Over the recent weeks and months, I've felt scattered, like my energy has flown to the four winds. Sure, I've been creating art. I've completed a few projects (The Animal Spirits of the Apocalypse Oracle Deck, the Deck of the New Orleans Tarot Cats and the Book of Childhood Demons), but I haven't felt that easy flow of creativity.
Maybe I'm remembering pre-Covid days with too much nostalgic happiness, but I believe that once upon a time, creative ideas and images flowed easily from my dreams and visions and onto the page. I feel like I've gotten lost somewhere in the past twelve months. I want my direction and focus back.
I picked up another copy of "The Artist's Way". I've been through the program twice before and it really helped me in terms of direction and motivation. Working through the twelve weeks, I emerged on the other side optimistic, driven, and dedicated.
One of the cornerstones of this program, possibly the most important part of the program, are the Morning Pages. Every morning, get up thirty minutes, fifteen minutes early. Sit down with your coffee or juice and a notebook. Fill three pages with whatever nonsense enters your mind.
You never have to go back and read them again. They don't even need to be legible. Fill the pages with the things that have been bothering you. Write down lists of what you need to do that day. Set goals. Let ideas just drift from your pen and onto the page.
Sometimes you'll have a breakthrough. Sometimes you'll have insights that you never saw coming. You may find yourself working through old traumas or pains. You may shrug off emotional baggage and hurts. You'll be able to see the forest and the trees.
At the least, you'll clear your head of all the fuzz and the chatter. You'll find your dedication and your motivation once more.
I know I've preached about Morning Pages for years, specifically to a few very special people that I can see struggling. I know I keep circling back to them again and again and you're probably tired of hearing about it, but I circle back to it because it works and because I love you.
I want you to feel better. I want you to be more in control of your demons and your anxieties. Unless you put in the time and the work, nothing will change. If you want to get better, it takes time and effort. You have to show up every morning and wrestle with your demons. You can defeat them or, at least, gain more control of them with the Morning Pages.
I encourage you do them because they work and I want you to be happier. Nothing changes unless you do the work.
I know I'm not perfect. I'm not completely well. I wrestle with Imposter Syndrome. I suffer from Ultra Independence. I build walls and keep people as far from my inner vulnerability as I can, but I'm better; so much better than I was before I started the Morning Pages.
Pick up a copy of "The Artist's Way". Work your way through the program, dedicating that half hour every morning to three pages of haphazard journaling. Watch your life transform in magical, wonderful ways. Please. Give it a try. Thirty days of thirty minutes of writing can alter your reality. Try it. Really. What do you have to lose?
I only encourage you because I love you.