Applying the Artist’s Way program to horseback riding. 12 weeks long and transformative.
In this final week, we acknowledge the inner inherently mysterious spiritual heart of creativity. We address the fact that creativity requires receptivity and profound trust — capacities we have developed through our work in this course. We set our creative aims and take a special look at last minute sabotage. We renew our commitment to the use of the tools.
This week we focus on our artistic autonomy. We examine the ongoing ways in which we must nurture and accept ourselves as artists. We explore the behaviors that can strengthen our spiritual base and therefore, our creative power. We take a special look at the way sin which success must be handled in order that we not sabotage our freedom.
This week we explore the perils that can ambush us on our creative path. Because creativity is a spiritual issue, many of the perils are spiritual perils. In the essays, tasks and exercises of the week, we search out the toxic patterns we cling to that block our creative flow.
This week finds us facing the internal blocks to creativity. It may be tempting to abandon ship at this point. DON’T! We will explore and acknowledge the emotional difficulties that beset us in the past as we made creative efforts. We will undertake healing the shame of past failures. We will gain in compassion as we re-parent the frightened artist child who years for creative accomplishment. We will learn tools to dismantle emotional blocks and support renewed risk.
This week tackles another major creative block: time. You will explore the ways in which you have used your perception of time to preclude taking creative risks. You will identify immediate and practical changes you can make in your current life. You will excavate the early conditioning that may have encouraged you to settle for far less than you desire for your life.
This week we turn to the practice of right attitudes for creativity. The emphasis is on your receptive as well as active skills. The essays, exercises and tasks aim at excavating areas of genuine creative interest as you connect with your personal dreams.
This week you tackle a major creative block: money. You are asked to really look at your own ideas around Life, Money, and creative abundance. The essays will explore the ways in which your attitudes limit abundance and luxury in your current life. You will be introduced to counting, a block-busting tool for clarity and right use of funds. This week may feel… Volatile.
This week you are being asked to examine your pay-offs in remaining stuck. You will explore how you curtail your own possibilities by placing limits on the good you can receive. You will examine the cost of settling for appearing good instead of being authentic. You may find yourself thinking about radical changes, no longer ruling out your growth by making others the cause of your constriction.
This week may find you grappling with changing self-definition. The essays, tasks, and exercises are designed to catapult you into productive introspection and integration of new self awareness. This may be both very difficult and extremely exciting for you. Warning: Do not skip the tool of reading deprivation!
This week may find you dealing with unaccustomed bursts of energy and sharp peaks of anger, joy and grief. You are coming into your power as the illusory hold of your previously accepted limits is shaken. You will be asked to consciously experiment with spiritual openmindedness.
This week addresses self-definition as a major component of creative recovery. You may find yourself drawing new boundaries and staking out new territories as your personal needs, desires, and interests announce themselves. The essays and tools are aimed at moving you into your personal identity, a self-defined you.
This week initiates your creative recovery. You may feel both giddy and defiant, hopeful and skeptical. The readings, tasks, and exercises aim at allowing you to establish a sense of safety, which will enable you to explore your creativity with less fear.
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.
I’ll be posting the next week’s section each Monday and asking for you to share your thoughts, experiences and any struggles you might be wading through from the previous week in the comments section. Remember you can also share photos when you post comments if you’d like to share anything visual from your week’s journey.
Joining in? Introduce yourself in the comments and share what you’re hoping to get out of this 12-week journey!