Monday, May 24, 2010

the Artist's Way - Week Three - Day One

Recovering a Sense of Power

We are taught to repress our anger because it is not a feeling that nice people reveal. We push it down and ignore the rage. Anger is a emotion that should be acted upon not acted out. Anger is there to be listened to. Anger produces actions and in turn produces reactions from the universe.

Ask and you shall receive. Knock and the door shall open. Leap and a net will appear. There are no coincidences. We reach out; there is someone there to receive us.

When you watch a bad movie, and you become upset because you'd just wasted an hour or more, what better way to resolve your anger than to do exactly what you are thinking? "It was a good story line; they just did it all wrong. I could have done better than that." Well, what's stopping you? Do it!

(This is a good example for me. I do this all the time. After listening to this course, I started paying more attention. An earlier post: Where do ideas come from? This is a great source, bad movies, turn them into good books. Go ahead, you can do it.)

Shame and fear may also prevent an artist's actions. "What will they think of me and my work?" You cannot shield yourself from criticism but you can use it to your advantage. Some critiques will seek out to shame you. You must push those aside and only use the ones that will help you grow. You can usually hear the tone of the critique and know whether they are trying to be helpful or not.

Many artists begin a piece of work with no problem, but as they get close to completion they run into trouble. If they don't finish it, well no one will see it and no one will critique it. Don't let shame and fear stop you from accomplishing your dream.

Shame and fear are emotions that a child is not born with. They are taught by parents, teachers, older children to have these harmful attitudes. Let's spend this week restoring ourselves back to the child that we have abandoned along the way.

By priming our memory, we will allow ourselves to recall our authentic self and in turn become closer to being who we used to be. Don't worry we are going to have fun. :)

For Day One: Complete this sentence:

My favorite childhood story was ______.

Remember. Think about it. Why was it your favorite? Did you read it? Was it read to you? What emotions did the story produce?

You chose to share this with us or not. It's up to you. This week is important. The more we reconnect with our child, the easier it is to remember when we were not afraid and to reconnect with this moment.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the compliment on the blog. I'm glad you liked it. I left you a message on your blog. Think positive and positive things will happen. Best wishes.

Anonymous said...

I can't get my memory to work with me here. The earliest title I can remember is A Wrinkle In Time. But, there was one before this. I remember reading it over and over again. It was a picture book and I remember the main character was a Frog. I've been googling and I think it may have been Frog and Toad Are Friends.

Which book it was isn't really the issue. I know why it has stuck in my memory. This has more to do with my mother. We are not very close, but I remember that this was a library book and I kept wanting it to be checked out so I could read it again. Instead of buying the book, we sat down and she typed it out for me. I don't even remember reading it after that. It is just the fact that she took the time to do this. It is a memory that I cherish because there's not many of them like this.

Terry W. Ervin II said...

I am not sure that shame, taught in the proper context, is a terrible thing.

The stories that I remember from my childhood are:
The King, the Mice, and the Cheese
The Dinosaur and the Dodo
The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek

Anonymous said...

Don't know what to say to that Terry, can't think of a context that shame could be good. But I think I know what you mean. The shame here we are speaking of is the type that is put upon you for no reason. A critique from a helpful person, well you may feel shame but it is backed up by support.

Never heard of any of those. I believe I started most of my reading at the young adult stage. Unfortunately, I really don't have many memories from early childhood. Of course, there may be a good reason, they may have been bad. I do remember a few bad memories. But both good and bad they a few and far between. It's going to be a little hard for me to reconnect with that child, but I'm going to do my best.

Terry W. Ervin II said...

Just as teaching a child proper fear in the right context can be a positve thing. For example, fear of a thing can then lead to respect for it. Like with fire. If not, disaster could potentially strike.

They are all old, and out of print books (well, except for The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek. A few years back I purchased a copy for my daughter.

 
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