Recovering your sense of faith
May 15, 2025
This is week 12 of the book. This is the last episode for this season. Season 2 will start shortly.
Episode Notes
This is week 11 of the artist's way. Recovering a sense of Autonomy.
Book title: The artists way. topic: Recovering a Sense of Identity
This is a discussion of week 7 of the book The Artists' Way.
We continue the discussion of the artists's way with Scarcity and AbundanceEpisode Notes
Notes go here
Episode Notes
Kaila was on Vacation this week, so we spend some time getting to know the participants with some fun ice breaker questions and answers.
Recovering Our Power
Describe your childhood bedroom. If you wish, you may sketch this room. What was your favorite thing about it? What’s your favorite thing about your bedroom right now? Nothing? Well, get something you like in there—maybe something from that old childhood bedroom. Tasks Describe five traits you liked in yourself as a child. Next, write a little bit about why each one appeals to you And a treat: List five favorite childhood foods. Buy yourself one of them this week. Yes, Jell-O with bananas is okay Habits: Take a look at your habits. Many of them may interfere with your self-nurturing and cause shame. Some of the oddest things are self- destructive. Do you have a habit of watching TV you don’t like? Do you have a habit of hanging out with a really boring friend and just killing time (there’s an expression!)? Some rotten habits are obvious, overt (drinking too much, smoking, eating instead of writing). List three obvious rotten habits. What’s the payoff in continuing them? Some rotten habits are more subtle (no time to exercise, little time to pray, always helping others, not getting any self-nurturing, hanging out with people who belittle your dreams). List three of your subtle foes. What use do these forms of sabotage have? Be specific. Make a list of friends who nurture you—that’s nurture (give you a sense of your own competency and possibility), not enable (give you the message that you will never get it straight without their help). There is a big difference between being helped and being treated as though we are helpless. Describe which of these friends’ traits, particularly, serve you well. Call a friend who treats you like a really good and bright person who can accomplish things. Part of your recovery is reaching out for support. This support will be critical as you undertake new risks. Inner Compass: Each of us has an inner compass. This is an instinct that points us toward health. It warns us when we are on dangerous ground, and it tells us when something is safe and good for us. Morning pages are one way to contact it. So are some other artist-brain activities—painting, driving, walking, scrubbing, running. This week, take an hour to follow your inner compass by doing an artist-brain activity and listening to what insights bubble up. Record them below. List five people you admire whom you would feel safe praising publicly. Now list five people you secretly admire. What traits do these people have that you can cultivate further in yourself List five people who are dead whom you wish you had met while they were alive. Now list five people who are dead whom you’d like to hang out with for a while in eternity. What traits do you find in these people that you can look for in your friends Compare the two sets of lists. Take a look at what you really like and really admire—and a look at what you think you should like and admire. Your shoulds might tell you to admire Edison, while your heart belongs to Houdini. Go with the Houdini side of you for a while.
Recovering a Sense of Identity
Where does your time go? List your five major activities this week. How much time did you give to each one? Which were what you wanted to do and which were shoulds? How much of your time is spent helping others and ignoring your own desires? Have any of your blocked friends triggered doubts in you? Draw a circle below. Inside this circle, place topics you need to protect. Place the names of those you find to be supportive. Outside the circle, place the names of those you must be self-protective around just now. Use this map to support your autonomy. Add names to the inner and outer spheres as appropriate: “Oh! Derek is somebody I shouldn’t talk to about this right now. List twenty things you enjoy doing (rock climbing, roller-skating, baking pies, making soup, making love, making love again, riding a bike, riding a horse, playing catch, shooting baskets, going for a run, reading poetry, and so forth). When was the last time you let yourself do these things? Next to each entry, place a date. Don’t be surprised if it’s been years for some of your favorites. That will change. This list is an excellent resource for artist’s dates From the preceding list, write down two favorite things that you’ve avoided that could be this week’s goals. These goals can be small: buy one roll of film and shoot it. Remember, we are trying to win you some autonomy with your time. Look for windows of time just for you, and use them in small creative acts. Get to the record store at lunch hour, even if only for fifteen minutes. Stop looking for big blocks of time when you will be free. Find small bits of time instead. Record below what you did and how you managed to fit it into Your schedule. Return to the list of imaginary lives from last week. List five more lives below. Now write down plans for doing bits and pieces of these lives in the one you are living now. If you have listed a dancer’s life, do you let yourself go dancing? If you have listed a monk’s life, are you ever allowed to go on a retreat? If you are a scuba diver, is there an aquarium shop you can visit? A day at the lake you could schedule Life Pie: Draw a circle below. Divide it into six pieces of pie. Label one piece “spirituality,” another “exercise,” another “play,” and so on with “work,” “friends,” and “romance/adventure.” Place a dot in each slice at the degree to which you are fulfilled in that area (outer rim indicates great; inner circle, not so great). Connect the dots. This will show you where you are lopsided. As you begin the course, it is not uncommon for your life pie to look like a tarantula. As recovery progresses, your tarantula may become a mandala. Working with this tool, you will notice that there are areas of your life that feel impoverished and on which you spend little or no time. Use the time tidbits you are finding to alter this. If your spiritual life is minimal, even a five-minute pit stop into a synagogue or cathedral can restore a sense of wonder. Many of us find that five minutes of drum music can put us in touch with our spiritual core. For others, it’s a trip to a greenhouse. The point is that even the slightest attention to our impoverished areas can nurture them. List three ways to make your circle less lopsided. Ten Tiny Changes: List ten changes you’d like to make for yourself, from the significant to the small or vice versa (“get new sheets so I have another set, go to China, paint my kitchen, dump my bitchy friend Alice”). Do it this way: As the morning pages nudge us increasingly into the present, where we pay attention to our current lives, a small shift like a newly painted kitchen can yield a luxuriously large sense of self-care. Select one small item from the list of ten changes and make it a goal for this week. At week’s end, describe your results below.