The longest week ever?

Week one managed to become 3 weeks long. Procrastination, my biggest enemy, was working overtime. With encouraging words and a few explanations, Rivercrow got me back on track. Following the spirit of the rules is much more important than following them to the letter. She helped me realize that different lifestyles call for slight adjustments to makes things work.

The biggest hurdle in the first week is identifying enemies to my creative self-worth. To face them head on and realize I'm not the only one to "blame" for my self doubt. Then we have to list champions. This was a bit easier. Remembering the good is always easier. The best task of week one was one of the last ones. If you had 5 other lives to lead, what would you choose? My choices were:

• singer


• animator


• astronaut


• martial artist


• store owner

My artist's date was a trip to Michael's. I slowly perused almost every aisle. In the end, I bought myself a new sketchbook, colored pencils, and stencil paints and daubers. These will be perfect supplies for future artist dates. I may even post a few of my new creations here.

Do Over

My life went completely crazy last week. This made it virtually impossible to do anything but stress. I want to do this program the right way. So Monday will be a do over of week one. Now that I have DSL (and my life back on track), I'll post my progress at least 3 times a week. I really felt I didn't give it my all the first time I started.

Week One

The first week, called "Recovering a Sense of Safety" is about facing the monsters in our past and realizing our support system. I was never really discouraged from being creative, but I wasn't encouraged either. I didn't know I had any artistic talent until I was an adult. So my "monsters" were of my self-worth in general. I was supposed to focus on specific instances in my past, but I have very few memories of my childhood. Just bits and pieces, the occasional feeling. So relating any specific stories was a bit difficult. The people who've been the most supportive of me were more recent, so that was a bit easier. I wasn't a complete success with the morning pages my first week. This does leave room for improvement. I only managed to write them 4 out of the 7 days, which was more than I expected myself to be able to get up early for. My artist's date was a bit shorter than two hours, but I didn't weasel my way out and I didn't bring anyone else along. If my ISP will allow, I plan to post a little more often than once a week. Writing things out, both here and on paper, has and will make a huge difference.

Tomorrow it starts

Tomorrow is the first day of my journey of creative recovery through the Artist's Way. This blog will be a diary of my progress and feelings as I go through the twelve week program. I probably won't post every day, just as I need to share my thoughts.