Ali The Happy VA

Helping You Create a Happier Biz

  • Ali The Happy VA
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
    • Media
    • Anti-Racism Small Business Pledge
  • Testimonials
  • Virtual Assistance Services
  • Resources
  • Contact
I fell into the abyss - The Artist's Way at Work

I Fell Into The Abyss

I’m currently working through a 12 week program to help me tap back into my creativity and inspiration via the book: The Artist’s Way at Work: 12 Weeks to Creative Freedom by Julia Cameron, Mark Bryan, and Catherine Allen.

This is the business version of the very famous original book, The Artist’s Way also by Julia Cameron.

I started this project after feeling like I’ve been in a bit of a rut when it comes to working on my own, non-client-related work.

You can read more about this in my intro post right here.

I’m going week by week and reporting back.

Week Four: The Abyss

Tool: Admitting Our Emotions

Exercise

  • Put on some nice music – something that isn’t distracting but that you enjoy
  • Get out your journal
  • Write “If I let myself admit it I feel __” and fill in the blank multiple times

My Experience

I put on some instrumental fall jazz because I’m basic and I love that kind of thing. And I wrote all my fears and petty BS and also things I’m secretly excited about and embarrassed to admit. It felt both good and bad, because there is definitely more work to do.

Tool: Anger as a Map

This exercise was all about naming and acting on the things that make you angry. As they say in the book, anger can be a powerful, useful guide pointing us in the direction of our aspirations/goals/dreams. Or, it can fester and become a destructive force that ruins your relationships and makes you and others miserable.

Exercise

  • List 3 situations that piss you off
  • Write why they make you mad
  • Ask yourself, “what is one positive action I can use my anger to accomplish?”
RELATED POST  How to Experience Luxury for $20 or Less + Why it Matters

My Experience

Um, yeah, given the current world (and really always) there is a lot to be angry about. I found this tool to be extremely helpful in that I started looking for solutions/problem solving instead of just being passively upset. For example, I’m pretty pissed off about climate change right now and that I don’t feel like enough is being done and we don’t have time for inaction. I’m not a politician and it can feel like there’s not much I can do as an individual. But using this tool, I did take a number of actions that felt like SOMETHING. (I found out about The Canopy Project, and am making a plan to donate monthly + I actually ordered a bidet, which is both a life upgrade and better for the environment!).

This is a great tool to use for those macro issues, like I mentioned above, even if all I can do is take a small personal action.

But this tool was also good for something in my personal life. For example, I get angry at myself for not making enough time to create. So the solution is simple: Put it first on the calendar and make it non-negotiable.

I will be coming back to this tool again and again.

Tool: Footholds for Optimism

The idea here is that to emerge from this abyss, you need something/someone you can feel optimistic about and bring to mind or reach out to when the going gets tough.

Exercise

  • List 5 people or situations you feel positively about

My Experience

I felt happier just looking at my list and knowing I could reach out to the people on it whenever I need a boost OR I could just think about them, maybe do a loving kindness meditation and get into a better headspace.

RELATED POST  Uncover Your Secrets + Upgrade Your Life

Tool: Countering Our Critics

Criticism can be an important part of bettering any creative work, or other work too, but not all criticism is fair or helpful. Or even really designed to be those things. It can be toxic, especially when it is vague, indirect, involves name-calling, etc. We’ve all received criticism and will continue to do so and learning how to handle it well, so it furthers our development certainly feels like a crucial skill to develop.

Exercise

  • Grab your journal
  • List 3 pieces of painful criticism you’ve received
  • Then ask yourself how your least mature “child self” might respond
  • Then respond to the criticism as your “adult self”
  • Finally, access the Inner Mentor (discussed a few weeks earlier) – your most wise inner self, how they might respond or what advice they’d give YOU in dealing with this criticism? How did you contribute to the criticism?

My Experience

I enjoyed metally telling a few people to eff right off in my “child self” response, honestly. But it was also important to face that some of those criticisms, however ineloquently they were offered, did contain some valuable information and areas I needed to work on. It was helpful to put my ego aside and consider these critiques without the baggage. And even for criticism that feels completely unhelpful and where there seems to be nothing to learn, I was able to use this tool to find empathy for the person doling it out.

Weekly Check-In

The title of this section of the process, The Abyss, is appropriate! It actually took me two weeks to do all of the assignments.

RELATED POST  Owning Our Ambition

Morning Pages: I’m doing them, but I keep needing to re-commit to completing the full 3 pages.

Walks: Have not been keeping up with the 20 minute daily walks – our air quality was basically poison up until 3 days ago.

Artist Date:

Watched: Baroque’s Dark Heart (Art History Documentary) | Perspective

Reading: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones

What a weird week! It was actually mostly good all the way up until Friday when RBG passed away. Ugh! Honestly, I’m so glad to be in the middle of this project during this crazy election cycle and with so much chaos. Feels grounding and like I’ve got something to channel my existential dread through.

Tweet
Pin
Share
Pocket
0 Shares
«
»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

FOLLOW ME

Popular Posts

  • 11 Ways to Survive Video Calls When You’re Shy
  • 10 Books Every New & Aspiring Virtual Assistant Must Read
  • How to Create a Home Office that Inspires Productivity & Creativity
  • Virtual Assistance 101: How to Get Paid
  • How to Get Started Making Money with Affiliate Marketing

HAPPINESS IN YOUR INBOX

Sign up to my newsletter to get a bi-monthly dose of business love, freebies, and fresh posts right to your inbox!

PINTEREST

Happiness in Your InBox

Join me for a bi-monthly dose of business love!

Instagram

Copyright © 2023 · by Ali The Happy VA

Log in