Week 8 - This week tackles another major creative block: time. You will explore the ways in which you have used your perception of time to preclude taking creative risks. You will identify immediate and practical changes you can make in your current life. You will excavate the early conditioning that may have encouraged you to settle for far less than you desire creatively.
According to Julia Cameron the author of The Artist's Way, week 8 is the week when a lot of people decide to quit The Artist's Way. I have to say that I've noticed over the weeks, people online dropping away gradually - mostly with the excuse that they don't have enough time. After listening to people complain about their lack of time for participating, I have been interested to then see the amount of trivia that they choose to share online. I wondered, if they have time for that, then why not time for their creativity? How do you spend your time? Do you factor in time for your art, your writing, sculpting, your creativity - whatever that is for you?
Watch yourself for a week and notice the way you will pick up on an anxious thought, almost like a joint, to blow off - or at least delay - your next creative action. You've cleared a morning to write or paint but then you realise that the clothes are dirty. "I'll just think about what I want to paint and then fine tune it while I fold the clothes" you tell your self. What you really mean is, "Instead of painting anything, I will worry about it some more." Somehow, the laundry takes your whole morning.
The Artist's Way was written prior to the internet becoming such a part of our lives and I'm noticing that a common new way of avoiding creating, is the time we waste on trivia online (notice I said, we there). I encourage, you right now to take out a piece of paper, yes right now, and doodle or write a few lines. A theme? Time. The present moment. What you are noticing here and now.
Journal prompt for this week: take note of the time you spend... what do you do with your precious time?
