Reclaim Personal Power

Week 5, Day 6 of The Artist's Way

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Today, let's see how we've passively given up our individual sovereignty and practice reclaiming our personal power.

THE VIRTUE TRAP (continued)

Many recovering creatives sabotage themselves most frequently by making nice.

There is a tremendous cost to such ersatz virtue.

Many of us have made a virtue out of deprivation. We have embraced a long-suffering artistic anorexia as a martyr’s cross. We have used it to feed a false sense of spirituality grounded in being good, meaning superior.

We strive to be good, to be nice, to be helpful, to be unselfish. We want to be generous, of service, of the world. But what we really want is to be left alone.

When we can’t get others to leave us alone, we eventually abandon ourselves.

To others, we may look like we’re there. We may act like we’re there. But our true self has gone to ground.

What’s left is a shell of our whole self. It stays because it is caught. Like a listless circus animal prodded into performing, it does its tricks. It goes through its routine. It earns its applause. But all of the hoopla falls on deaf ears. We are dead to it. Our artist is not merely out of sorts. Our artist has checked out. Our life is now an out-of-body experience. We’re gone. A clinician might call it disassociating. I call it leaving the scene of the crime.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” we wheedle, but our creative self no longer trusts us. Why should it? We sold it out.

Afraid to appear selfish, we lose our self. We become self-destructive. Because this self-murder is something we seek passively rather than consciously act out, we are often blind to its poisonous grip on us.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 98)

I am very discerning with how I give my self to others.

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WISH LIST, AN EXERCISE

One of the best ways we can evade our Censor is to use the technique of speed writing. Because wishes are just wishes, they are allowed to be frivolous (and frequently should be taken very seriously).

As quickly as you can, finish the following phrases:

1. I wish ____________________________________
2. I wish ____________________________________
3. I wish ____________________________________
4. I wish ____________________________________
5. I wish ____________________________________
6. I wish ____________________________________
7. I wish ____________________________________
8. I wish ____________________________________
9. I wish ____________________________________
10. I wish ____________________________________
11. I wish ____________________________________
12. I wish ____________________________________
13. I wish ____________________________________
14. I wish ____________________________________
15. I wish ____________________________________
16. I wish ____________________________________
17. I wish ____________________________________
18. I wish ____________________________________
19. I most especially wish ______________________

“We are traditionally rather proud of ourselves for having slipped creative work in there between the domestic chores and obligations. I’m not sure we deserve such big A-pluses for that.”

– TONI MORRISON

What is one small action you will make today to create space for your list of wishes?

We'd love to hear in the comments below 👇