Week 9, The Artist Way…Julia Cameron writes,
“We’re more comfortable being a victim of artist’s block than risking having to consistently be productive and healthy.
“An artistic U-Turn arrives on a sudden wave of indifference. We greet our newly minted product or our delightful process with “Aw, what does it matter anyhow? It’s just a start. Everybody else is so much further ahead…”
“Yes, and they will stay that way if we stop working. The point is we have traveled light-years from where we were when we were blocked. We are now on the road, and the road is scary. We begin to be distracted by roadside attractions or detoured by the bumps.”
And here are a few sentences from the exercises at the end of the chapter.
“Your choice to block is a creative U-Turn – we turn back on ourselves. Like water forced to stand still, we turn stagnant.” Julia
These blocks are in Life and in Art. And we use them as an excuse as to why we can’t live a better life or create art.
And it is only ourselves that turn us around and heads us back to our old vices and excuses or fears. We keep turning our backs on our truths, our desires, what we love, what brings us peace, our joy…in the good energy flow.
I see my life as a river where others lives are rocks cropping up or interests that are not crucial to my pathway, and instead of floating on by, I stop. I stop my own flow in life.
We each have specific rocks that stop us and then there are bends in the river, opportunities that float by, but we are too afraid to slip into the flow…or we are so busy doing things that are not important and they go by unnoticed.
It is just so interesting that Artist Blocks or Blocks of Addictions keep us from creativity…and they are all our choices.
It is up to us to stop clinging to things that don’t serve us, that keeps us from living.
One big boulder in my life is ‘Responsibility’ and getting my work done first.
I focus on cleaning up my space instead of using that time to create. I put so many rocks ahead of my flow, that my life seems heavy and hard.
I never looked at it this way…even though I lived it more often than not. In fact slipping into the flow of life and playing in the currents and relaxing and letting the river take me, without saying no…is not very common in my life.
Most of my life has been spent on heavy rocks and in other people’s responsibility. Getting used to flowing in my life will take some effort and will mean turning my back on ‘work’. Who knew that work is a blockage in your life.
Today, my one day off, and again I am working on cleaning up our house, the sewing machine sits…however, I did make a date with my husband for later on.
In time, I will be able to discern how much free flowing time I have had and how much I have spent on the rocks, for I will feel its heaviness and know I got lost again living on the blocks.
"Saying No can be the ultimate self-care." Claudia Black


