PASSION PROJECT
Morning Pages & The Artist’s Date
I read a book (still reading) called “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. The first chapter outlines a method for discovering your own creativity, or perhaps you might say rediscover, or uncover, or develop, but essentially to find and expand your own creative power. The method is simple, every day you wake up, and immediately write 3 pages. What you write can be like a journal, a brainstorm, or utter nonsense, but you have to fill 3 pages. I adapted this method to fit my needs and I decided to write one page every morning for 12 days. Over the course of those 12 days, it became clear that writing like this, simply squeezing out whatever came into my head, was indeed expanding my creative abilities. One of the tricks to writing the pages is to just write even when you don’t feel you have anything to say. Just start with a single word or a number and see where it takes you.
“The morning pages are a primary tool of creative recovery”
Part two of this project was to go on what the book calls an “Artist’s Date.” The idea is to go do something by yourself with no distractions and to be present with yourself. The point is quality time. To paraphrase the book, a therapist might ask a couple if they spend quality time together. They respond, “Well yes we’re together all the time.” The therapist responds, “Yes but do you spend quality time together?” The point is that it’s not about having a sense of self, it’s about spending quality time with yourself. For my Artist’s Date, I went to a movie by myself. It was the first time I’d ever done that and I have to say it was a little uncomfortable at times. I was constantly afraid I was being judged by other movie-goers, but I got to spend some time enjoying quality time with myself. And yes I did buy the large fountain drink for myself. Maybe that’s why I was getting the weird looks…