The Artist's Way- Week One

Week One: Recovering a Sense of Safety

I think my favorite aspect of this program is that it embraces silliness. So often in life, we get caught up in our responsibilities: our jobs, our bills, our chores around the house, taking care of the kids, driving the kids to all of their activities, walking the dog, getting our 10,000 steps in, and posting on our carefully crafted social media accounts. All those things we HAVE to do, in order to be a responsible adult.

This program forces you to do things for no other reason than stepping out of that role of responsible adult. What were all those things you did as a kid when you had a few hours of unstructured time after school? Did you listen to a record over and over and over again, memorizing the lyrics so you could sing it at the top of your lungs? Did you draw medieval castles? Did you play guitar? (Or air guitar?) Did you make up dances in your basement? Did you go on endless walks around the neighborhood or in the woods by your house? Did you practice tricks on your skateboard? Did you build a fort or redecorate your room? Those things. Those are the kinds of things that pop up in the exercises at the end of the chapter each week.

Strangely, those silly things end up becoming really profound at the end of 12 weeks.

One of my favorite exercises week one is: Imaginary Lives.  Pretend you have 5 more lives to live. What would you do? And it doesn't matter if you aren't good at whatever you choose. You can still be a lounge singer in your imaginary life if you are completely tone deaf in this one. You can be an accountant if you failed math 3 times in high school. (though why anyone would spend one of their imaginary lives on accountant is beyond me!)

One of my favorite techniques is one I picked up at the Julia Cameron retreat a couple weeks ago: do it fast! Don't overthink things. Set a timer for 3 minutes and write furiously for 3 minutes. (When we allow ourselves a long time to think about things, we often venture out of silly land and into the kingdom of responsibility.) Plus, I found that when I did the exercises this way- fast and furious- I often looked back at my answer and thought "Wow. I didn't know I thought that until right now."  Because those fast and furious answers had a definite aura of truth to them.

See? Silly and profound!

MY FIVE IMAGINARY LIVES:

WRITER Of course. Always. My fast and furious self chose not a fiction writer or a travel writer (as my brain would pick),  bit more of an investigative or research journalist in the vein of Malcolm Gladwell or Gretchen Rubin. Looking around at the piles of books I have yet to read, I see that this type of writing is what I gravitate toward. Even if many of the books are now serving as unread decorations.

ROCK STAR And, of course. Doesn't everyone want to be a rock star? We've even commandeered  the term rock star to mean excellence in ANY field! But seriously- a life of creating and collaborating and experimenting with different styles. And travel. Quite frankly, I'd be happy with the life of most non-rockstar musicians- crammed in a van with the long road ahead and a big bag of snacks.

 SCIENTIST Not a laboratory scientist, but more like a field scientist. Gathering samples of ocean water or living amongst the apes like Jane Goodall. Or a social scientist studying the motivations and habits of us weird humans. I think the only thing that would be really frustrating about this profession is that I find that the more  I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.

SPECIAL EFFECTS EXPERT Kind of a strange one for me, since these are people who spend lots of times indoors and have that pasty skin. But I imagine the chance to collaborate with a team of smart, creative people all working toward the same goal. The chance to think outside the norm. Plus, I really like movies.

TOUR GUIDE: Somewhere cool. Like Rome or Paris. Or  trip leader along the Inca Trail. It would be empowering, I think, to share knowledge about an amazing place with other people. And amazing to see these places over and over again (like that record I listened to in my room after school). Several years ago, I went to Italy with my two best friends and we toured the Vatican. I remember thinking that this tour guide saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel EVERY DAY!  And then immediately thinking that I really picked the wrong major in college! I've never fully gotten over that realization.