Intention Inspired

Today, let's explore how we've been systematically and unconsciously destroying our true self.

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON

The question “Are you self-destructive?” is asked so frequently that we seldom hear it accurately. What it means is Are you destructive of yourself? And what that really asks us is Are you destructive of your true nature?

Many people, caught in the virtue trap, do not appear to be self-destructive to the casual eye.

Bent on being good husbands, fathers, mothers, wives, teachers, whatevers, they have constructed a false self that looks good to the world and meets with a lot of worldly approval. This false self is always patient, always willing to defer its needs to meet the needs or demands of another.

Virtuous to a fault, these trapped creatives have destroyed the true self, the self that didn’t meet with much approval as a child. The self who heard repeatedly, “Don’t be selfish!” The true self is a disturbing character, healthy and occasionally anarchistic, who knows how to play, how to say no to others and “yes” to itself.

Creatives who are caught in the Virtue Trap still cannot let themselves approve of this true self.

They can’t show it to the world without dreading the world’s continued disapproval.

“Are you self-destructive?” is a question that the apparently virtuous would be bound to answer with a resounding no. They then conjure up a list proving how responsible they are. But responsible to whom? The question is “Are you self-destructive?” Not “Do you appear self-destructive?” And most definitely not “Are you nice to other people?”

We listen to other people’s ideas of what is self-destructive without ever looking at whether their self and our self have similar needs. Caught in the Virtue Trap, we refuse to ask ourselves, “What are my needs? What would I do if it weren’t too selfish?”

Are you self-destructive?

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 99-100)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION

I seek the creator within and embrace my own gift of creativity.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE

Are you self-destructive?

This is a very difficult question to answer. To begin with, it requires that we know something of our true self (and that is the very self we have been systematically destroying).

One quick way to ascertain the degree of drift is to ask yourself this question: what would I try if it weren’t too crazy?

One quick way to ascertain the degree of drift is to ask yourself this question:

List 5 things you would try if it weren’t too crazy.

List 5 things you would do if it weren’t too selfish.

By seeking the creator within and embracing our own gift of creativity, we learn to be spiritual in this world, to trust that God is good and so are we and so is all of creation. In this way, we avoid the Virtue Trap.

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TODAY'S QUOTE

"Finding yourself" is not really how it works. You aren't a ten-dollar bill in last winter's coat pocket. You are also not lost. Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people's opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. "Finding yourself" is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.

– EMILY MCDOWELL

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT

What is one way you will say "YES!" to yourself today?

Join the community conversation at https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's see how we've passively given up our individual sovereignty and practice reclaiming our personal power.

Watch today's video » https://youtu.be/WbcN-DzozCM

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON

Many recovering creatives sabotage themselves most frequently by making nice.

There is a tremendous cost to such ersatz virtue.

Many of us have made a virtue out of deprivation. We have embraced a long-suffering artistic anorexia as a martyr’s cross. We have used it to feed a false sense of spirituality grounded in being good, meaning superior.

We strive to be good, to be nice, to be helpful, to be unselfish. We want to be generous, of service, of the world. But what we really want is to be left alone.

When we can’t get others to leave us alone, we eventually abandon ourselves.

To others, we may look like we’re there. We may act like we’re there. But our true self has gone to ground.

What’s left is a shell of our whole self. It stays because it is caught. Like a listless circus animal prodded into performing, it does its tricks. It goes through its routine. It earns its applause. But all of the hoopla falls on deaf ears. We are dead to it. Our artist is not merely out of sorts. Our artist has checked out. Our life is now an out-of-body experience. We’re gone. A clinician might call it disassociating. I call it leaving the scene of the crime.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” we wheedle, but our creative self no longer trusts us. Why should it? We sold it out.

Afraid to appear selfish, we lose our self. We become self-destructive. Because this self-murder is something we seek passively rather than consciously act out, we are often blind to its poisonous grip on us.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 98)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION

I am very discerning with how I give my self to others.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE

One of the best ways we can evade our Censor is to use the technique of speed writing. Because wishes are just wishes, they are allowed to be frivolous (and frequently should be taken very seriously).

As quickly as you can, finish the following phrases.

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I wish ____________________________________

I most especially wish ______________________

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TODAY'S QUOTE

"We are traditionally rather proud of ourselves for having slipped creative work in there between the domestic chores and obligations. I’m not sure we deserve such big A-pluses for that."

– TONI MORRISON

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT

What is one small action you will make today to create space for your list of wishes?

Join the community conversation at https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's have the courage, conviction, and resiliency to honor the solitude we need to heal and grow.

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON

An artist must have downtime, time to do nothing.

Defending our right to such time takes courage, conviction, and resiliency. Such time, space, and quiet will strike our family and friends as a withdrawal from them. It is.

For an artist, withdrawal is necessary.

Without it, the artist in us feels vexed, angry, out of sorts. If such deprivation continues, our artist becomes sullen, depressed, hostile. We eventually became like cornered animals, snarling at our family and friends to leave us alone and stop making unreasonable demands.

We are the ones making unreasonable demands.

We expect our artist to be able to function without giving it what it needs to do so. An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude. An artist requires the healing of time alone. Without this period of recharging, our artist becomes depleted.

Over time, if our warnings are ignored and we deem to stay in whatever circumstance—marriage, job, friendship—requires threats and warnings, homicide gives way to suicide. “I want to kill myself” replaces “I could murder you.”

“What’s the use?” replaces our feelings of joy and satisfaction.

We may go through the actions of continuing our life. We may even continue to produce creatively, but we are leaching blood from ourselves, vampirizing our souls. In short, we are on the treadmill of virtuous production and we are caught.

We are caught in the virtue trap.

There are powerful payoffs to be found in staying stuck and deferring nurturing your sense of self. For many creatives, the belief that they must be nice and worry about what will happen with their friends, family, mate if they dare to do what they really want to constitutes a powerful reason for nonaction.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 96-97)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION

I am nurturing my deepest sense of self.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE

THE VIRTUE-TRAP QUIZ

The biggest lack in my life is______________________

The greatest joy in my life is ______________________

My largest time commitment is ___________________

As I play more, I work ____________________________

I feel guilty that I am _____________________________

I worry that . ____________________________________

If my dreams come true, my family will _____________

I sabotage myself so people will __________________

If I let myself feel it, I’m angry that I ________________

One reason I get sad sometimes is ________________

Does your life serve you or only others? Are you self-destructive?

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TODAY'S QUOTE

"There is the risk you cannot afford to take, [and] there is the risk you cannot afford not to take."

– PETER DRUCKER

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT

What is one way you will nurture your deepest sense of self today?

Join the community conversation at https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's lose the fear of intimacy by no longer confusing our intimate others with the higher power we are coming to know.

Watch today's video » https://youtu.be/seavVasF4n0

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

By holding lightly to an attitude of gentle exploration, we can begin to lean into creative expansion.

By replacing “No way!” with “Maybe,” we open the door to mystery and to magic.

This newly positive attitude is the beginning of trust.

We are starting to look for the silver lining in what appears to be adversity. Most of us find that as we work with the morning pages, we begin to treat ourselves more gently. Feeling less desperate, we are less harsh with ourselves and with others. This compassion is one of the first fruits of aligning our creativity with its creator.

As we come to trust and love our internal guide, we lose our fear of intimacy because we no longer confuse our intimate others with the higher power we are coming to know. In short, we are learning to give up idolatry— the worshipful dependency on any person, place, or thing. Instead, we place our dependency on the source itself. The source meets our needs through people, places, and things.

Time and again, I have seen a recovering creative do the footwork of becoming internally clear and focused about dreams and delights, take a few outward steps in the direction of the dream—only to have the universe fling open an unsuspected door. One of the central tasks of creative recovery is learning to accept this generosity.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 95-96)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I acknowledge and accept the generosity of the universe.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

One of the favored tricks of blocked creatives is saying no to ourselves. It is astonishing the number of small ways we discover to be mean and miserly with ourselves. When I say this to my students, they often protest that this is not true—that they are very good to themselves. Then I ask them to do this exercise.

List ten things you love and would love to do but are not allowed to do.

Your list might look like this:

• Go dancing.

• Carry a sketch book.

• Roller-skate.

• Buy new cowboy boots.

• Streak your hair blond.

• Go on vacation.

• Take flying lessons.

• Move to a bigger place.

• Direct a play.

• Take life-drawing class.

Very often, the mere act of writing out your list of forbidden joys breaks down your barriers to doing them.

Post your list somewhere highly visible.

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TODAY'S QUOTE:

"The specific meaning of God depends on what is the most desirable good for a person."

– ERICH FROMM

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one thing you've felt like you can't enjoy that you're now open to gently explore?

Join the community conversation at https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's find freedom from dependencies by focusing our dependence on the creator within.

Watch today's video » https://youtu.be/BMPeG6jg7n8

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON

For four weeks now, we have been excavating our consciousness. We have seen how often we think negatively and fearfully, how frightening it has been for us to begin to believe that there might be a right place for us that we could attain by listening to our creative voice and following its guidance. We have begun to hope, and we have feared that hope.

The shift to spiritual dependency is a gradual one.

We have been making this shift slowly and surely. With each day we become more true to ourselves, more open to the positive. To our surprise, this seems to be working in our human relationships. We find we are able to tell more of our truth, hear more of other people’s truth, and encompass a far more kindly attitude toward both. We are becoming less judgmental of ourselves and others. How is this possible? The morning pages, a flow of stream of consciousness, gradually loosens our hold on fixed opinions and short-sighted views. We see that our moods, views, and insights are transitory. We acquire a sense of movement, a current of change in our lives. This current, or river, is a flow of grace moving us to our right livelihood, companions, destiny.

Dependence on the creator within is really freedom from all other dependencies.

Paradoxically, it is also the only route to real intimacy with other human beings. Freed from our terrible fears of abandonment, we are able to live with more spontaneity. Freed from our constant demands for more and more reassurance, our fellows are able to love us back without feeling so burdened.

As we have listened to our artist child within, it has begun to feel more and more safe. Feeling safe, it speaks a little louder. Even on our worst days, a small, positive voice says, “You could still do this or it might be fun to do that....”

Most of us find that as we work with the morning pages, we are rendered less rigid that we were. Recovery is the process of finding the river and saying yes to its flow, rapids and all. We startle ourselves by saying yes instead of no to opportunities. As we begin to pry ourselves loose from our old self- concepts, we find that our new, emerging self may enjoy all sorts of bizarre adventures.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 94-95)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION

I am safe. I am open. I am free.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE CHALLENGE

If I were twenty and had money ... List five adventures.

Again, add images of these to your visual image file.

If I were sixty-five and had money ... List five postponed pleasures.

And again, collect these images. This is a very potent tool. I now live in a house that I imaged for ten years.

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TODAY'S QUOTE

"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want."

– MARGARET YOUNG

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT

What have you noticed yourself saying yes to more recently?

Join the community conversation at https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's let go of having to sabotage ourselves by letting the flow manifest itself where it will—not where we will it.

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TODAY' INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON

One reason we are miserly with ourselves is scarcity thinking.

We don’t want our luck to run out. We don’t want to overspend our spiritual abundance. Again, we are limiting our flow by anthropomorphizing God into a capricious parent figure. Remembering that God is our source, an energy flow that likes to extend itself, we become more able to tap our creative power effectively.

God has lots of money. God has lots of movie ideas, novel ideas, poems, songs, paintings, acting jobs. God has a supply of loves, friends, houses that are all available to us. By listening to the creator within, we are led to our right path. On that path, we find friends, lovers, money, and meaningful work. Very often, when we cannot seem to find an adequate supply, it is because we are insisting on a particular human source of supply.

We must learn to let the flow manifest itself where it will—not where we will it.

As each idea comes to us, we must in good faith clear away our inner barriers to acting on it and then, on an outer level, take the concrete steps necessary to trigger our synchronous good.

If this still sounds airy fairy to you, ask yourself bluntly what next step you are evading. What dream are you discounting as impossible given your resources? What payoff are you getting for remaining stuck at this point in your expansion?

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 93-94)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION

As I listen to the creator within, the right path unfolds.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE CHALLENGE

Starting an Image File: If I had either faith or money I would try ... List five desires.

For the next week, be alert for images of these desires. When you spot them, clip them, buy them, photograph them, draw them, collect them somehow. With these images, begin a file of dreams that speak to you. Add to it continually for the duration of the course.

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TODAY'S QUOTE

Look and you will find it—what is unsought will go undetected.

– SOPHOCLES

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT

What dream are you inspired to take action towards today?

Join the community conversation at https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's clear way the wreckage of our negative patterning and clarify the vision of what we really want.

Watch today's video » https://youtu.be/Mia8AtSbRcg

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON

One of the chief barriers to accepting God’s generosity is our limited notion of what we are in fact able to accomplish.

We may tune in to the voice of the creator within, hear a message—and then discount it as crazy or impossible. On the one hand, we take ourselves very seriously and don’t want to look like idiots pursuing some patently grandiose scheme. On the other hand, we don’t take ourselves—or God—seriously enough and so we define as grandiose many schemes that, with God’s help, may fall well within our grasp.

Remembering that God is my source, we are in the spiritual position of having an unlimited bank account.

Most of us never consider how powerful the creator really is. Instead, we draw very limited amounts of the power available to us. We decide how powerful God is for us. We unconsciously set a limit on how much God can give us or help us. We are stingy with ourselves. And if we receive a gift beyond our imagining, we often send it back.

Some of you may be thinking that this sounds like the magic-wand chapter: I pray and presto! Sometimes, that is how it will feel. More often, what we are talking about seems to be a conscious partnership in which we work along slowly and gradually, clearing away the wreckage of our negative patterning, clarifying the vision of what it is we want, learning to accept small pieces of that vision from whatever source and then, one day, presto! The vision seems to suddenly be in place. In other words, pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can.

For this to happen, first of all, we must believe that we are allowed to catch the bus. We come to recognize that God is unlimited in supply and that everyone has equal access. This begins to clear up guilt about having or getting too much. Since everyone can draw on the universal supply, we deprive no one with our abundance. If we learn to think of receiving God’s good as being an act of worship—cooperating with God’s plan to manifest goodness in our lives—we can begin to let go of having to sabotage ourselves.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 91 - 92)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION

I am as abundant as I allow myself to be.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE CHALLENGE

List five grievances.

The reason I can't really believe in a supportive God is ... (be honest, God can take it.)

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TODAY'S QUOTE

"Expect your every need to be met, expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level, expect to grow spiritually. You are not living by human laws. Expect miracles and see them take place. Hold ever before you the thought of prosperity and abundance and know that doing so sets in motion forces that will bring it into being."

– Eileen Caddy

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT

What is one way you will open yourself up to more abundance today?

Join the community conversation at https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's practice not distracting ourselves to further invite creativity to flow.

Watch today's video here » https://youtu.be/_s08b557ZHs

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

If you feel stuck in your life or in your art, few jump starts are more effective than a week of reading deprivation.

It is a paradox that by emptying our lives of distractions we are actually filling the well.

Without distractions, we are once again thrust into the sensory world. With no newspaper to shield us, a train becomes a viewing gallery. With no novel to sink into (and no television to numb us out) an evening becomes a vast savannah in which furniture—and other assumptions—get rearranged.

Reading deprivation casts us into our inner silence.

If we monitor the inflow and keep it to a minimum, we will be rewarded for our reading deprivation with embarrassing speed. Our reward will be a new outflow. Our own art, our own thoughts and feelings, will begin to nudge aside the sludge of blockage, to loosen it and move it upward and outward until once again our well is running freely.

Reading deprivation is a very powerful tool—and a very frightening one. Even thinking about it can bring up enormous rage. For most blocked creatives, reading is an addiction. We gobble the words of others rather than digest our own thoughts and feelings, rather than cook up something of our own.

Even at the safe remove of the written word, I can feel the shock waves of antagonism about trying this tool. I will tell you that those who have most resisted it have come back the most smugly rewarded for having done it. The nasty bottom line is this: sooner or later, if you are not reading, you will run out of work and be forced to play. You’ll light some incense or put on an old jazz record or paint a shelf turquoise, and then you will feel not just better but actually a little excited.

Don’t read. If you can’t think of anything else to do, cha-cha.

(Yes, you can read and do this week’s tasks.)

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 87-89)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I can hear the inner voice of my artist's inspiration.

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TODAY'S EXERCISE:

Don’t read. If you can’t think of anything else to do, cha-cha.

If you break your reading deprivation, write about how you did it. In a tantrum? A slipup? A binge? How do you feel about it? Why?

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TODAY'S QUOTE:

"We are always doing something, talking, reading, listening to the radio, planning what next. The mind is kept naggingly busy on some easy, unimportant external thing all day."

– BRENDA UELAND

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one type of information you use to distract yourself from your sensory world?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's learn how to recuperate while continuing the momentum of our creativity recovery.

Watch today's video here » https://youtu.be/M521Xm60Hxs

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

If you look over the time you have been doing your morning writing, you will see that many changes have entered your life as a result of your willingness to clear room in it for your creator’s action. You will have noticed an increased, sometimes disconcerting, sense of personal energy, some bursts of anger, some flash points of clarity. People and objects may have taken on a different meaning to you. There will be a sense of the flow of life—that you are brought into new vistas as you surrender to moving with the flow of God. This is clear already.

You may well be experiencing a sense of both bafflement and faith. You are no longer stuck, but you cannot tell where you are going. You may feel that this can’t keep up. You may long for the time when there was no sense of possibility, when you felt more victimized, when you didn’t realize how many small things you could do to improve your own life.

It is normal to yearn for some rest when you are moving so rapidly.

What you will learn to do is rest in motion, like lying down in a boat. Your morning pages are your boat. They will both lead you forward and give you a place to recuperate from your forward motion.

It is difficult for us to realize that this process of going inside and writing pages can open an inner door through which our creator helps and guides us. Our willingness swings this inner door open. The morning pages symbolize our willingness to speak to and hear God. They lead us into many other changes that also come from God and lead us to God. This is the hand of God moving through your hand as you write. It is very powerful.

One technique that can be very reassuring at this point is to use your morning pages—or a part of them—for written affirmation of your progress.

Choose affirmations according to your need. As you excavate your buried dreams, you need the assurance that such explorations are permissible: “I recover and enjoy my identity.”

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 85 - 86)

get the book » http://mattprindle.com/the-artist-way-book

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I surrender to the flow of creativity.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

As recovering creatives, we often have to excavate our own pasts for the shards of buried dreams and delights. Do a little digging, please. Be fast and frivolous. This is an exercise in spontaneity, so be sure to write your answers out quickly. Speed kills the Censor.

List five hobbies that sound fun.

List five classes that sound fun.

List five things you personally would never do that sound fun.

List five skills that would be fun to have.

List five things you used to enjoy doing.

List five silly things you would like to try once.

As you may have gathered by this point in your work, we will approach certain problems from many different angles, all of them aimed at eliciting more information from your unconscious about what you might consciously enjoy. The exercise that follows will teach you enormous amounts about yourself—as well as giving you some free time in which to pursue the interests you just listed.

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TODAY'S QUOTE:

"All you need to do to receive guidance is to ask for it and then listen."

– SANAYA ROMAN

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one fun interest you are excited to spend time playing with today?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's embrace the natural change that allows the unique snowflake pattern of our soul to emerge.

Watch today's video here » https://youtu.be/Sz9KyQ_Qb_Y

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TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

When we have engaged the creator within to heal us, many changes and shifts in our attitudes begin to occur.

I enumerate some of them here because many of these will not be recognizable at first as healing. If fact, they may seem crazy and even destructive. At best, they will seem eccentric.

There will be a change in energy patterns.

Your dreams will become stronger and clearer, both by night and by day. You will find yourself remembering your nighttime dreams, and by day, daydreams will catch your attention. Fantasy, of a benign and unexpected sort, will begin to crop up.

You may find your candor unsettling. “I don’t like that” is a sentence that will leave your mouth. Or “I think that’s great.” In short, your tastes and judgments and personal identity will begin to show through.

Conditioned as we are to accept other peoples’ definitions of us, this emerging individuality can seem to us like self-will run riot. It is not.

The snowflake pattern of your soul is emerging.

Each of us is a unique, creative individual.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 84-85)

get the book » http://mattprindle.com/the-artist-way-book

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

A stronger and clearer me is emerging.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Time Travel: Describe yourself at eighty-years-old.

What did you do after fifty that you enjoyed? Be very specific. Now, write a letter from you at eighty to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself? What interests would you urge yourself to pursue? What dreams would you encourage?

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TODAY'S QUOTE:

"To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams."

– GIORGIO DE CHIRICO

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one piece of advice your eighty-year-old self would give to you right now?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com