Join Writing of Riding for a special 12-week journey through The Artist's Way for Equestrians.
Human beings are designed to be creative. We are creations ourselves, when we are actively contributing our creative energy to the world we are doing the “right” thing emotionally, spiritually and on every other level. When we are creative we are healthier, happier and our lives work better. It's also incidentally true that it's healthier for the rest of mankind, and the planet we live on, when we're creative. Creativity is our birthright, and it always calls us home. It's always there for us when we listen for it and waiting for us when we don't.
If we are going to reclaim our creative nature, and get over the blocks that stop us from being the best teachers, trainers, riders, writers, artists, doctors, mothers, lawyers, dog walkers — human beings — that we can be… we need to take it on gently and joyfully, with tools built for the task.
Two basic tools will be sued through this process; Morning Pages & The Artist's Date.
Morning Pages
Get up half an hour early for the next 12 weeks. Write 3 pages every morning. Do not share what you wrote, do not read what you wrote, do not edit what you wrote. You are just doing stream-of-consciousness writing, there is no right way to do it. The pages can be thin lined legal sized, they can be three pages from a post-it pad. They can alternate.
Your commitment is three pages, don't get stuck by it, just write them. Every morning. For the duration of the next 12 weeks.
Artist's Date
Once a week you'll take your inner artist child out, all by yourself, and have a special outing. This is to recharge your creative soul. It can mean going to a junk store, for a hike, to another barn, to a gallery, to a library. It can mean laying in the sun watching a horse graze. It is an hour or two just doing one thing, on your own, for yourself, to give your creative place an hour in the sun. Your artist self is a child self. Listen to what your response is to the artist's dates you set up — if you find you're feeling like it's too businesslike, or too stuffy, or too scary, or too whatever.. listen to your feeling. This is to nurture you, not to edify or improve or fix you. Nurturing feels good.
“When we work at our art, we dip into the well of our own experience and bring out images. Because we do this, we need to learn how to put images back in. How do we fill the well?
We feed it images. Art is an artist-brain pursuit. The artist brain is our image brain, home and haven to our best creative impulses. The artist brian cannot be reached — or triggered — effectively by words alone. The artist brain is the sensory brain: sight and sound, smell, taste, and touch. These are the elements of magic, and magic is the elemental stuff of art.
In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do — spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. DO what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.”
Julia Cameron
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i began my morning pages today. as i wrote them i wondered why i ever stopped. there is such a release that happens when all that clutter in my mind flows out and onto the page. and knowing that no one will ever read it makes it so freeing!
the hardest part for me is the artist date. with everything going on in my life i find it difficult to carve out time to do something entirely on my own for me alone. if i have free time i tend to want to play with Billy Blaze, or take the dogs for a walk, or visit with my kids. so this will be a challenge!
How wonderful to hear how quickly you’ve taken back to the Morning Pages. 🙂 I tend to struggle a bit more with mine, I do them but don’t feel like I manage to dump every bit of clutter out of my brain. Hoping this will change as the days progress and the surplus of junk dwindles. 🙂
The Artist’s Date can be a real challenge! Remember though, it doesn’t have to be anything lengthy (even just an hour), expensive or extensive. It also doesn’t have to be ‘artsy’ or creative. I’ve spent some of mine taking myself out for dinner alone to a favorite restaurant or to a local play going on. The experience of being with yourself creates an entirely different experience than when you are accompanied by a friend or significant other and can make you hyper-aware of what is going on around you. Things you would otherwise ignore or miss become a major feature of your outing and from that you can find images and ideas to draw from later on. 🙂