorously engaging with the text not necessarily as something you agree with 100%, but as a starting point for your own artistic practice and creativity. It's so inspiring to me and (I'm sure) other members of the community too.
I'm excited to see what the weeks ahead will bring for us too.
HI, Clare & all participating. And as ever, such thanks for the candour and honesty, I still have the occasional thought that I'm 'doing it all wrong' - and I imagine peace and love to those who are happily motoring on through the chapters & then I remember the honesty with which some have shared and I feel less a moron. Though there is debris still with crazymaker(s) my focus has been less on the clean up (it's not my mess) and more focussed on how I'm looking after and making space for myself. I found myself leaning a little different toward the precious object exercise - with so much that's been in it this last while, maybe the context meant a needs-must, I'm not sure. There's been such a lot of harshness, and I know already what happens as a result of that.
I tried to think of precious in the way that my grandmother taught it to me, as in to covet & take care of, respect. I tried to not be 'precious' about myself, but rather that I be it, could I embody & cultivate that kind of kindness toward the self/within myself? It was nod, maybe, to be in touch with spirit/god/universe, I'm not sure - because of where I placed the note re: precious/strength, I did take the minute to check in with myself, and calibrate maybe - and that linked in with being a little more generous with myself. Giving myself a little space. Breath & breadth.
And I think I'd begun to think of preciousness a little bit like some bulbs, taking root in those dark months of winter, there's something that is precious about that, maybe not in the 2025 sense of things, maybe I'm only confusing things with May Sarton's transfusions.
I've been trying to position myself more in the light, and that's a challenge because of the shadow.
And really, I'd not been aware that shadows has begun to loom quite large.
The subtle but noticeable difference is I understand the shadow far more, and how important it is to try to (forgive, I must be tired, all the bad metaphors) anyway - I'm catching myself, and trying to keep the self lit. Maybe something from that lighting technician lark. From here, I'm better equipped to stay away from the crosshairs of perfectionism, even the full gamut - but as my morning pages, and night pages, show - this doesn't always go according to plan. And the pages. The pages. The pages are the tonic - maybe what Woolf referred to as 'pavement across the abyss' - ohdear, some pavement. (But its pavement...) Sending goodnesses.
I loved how you formed your take on the precious mantra. And I so relate to the thoughts on feeling like I’m doing it all wrong. Grateful for the space this community gives to embrace that too.
So glad that the pages are proving to be a tonic, Michelle. They are for me too. I'm not sure I would have gotten through the challenges of my life without my deep relationship with the page.
"My focus has been less on the clean up (it's not my mess) and more focussed on how I'm looking after and making space for myself" - oof, this resonates! I often find myself emotionally pulled into cleaning up other people's messes, and I have to remind myself to breathe and take a step back. I appreciated this reminder today, Michelle. 💕
"Breath and breadth", "the crosshairs of perfectionism" as always, you've such a gift for language. I love how you describe recalibrating and taking a moment for yourself too. At the end of a really busy week, I am feeling the need for that too.
This week I did the morning pages every day but that’s an ingrained habit of years now. But…a breakthrough! I finally did an exercise: the archaeology exercise. it was illuminating. Especially the positive inventory was a great boost as I go through this period of recovering from acute back pain. Thinking about my many loyal friends, the nice objects surrounding me in my beautiful Barcelona apartment (if I am going to be isolated at least I am surrounded by beauty and things I love), what I think I’m getting better at and what my morning pages have shown me. Highly recommend that exercise. Also I got myself basic watercolor paints, markers and thick paper & I am going to play tomorrow on my artist’s date.
What a great breakthrough! And hooray for watercolours. There's something so theraputic about that medium for me. I think it's the fluidity of the water and how that interacts with my often rigid perspectives no how art "should" look. I hope you have lots of fun playing with them Amy, and maybe we'll get to see some of your creations too.
I also found it really useful to remember some of the positives during the archaeology exercise too. I know there's a lot we can learn from processing our griefs and traumas, but there's a lot to be said for celebrating the good too. On this exploration of The Artist's Way, that's been an important learning for me. 💕
Thank you Jewel. I wore it to an event the other night and felt really good in it. Clothes are powerful like that. It helped me feel more like myself 💕
I enjoyed this week’s tasks perhaps more than any other week.
I tried to write some poetry, which was much harder than I remembered. The last time I did it was on a beach last summer and it felt fun and playful. It was much harder this time, probably because I tried to squeeze it in around work, with an enormous to do list looming over me. But I’m glad I tried. It was nice to stretch my mind in a different direction and while I didn’t complete a full poem, it was nice to challenge myself to engage with language in a new way.
The archeology exercise was interesting to explore. It felt a little repetitive after tasks in earlier chapters of the book (I’m thinking of the one where we had to grieve our creative losses, in particular) but it was also nice to reflect on the positives during this task. I found myself writing more about my life more generally, rather than just my creative work. Maybe I’m beginning to see how much overlap there is between creativity as an artistic practice, and the other things we create in our lives. Things like relationships, families, communities.. My understanding of creativity is expanding beyond the practices we need artistic supplies for. This might also have been due to the fact that I completed the exercise while in Rome with my partner’s family. Sitting around the family table celebrating my in laws 50th wedding anniversary, I was struck by all they built together. They have two children, who now have families of their own. Sitting at that table, it was remarkable to feel how much life has grown from that single choice to make a life together. It’s a beautiful thing. 💕
Curious to hear how you all got on this week too...
Although I am not actively participating in The Artist's Way, I find it inspiring to read about the weekly activities, prompts and challenges. This week has been very difficult and it feels like I am drowning in my own fear and confusion. I've struggled to find the motivation within me to journal daily, which is a practice I lean on during difficult periods.
Instead, inspired by a few of this weeks tasks about writing lists, I started sketching out my feelings, worries and dreams. I mapped out my emotions, desires and fears, and while it was difficult to untangle the endless stream of feelings built up inside of me, I'm glad I tried. Like Clare said, it activated and challenged my mind in a different way, and I think I gained a lot of helpful insights from this new type of journal entry.
Love this Eloise. Art journaling was such a big part of my recovery too. There were times when I found language too stiff and cerebral to really communicate how I was feeling. I used art and imagery to access deeper parts of myself and it really helped 💕
Like you, Clare, I connected with Cameron’s thoughts on creative work being about deep listening. Being a deep listener has greatly affected my creative endeavours and life. The ability to think deeply and make connections makes me feel Cameron is onto something when she writes, “We are more conduit than creator of what we express.” I don’t consider god an external or separate entity, so that might be a factor in how I relate to this, too.
Other things I noted from the book this week:
“It is as though all the stories, paintings, music, performances in the world live just under the surface of our normal consciousness.” I have felt this all my life, and Cameron captured it beautifully.
“These moments of clear inspiration require that we move into them on faith. We can practice these small leaps of faith daily in our pages and on our artist dates.”
Cameron refers to Michelangelo: “The painting has a life of its own.” I experienced this a few times when writing or painting. It’s like the project guided my hand more than my brain or thought process did. It’s not that the quality of the project was “better” than other work, but the coming about felt different, like there was a collaboration.
My brain screamed yes when I read, “I remind my students that their movie already exists in its entirety. Their job is to listen for it, watch it with their mind’s eye, and write it down.” That’s what creating inevitably feels like to me when it’s flowing freely. “…books, plays, and poems wait for us, too. Our job is simply to get them down. To do that, we drop down the well.”
“The minute you are willing to accept the help of this collaborator, you will see useful bits of help everywhere in your life.” I refuse to get too hung up on who or what “this collaborator” is, but I’ve experienced it enough to acknowledge it.
While I argue I’m not a perfectionist, I know I can fall into the trap. I liked what Cameron had to say. “Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop-an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what you are writing or painting and lose sight of the whole.” I know I can end up doing exactly what she warns against. “We correct our originality into a uniformity that lacks passion and spontaneity.” To combat this tendency, I’ve written out Cameron’s note. “This is pretty good. I think I’ll just keep going.” My new rule is write first, edit later.
Remembering that “A painting is never finished. It simply stops in interesting places” was a huge aha for me. I’m not after “finished,” I’m after a wonderfully interesting place to end.
“Living within these bounds, [assurance of success], we may feel stifled, smothered, despairing, bored. But, yes, we do feel safe. And safety is a very expensive illusion.” I think the world lately has been reminding us how safety can be an illusion.
I wish I didn’t relate to this as well as I do. “Usually, when we say we can’t do something, what we mean is that we won’t do something unless we can guarantee that we’ll do it perfectly.” I am so good at reminding others they don’t have to be perfect, but I’m still harder on myself. More morning page fodder.
“Once we are willing to accept that anything worth doing might even be worth doing badly our options widen.” They sure do! And, the results are often amazingly good.
The ‘if I didn’t have to be perfect’ exercise was fun and showed me just how much I hold myself back. Maybe I can start taking more risks and doing things imperfectly just for the sake of taking the risk.
I related to Cameron on jealousy when she said, “…fear that we aren’t able to get what we want; frustration that somebody else seems to be getting what is rightfully ours even if we are too frightened to reach for it.” When I saw some of the Substack drama begin to unfold with the arrival of Glennon Doyle, this part of the chapter came to mind.
The jealousy map is also one I’m going to come back to. It was a helpful reflection that motivated me.
I had a hard time with the archaeology exercise, but it showed me that I really am my biggest road bump, and my morning pages are helping me work on that.
The mantra didn’t resonate with me, maybe because I think precious things are fragile and delicate. I replaced precious with cherished, and it felt better.
I listened to a playlist for sheer joy while I drove alone and focusing on the music rather than absently thinking was joyful.
I spent time in our trees and prairie grass seeking out the latest buds and blooms, and it really did feel sacred.
To get my tasks started I jumped in at the easiest, which was lighting a candle I got for Christmas. Why did it take Cameron to get me to indulge myself in such an easy and glorious way?
I tore out pictures for my collage – but alas, got interrupted and just realized I didn’t get back to it. Maybe I can cozy up this weekend and finish it. I was drawn much more to the present, future and dreaming, but that might have been the selection of magazines I had available too.
I played with poetry for my artist’s date and loved it, even though I didn’t have as much time as I’d planned this week so I might revisit the exercise. I’ve written poems and enjoy reading poetry, but the results of this date are short on skill and talent while being big on heart and feeling. Calling it a win.
After my Artist’s date, I got an email and ended up “taking a risk” by signing up for the NYC Midnight Flash Challenge at the end of May. I’ve entered before and loved it every time, but it’s been a long while. Maybe the risk was less deciding to sign up than asking my family for their support during the 48 hours to let me focus on the challenge, and for a bit of enthusiastic cheering. Sure, I’d love to win, but I want to have fun, while I write and read in community. Can’t wait to find out what my genre, location and item are.
I consider the artist date and email synchronicity. I read a note from the universe (Mike Dooley) today that fit in with what we’ve been discussing here the last few weeks. “Create space for the unexpected, through non-attachment to everything that may show up within each journey, even as you attach to your wisely chosen results.” I like to frame it as Perceive, Conceive, Believe, Receive, Achieve
I did complete morning pages every day this week. Here’s to a great week 8. Looking forward to reading the comments and hope to be there Sunday bright and so early! Thank you again, Clare, for leading us through the pages and sharing your personal thoughts and experiences along the way.
Thanks for sharing this Jewel. 💕 I love reading your thoughtful reflections.
I also don't think of myself as a perfectionist, and yet have lots of thought-processes and behaviours that reflect a perfectionist's mindset. It's been a fruitful thing for me to journal on this week.
I had the same thought about Glennon Doyle's arrival on Substack while we're all talking about jealousy. It seems like there are lots of complicated things at play (misogyny perhaps greatest among them all), but I'm acutely conscious that lots of folks don't feel welcome on this platform. I'm not sure I have much space for deep self-reflection on this at the moment, but I know it'll play on my mind over the weeks and months to come.
I love reading about how you interact with the book, Jewel. It seems like you are rigorously engaging with the text not necessarily as something you agree with 100%, but as a starting point for your own artistic practice and creativity. It's so inspiring to me and (I'm sure) other members of the community too.
I'm excited to see what the weeks ahead will bring for us too.
HI, Clare & all participating. And as ever, such thanks for the candour and honesty, I still have the occasional thought that I'm 'doing it all wrong' - and I imagine peace and love to those who are happily motoring on through the chapters & then I remember the honesty with which some have shared and I feel less a moron. Though there is debris still with crazymaker(s) my focus has been less on the clean up (it's not my mess) and more focussed on how I'm looking after and making space for myself. I found myself leaning a little different toward the precious object exercise - with so much that's been in it this last while, maybe the context meant a needs-must, I'm not sure. There's been such a lot of harshness, and I know already what happens as a result of that.
I tried to think of precious in the way that my grandmother taught it to me, as in to covet & take care of, respect. I tried to not be 'precious' about myself, but rather that I be it, could I embody & cultivate that kind of kindness toward the self/within myself? It was nod, maybe, to be in touch with spirit/god/universe, I'm not sure - because of where I placed the note re: precious/strength, I did take the minute to check in with myself, and calibrate maybe - and that linked in with being a little more generous with myself. Giving myself a little space. Breath & breadth.
And I think I'd begun to think of preciousness a little bit like some bulbs, taking root in those dark months of winter, there's something that is precious about that, maybe not in the 2025 sense of things, maybe I'm only confusing things with May Sarton's transfusions.
I've been trying to position myself more in the light, and that's a challenge because of the shadow.
And really, I'd not been aware that shadows has begun to loom quite large.
The subtle but noticeable difference is I understand the shadow far more, and how important it is to try to (forgive, I must be tired, all the bad metaphors) anyway - I'm catching myself, and trying to keep the self lit. Maybe something from that lighting technician lark. From here, I'm better equipped to stay away from the crosshairs of perfectionism, even the full gamut - but as my morning pages, and night pages, show - this doesn't always go according to plan. And the pages. The pages. The pages are the tonic - maybe what Woolf referred to as 'pavement across the abyss' - ohdear, some pavement. (But its pavement...) Sending goodnesses.
I loved how you formed your take on the precious mantra. And I so relate to the thoughts on feeling like I’m doing it all wrong. Grateful for the space this community gives to embrace that too.
Very grateful to have you here Jewel too 💕
So glad that the pages are proving to be a tonic, Michelle. They are for me too. I'm not sure I would have gotten through the challenges of my life without my deep relationship with the page.
"My focus has been less on the clean up (it's not my mess) and more focussed on how I'm looking after and making space for myself" - oof, this resonates! I often find myself emotionally pulled into cleaning up other people's messes, and I have to remind myself to breathe and take a step back. I appreciated this reminder today, Michelle. 💕
"Breath and breadth", "the crosshairs of perfectionism" as always, you've such a gift for language. I love how you describe recalibrating and taking a moment for yourself too. At the end of a really busy week, I am feeling the need for that too.
This week I did the morning pages every day but that’s an ingrained habit of years now. But…a breakthrough! I finally did an exercise: the archaeology exercise. it was illuminating. Especially the positive inventory was a great boost as I go through this period of recovering from acute back pain. Thinking about my many loyal friends, the nice objects surrounding me in my beautiful Barcelona apartment (if I am going to be isolated at least I am surrounded by beauty and things I love), what I think I’m getting better at and what my morning pages have shown me. Highly recommend that exercise. Also I got myself basic watercolor paints, markers and thick paper & I am going to play tomorrow on my artist’s date.
What a great breakthrough! And hooray for watercolours. There's something so theraputic about that medium for me. I think it's the fluidity of the water and how that interacts with my often rigid perspectives no how art "should" look. I hope you have lots of fun playing with them Amy, and maybe we'll get to see some of your creations too.
I also found it really useful to remember some of the positives during the archaeology exercise too. I know there's a lot we can learn from processing our griefs and traumas, but there's a lot to be said for celebrating the good too. On this exploration of The Artist's Way, that's been an important learning for me. 💕
And did I mention that suit is amazing. I love the colour on you
Thank you Jewel. I wore it to an event the other night and felt really good in it. Clothes are powerful like that. It helped me feel more like myself 💕
Thanks Clare. I really appreciate all of your input.
Thanks for being here Ana 💕