Sustaining, consistent, positive action...week 7

I'm hooked...though I've been spending a boat load of time lately in the books and deep in thought I can't stop and I have to tell you that I'm find a calm spot more quickly and it feels like a good pair of warn denim jeans that fit the body good. so with that I move on to Week 7.

Discovering a sense of Momentum

Creativity thrives on small, do-able actions and if I may correct this Life thrives on small, do-able acts too. Not just in a creative life unless you look at your life on a creative scale then it fits right in.. This week dismantles procrastination as a Major creative block. The readings and tasks aim at the sense of personal accountability and accomplishment. The key to a creative LIFE is sustained, consistent, positive action. This is possible for all of us..

What a promise that is..

Easy Does it, But do it: Flow

I know that Julia uses the word artists but this fits in my eyes for everyone...so here goes. Most artists get blocked (procrastinate) not because they have too few ideas but because they have too many. Our competing ideas create a sort of logjam-and that is why we feel stuck. When we think about a project, we think, I could try this and this and this and maybe I could try this and this and this and, Oh I could try that, and then what if and Oh, dear...

Oh dear, is the clutch freezing up..leaving us stuck an immobilized or we start to whir frantically. 
You might notice your friends asking you, "Why are you so angry?" I'm angry because I was overwhelmed, I was overwhelmed because I had so many ideas about what I could do that I was panicked. 

Whenever you feel stymied, stuck or frantic, remind yourself that  is the result of having too many good ideas-even if it feels like you have no good ideas at all.

The trick is to establish a gentle flow, to keep the gentle flow trickling forward. This keeps the dammed -up ideas from bursting through and flooding you.

Easy does do it...gently  you must take some small step or the ideas will remain jammed up an the creative pressure behind the jam will continue to escalate.  Which can lead to attacks of self-doubt, and self-loathing...

What you are trying to do is move energy out of you. That is what starts the logjam gently moving. 

this is the truth...
Julia shares...In our culture, we are trained to deal with anxiety by always putting more in. A drink, a shopping spree, a rendezvous with Haaden-dazs we tend to medicate our anxieties, not listen to them... I surely can relate with this...but it's life long pattern passed down from other generation to put in at this times...hard habit to break...let me tell you. Being a journal writer way before being introduced to the artist way I would do that as of letting out...and I've learned more and more now with the artist way books about the morning pages to do just that...though it may take a few days to really get it all out but there is a great release when I do that. 

Julia share's this....Think of a balloon that's too full. If you let air out, it zips ahead.  If you blow more air in, things pop. When you feel tense and stuck, you life is like that too-taut, overfilled balloon.  You are stretched too tight. this is why you can not let in the well-meaning words of friends. This why the chatter of neighbor drives you suddenly so crazy.  This is why you are a hair trigger. You are too full of creative energy and you need to gently siphon some off. Take a  walk and remind yourself: 1. I do have good ideas..2. I have many good ideas.  3. slowly and gently, one at time, I can execute them. 
 I know I need a walk and because of the weather I've not been able to... but it does have a way with me when I walk...all the forward movement and the time alone allows me to gently move into the present and know what small act to do first. 

Here's something to remember...The truer the dream, the more creative pressure it has, and the more important it is to begin with small actions to keep them from getting frozen up.  Don't just talk...Do. You need to express yourself in some concrete small way.
ideas might be to do some personal homestead chores..something small to get the energy moving out..fold laundry. sort a drawer or dust. When you take the time to husband the details of our lives, we may encounter a sense of grace... God..or good orderly direction as some call it. 

With all the creative  and life stuff...what I have to realize is this as Julia shares...I learn too yield to the little dailiness and it helps keep it flowing technique, I slowed way down and my productivity speeded way up.  I watch my youngest adult daughter of 20 do this...when she's got a very busy schedule she will do the house dishes, clean her room and even sometimes clean the bathroom it helps her sort and get organize and then she's knock your socks off...she also has a great self-esteem which is so visible and I think with out realizing it I've done this for a long time...and I've heard it as " if you want to keep sane...do the mundane..." you know the homestead chores..and then it all slowly falls into place..

so I suggest trying it out to see how it works...Easy does it but do it! 

Lastly for this section...What we are after with this task is the experience of using stuck energy in a productive way, however small. Once we realize that our sense of being stymied by the outer world can actually be altered by simple and small actions on our own part, we begin to have more faith in the benevolence of the universe itself. In other words, if God is in the details, we have better be there ourselves. 

OK thanks for reading my lengthy ramblings...a blog can be many things and for me It's my source of spilling it out to better understand it...I read things but I need to take notes and then I need to really write it out so I'm bring it in three times...I'm a repeat learning...and then if I can discuss it with some people then I really understand it..so for right now it's like it is...

On with the Monday's list of things to do and accomplish..it's my job today...and some studio time..