I’ve been wanting to expand upon my artistic creativity for a while. So I decided to purchase the book, “The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.” The book has a 12 week program, and each week focuses on  a different aspect of your creativity. The book is targeted toward so-called “blocked artists”, where individuals want to be artistic and creative, but are blocked from pursuing their dreams due to some internal or external issues. Each work is supposed to be exercises targeting those blocks.

One exercise is morning pages. Each morning, the first thing you are supposed to is write down three pages of longhand. There are no guidelines on what you are supposed to write. It’s just supposed to be a sort of stream of consciousness of whatever comes to mind. There is no right way to do these, but the point of these writings are to get to these blocks, the ideas in your head that are holding you back from being artistic. In theory, these blocks emerge during the course of your writing, and you are supposed to counter those blocks with positive affirmations. These pages are also supposed to be a tool to unlock the creative parts of your brain.

The second aspect of the weekly exercises is artist dates. Again, there are no guidelines on what you want to do. It’s supposed to be a time for you to do whatever it is you want to do that inspires your creativity. It might be a long walk. It might be a visit to an art supply store. Maybe you go and create your own art. It’s supposed to be your time to just do something to inspire your artistic self.

The first week was focused on creating a sense of safety. The focus was supposed to be on bringing to light those negative viewpoints that are holding you back. It might be persons in your life that aren’t supportive of you pursuing your artistic dreams. Maybe people don’t believe in you. Maybe you don’t believe in you. The point was to list all of those blocks and affirmations to overcome them.

Overall, I found this week to not be overly taxing from an emotional standpoint. I personally don’t have unsupportive individuals in my life. My parents both believe I can do whatever I want, and I don’t have anybody else who has a negative opinion of my artistic ideas. My artistic block can be summed in one idea: I don’t know if I am good enough to make a living from art. My art IS getting better, though I could benefit from actual professional instruction. But who the hell knows if it is good enough to actually make any decent money from it? That’s why I’ve always viewed any potential art career as something more to do as a side project or something when I retire from my main career (assuming I make it that far in my career). Could I just go for an art career and give up my main career? My big block in that regard is I am not willing to be a starving artist. I don’t want to be poor, and I live in fear of being poor. Now granted, if I KNEW I would successful, I’d go for it, and work through any obstacles. But life and career don’t work that way. There are no guarantees in anything. I could be successful one day, or I could very easily not be. Am I willing to take the risk with no guarantee of reward? Right now, the answer is no.  So I’ve made a conscious decision to pursue a career field that pays pretty well, and the benefits are pretty good. Now let’s just see how long that can last. Until then, I can just continue to improve my artistic talent, so if I ever decide to pursue an artistic career, at least I’ll be ready for it.