Receive the Gift of Pain
Week 2, Day 7 of The Artist's Way
Today, let's notice that each moment is not without its beauty.
ATTENTION (continued)
Writing about attention, I see that I have written a good deal about pain.
This is no coincidence. It may be different for others, but pain is what it took to teach me to pay attention. In times of pain, when the future is too terrifying to contemplate and the past too painful to remember, I have learned to pay attention to right now. The precise moment I was in was always the only safe place for me. Each moment, taken alone, was always bearable. In the exact now, we are all, always, all right. Yesterday the marriage may have ended. Tomorrow the cat may die. The phone call from the lover, for all my waiting, may not ever come, but just at the moment, just now, that’s all right. I am breathing in and out. Realizing this, I began to notice that each moment was not without its beauty.
(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 54)
In the exact now, I am always, all right.
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Inner Compass: Each of us has an inner compass.
This is an instinct that points us toward health. It warns us when we are on dangerous ground, and it tells us when something is safe and good for us. Morning pages are one way to contact it. So are some other artist-brain activities—painting, driving, walking, scrubbing, running. This week, take an hour to follow your inner compass by doing an artist-brain activity and listening to what insights bubble up.
“The noun of self becomes a verb. This flashpoint of creation in the present moment is where work and play merge.”
– STEPHEN NACHMANOVITCH
What is one tiny change you'd like to make for yourself?
We'd love to hear in the comments!