Checking in: Week 2 - Recovering a Sense of Identity

^{This check-in is a transcription of the one I did last year.}

Morning Pages
I haven’t failed to my daily appointment with my pages. As to my experience with them, I thought I’d be writing about my [S…] experience and be over with it by now, but it turned out I still needed to explore other experiences and let out more, so I’ll hang on to that till I vent it all out.

Artist Date
I had a few artist dates this week. I knitted two or three times. I also managed to take a nap on my hammock, although I never went into sleeping, not even lightly, but I’m thinking of doing it again today. My other artist date really put me off. It was dancing. I even did a playlist of super hip, cheerful songs to get you moving. But not only does my Mac not have speakers that can really crank the volume up, but I actually found myself I could not “move”. I mean, I tried, but I felt so disconnected from my physical self, and that is a huge red flag I’ll be working on, to dance as I love it so much, and I’ll have to work on that if I also want to love.

Other Issues
This week, I’m trying to keep up again, but I’m behind my timetable. I know that I’m slower than other people and that I’m not keeping up with tasks, but “easy does it”.

Some quotes taken from the author Julia Cameron (too many to choose from)

• “Going sane feels just like going crazy.”
• “We must learn to place our artist with safe companions. Toxic playmates can capsize our artist’s growth.”
• “You will be led to new sources of support as you begin to support yourself.”
• “The essential element in nurturing our creativity lies in nurturing ourselves.”
• “It is actually easier to write than not to write, paint than not paint…”
• “Crazymakers are often charismatic, frequently charming, highly inventive, and powerfully persuasive. And [...] enormously destructive.”
• “[We’re involved with crazymakers because] we’re that crazy ourselves and we are that self-destructive.”
• “Your crazymaker is a block you chose yourself, to deter you from your own trajectory.”
• ”... our reluctance to take seriously the possibility that the universe just might be cooperating with our new and expanded plans.”
• “Synchronicity supporting my artist with serendipitous coincidences…”
• “Creative recovery is an exercise in open-mindedness.”
• “The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight.”
• “Attention is an act of connection.”

See more progress on: Complete "The Artist's Way"