Holding Myself Back in 8th Grade...Er, Week

This last week I was in week eight (A Sense of Strength) of The Artist's Way, and have come to realize that I need another week for this chapter.  To put it bluntly, I didn't do the work.  I slacked on my morning pages and instead jumped either into illustrating or looking up family history.  I avoided the morning pages like a plague.


The weekly task list looked daunting from the get-go...so I avoided it, when it probably means that I need to do these the most out of all of the weekly tasks I've done so far. 


SOOOO, I've decided to hold myself back for a week.  I'm going to stay in week eight and work on it this coming week.  I'll post about week eight next Sunday, so stay tuned!

The Artist's Way- End of Week Three- Synchronicity

Julia, Julia, Julia!  The questions you posed this week in the tasks were unexpectedly tough! 

The list 5s are stumpers!- list 5 people you admire, now list 5 people you secretly admire, then list 5 people who you wish to meet but are dead, and list 5 people who are already dead who you would spend part of your eternity with...all of these of course followed by answering why and/or what traits that make them be a part of the list. 

At first glance, it looked so easy to do these, but to tell you the truth I'm still working on my five people that I secretly admire.  Limiting choices down to only five is crazy when you think about these questions in terms of  everyone who is alive or has ever lived on this planet.  I became so extremely picky about my choices, but it was fun at the same time- that puzzle part of my brain was definitely activated for this.  Even if you aren't doing The Artist's Way, I completely dare you to do this some time- I'm wondering if you will find it as difficult as I did!


Morning Pages

I'm not minding them as much now.  It is not requiring me any discipline to get through them this week as much as it did during the first two weeks.  Instead...dare I say it?...it's actually been a pleasure to do them.  It just feels like it helps me organize my thoughts and gain some momentum going into my day.  If anyone else has been doing morning pages, or writing in the morning, I'd love to hear how you feel about it.  I'm currently wondering how often people stick with writing three pages as soon as they awake way past the length of this twelve-week venture.  I wonder if I'll be sick of them by the end of this.


Synchronicity

I did notice a few instances of synchronicity this week, but I'm never that far away from it- it's a very big part of my faith (which in all honesty I don't talk about that much, but am seriously noticing just how much I have been recently...so in short I look like a liar when I say that I don't. ha!LOL).  I believe that we get exactly what we need at the proper proportion at the perfect time.  There are no coincidences.  People, places, and experiences all play an intricate role in our lives that constantly help us to progress on our journey- God/Allah/The Higher Power/Universal Energy sends messages to us through some pretty creative avenues.  My favorite experiences of this have been through a mysterious computer message while I was at work printing out payroll, and several instances of the radio.  We need to keep our eyes open for the answers and inspirations that we are seeking, which goes along with this fabulous clip of Grace Coddington from "The September Issue" movie that I watched last night- How's that for some synchronicity?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo1vnibK3vA

If you have not watched this movie before, I highly suggest it to anyone interested in seeing behind the scenes of magazine publishing, fashion or Vogue to be exact.  Samm and I have fallen in love with Grace Coddington after seeing this documentary.  She is brilliant, and her work is a feast for the eyes that I want to overindulge in...just like ice cream with Birthday cake!

The Artist's Way- Week One's Delectable Purge

Week One in One Word:  PURGE!

Good Things about this Week:      Morning Pages
                                                    Old Madonna Videos
                                                    Task #5:  Letter to the Editor


Bad Things about this Week:        Morning Pages
                                                   Trying to Resist Going to Chapter 2 before I completed wk 1 tasks!!!




Morning pages, morning pages, and more morning pages.  They were fun, they were boring, they were satisfying, they were meaningless.  I established the morning pages writing activity as a friendly way to celebrate the beginning of each new day.  I turned on my Beethoven station on Pandora, filled a cup of coffee and wrote out three pages.  Some days I greeted it with zest, but let's face it- I'm truly NOT a morning person.  Some days were better than others.  I think the trick is to not overthink the words that are manifesting themselves on the paper.  It's almost like a morning purge of old thoughts and gaining some space for the new.  I noticed that I seemed to have a pattern:  the first page was neutral, the second page was a bit negative, and the third page was positive in tone and attitude.  Very strange.  Did anyone else sense a pattern in their morning pages?


As for the tasks this week, I absolutely adored the fifth one- writing a Letter to the Editor and mailing it to yourself.  It was entertaining and extremely therapeutic.  I felt as if I had feng shui-ed my brain and ridded it of some rubbish I had held onto for years.  It felt amazing.  I sent it off in the mail, but I haven't recieved it yet.  I'm wondering what it will be like when I read it again.


Cheers to reading Chapter Two today!


I'm wondering how Week One went for you?  What were the good points or the bad points?