Intention Inspired

Today, let's reveal the central negative belief that all other negative beliefs stem from.

Watch today's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zim2XbMlXGU

View today's full session: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

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INSPO FROM JULIA CAMERON:

"Stripped to their essence, our multiple negative beliefs reveal a central negative belief: we must trade one good, beloved dream for another.

In other words, if being an artist seems too good to be true to you, you will devise a price tag for it that strikes you as unpayable. Hence, you remain blocked.

Most blocked creative carry unacknowledged either/or reasoning that stands between them and their work. To become unblocked we must recognize our either/or thinking.

"I can either be romantically happy or an artist." "I can either be financially successful or an artist." It is possible, quite possible to be both an artist and romantically fulfilled. It is possible to be an artist.

Your block doesn't want you to see that. Its whole plan of attack is to make you irrationally afraid of some dire outcome you are too embarrassed to even mention. You know rationally that writing or painting shouldn't be put off because of your silly fear, but because it is a silly fear, you don't air it and the block stays intact."

(The Artist's Way, p. 32-33)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I am willing to experience my creative energy.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Select and write out one happy piece of encouragement.

Describe why this vote of confidence means so much to you. Once you are done, write a thank you letter to the person who gave you this encouragement – even if it was you. Mail it to yourself or to the long-lost mentor.

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TODAY'S QUOTE:

"I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy."

– Louise Bogan

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TODAY'S JOURNAL/COMMENT PROMPT:

What is one piece of encouragement for others who are on this creative journey?

Today, let's uncover false negative beliefs that inhibit our creativity.

Watch today's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9xifzGMzQ

View today's full session: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

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INSPO FROM JULIA:

Core Negative Beliefs

"Here is a list of commonly held negative beliefs:

I can't be a successful, prolific, creative artist because:

Everyone will hate me.

I will hurt my friends and family.

I will go crazy.

I will abandon my friends and family.

I can't spell.

I don't have enough good ideas.

It will upset my mother and/or father.

I will have to be alone.

I will find out I am gay (if straight).

I will be struck straight (If gay).

I will do bad work and not know it and look like a fool.

I will feel too angry.

I will never have any real money.

I will get self-destructive and drink, drugs, or sex myself to death.

I will get cancer, AIDS—or a heart attack or the plague.

My lover will leave me.

I will die.

I will feel bad because I don't deserve to be successful.

I will have only one good piece of work in me.

If it's too late. If I haven't become a fully functioning artist yet, I never will.

None of these core negatives need to be true.

They come to us from our parents, our religion, our culture, and our fearful friends. Each one of these beliefs reflects notions we have about what it means to be an artist.

Negative beliefs are exactly that: beliefs, not facts. The world was never flat, although everyone believed it was. You are not dumb, crazy, egomaniacal, grandiose, or silly just because you falsely believe yourself to be.

What you are is scared. Core negatives keep you scared.

(The Artist's Way, p. 30-31)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

My creativity always leads me to truth and love.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Bravely acknowledge and list false core negative beliefs you have about yourself that have silenced your artist child.

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TODAY'S QUOTE

"There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them."

– Anthony de Mello

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TODAY'S JOURNAL/COMMENT PROMPT:

What is one false negative belief you are ready to let go of?

Today, let's find ease from the fear of the unknown.

Watch today's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W9iHAaZ9NM

Join the conversation with the Intention Inspired fam: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

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INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON

"Most of the time when we are blocked in an area of our life, it is because we feel safer that way.

We may not be happy, but at least we know what we are—unhappy. Much fear of our own creativity is the fear of the unknown.

If I am fully creative, what will it mean? What will happen to me and to others? We have some pretty awful notions about what could happen. So, rather than find out, we decide to stay blocked. This is seldom a conscious decision. It is more often an unconscious response to internalized negative beliefs.

(The Artist's Way, p. 30)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION

I am willing to learn to let myself create.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE

Yesterday, we listed three old enemies of our creative self-worth.

Today, let's write a letter to the editor in our defense.

Reflect on a horror story from your monster hall of fame. Now, write a letter in your defense. Write this letter in the voice of your wounded artist child:

"To whom it may concern: Sister Ann Rita is a jerk and has pig eyes and I can too spell!"

For added fun, copy this letter onto nice stationery and mail it to yourself.

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TODAY'S QUOTE:

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."

– Joseph Chilton Pearce

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TODAY'S JOURNAL/COMMENT PROMPT:

What fear do you have about unleashing your creativity?

Share in the comments below👇

Today, let's find and protect our artist child by gently acknowledging enemies of our creative self-worth.

Watch today's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3H_wOdfem0

Join The Artist's Way online community journey: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

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INSPO FROM JULIA CAMERON:

"The artist child must begin by crawling.

Baby steps will follow and there will be falls. Typically the recovering shadow artist will use these early efforts to discourage continued exploration.

In recovering from our creative blocks, it is necessary to go gently and slowly. What we are after here is the healing of old wounds—not the creation of new ones. No high jumping please! Mistakes are necessary! Stumbles are normal. These are baby steps. Progress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves.

Remember that in order to recover as an artist, you must be willing to be a bad artist. Give yourself permission to be a beginner. By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one."

(The Artist's Way, p. 29-30)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

My creativity heals myself and others.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Time Travel: Monster Hall of Fame

List three old enemies of your creative self-worth.

Please be as specific as possible in doing this exercise. Your historic monsters are the building blocks of your core negative beliefs. (Yes, rotten Sister Ann Rita from fifth grade does count, and the rotten thing she said to you does matter. Put her in.) This is your monster hall of fame. More monsters will come to you as you work through your recovery. It is always necessary to acknowledge creative injuries and grieve them. Otherwise, they become creative scar tissue and block your growth.

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TODAY'S QUOTE

"Make your own recovery the first priority in your life."

– Robin Norwood

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one negative belief about your creative self-worth you are ready to let go of?

Today, let's accept our Critic within and begin to nurture our artist child.

Watch today's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84B9VqId3os

View today's full session: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Take a moment to tune in to your Critic.

If you need help, go ahead and start writing your morning pages ... your Critic will soon chime in to question the validity of this, badger you for that, it will do whatever it can to prevent you from putting your thoughts on the paper. Poor thing that Critic, always reacting out of fear, it really does mean well.

Now, take a "blurt" from your Critic and convert it into a positive affirmation.

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TODAY'S QUOTE:

"An affirmation is a strong, positive statement that something is already so."

– Shakti Gawain

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one positive affirmation you've made for yourself?

Share in the comments below👇

The Artist's Way is a journey of discovery. You are the terra incognita (unexplored territory) that you will be exploring. Expect to fall in love with both yourself and the world around you.

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The Artist's Way is a distillate from forty years of Julia Cameron's artistic practice intended to teach people to process and transform life through acts of creativity.

The Artist’s Way "helps de-mystify the creative process by making it part of your daily life. It tackles your self-doubts, self-criticism and worries about time, money and the support to pursue our creative dream. It has already helped thousands of people to uncover their hidden talents - it can help you, too." - Julia Cameron

Many of us sense we are more creative, but unable to efficiently tap that creativity. While there is no quick fix for instant, pain-free creativity ... creative recovery (or discovery) is a teachable, trackable spiritual process.

When we engage in a creative recovery, we enter into a withdrawal process from life as we know it. Withdrawl is another way of saying detachment or non-attachment, which is emblematic of consistent work with any meditation practice. We ourselves are the substance we withdraw to not from as we pour our overextended and missed placed creative energy back into our own core.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

As you learn to recognize, nurture, and protect your inner artist, you will be able to move beyond pain and creative construction. You will learn ways to recognize and resolve fear, remove emotional scar tissue, and strengthen your confidence. Damaging all ideas about creativity will be explored and discarded. You will experience an intensive, guided encounter with your own creativity — your private villains, champions, wishes, fears, dreams, hopes, and triumphs. The experience will make you excited, depressed, angry, afraid, joyous, hopeful, and, ultimately, more free.

Ready to get started!? Join us for free at https://intentoininspired.com/artist

Today, let's use our creative journaling session to uncover patterns and conditionings that want our healing attention.

🙌 Join us in the Art Room (free): https://intentioninspired.com/art-friend

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Art opens the closets, airs out the cellars and attics. It brings healing.

– Julia Cameron

People have been relying on the arts to communicate, express themselves, and heal for thousands of years.

We think of the creative journal as a “new” form of creative expression but visual journaling has been a way of documenting ideas, questions, and observations since there has been paper and writing media. Leonardo da Vinci was probably the most famous in the late 1400's.

AFFIRMATION: I am the artist of my own life.

It is possible to use our daily creative expression for greater self-awareness and healing.

Being able to express visually allows us to say what needs to be said without actually saying the words. That can be useful when the words might be hard to say. As we observe, we uncover our patterns and conditioning and begin to understand the changes we could make. We also begin to realize that embracing ourselves-all of ourselves-both the dark and the light of ourselves, is a necessity. We can use our journal to integrate. Along with gaining balance, reducing stress, releasing traumas, and a host of other benefits expanding our creativity can help us heal. We are just beginning to learn the full scope of how a daily creative expression can enhance our lives.

Have you seen benefits-emotional, spiritual, physical, or mental-from your creative practice?

Today, let's embark on a curious adventure that will make a clear division between our 'self' and our creative expression so that we can better carry out the wishes of our creative muses.

🙌 Join us in the Art Room (free): https://intentioninspired.com/art-friend

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💞 Who do you know that would be inspired by today's intentional sessional? Sharing is caring.

"If there's a book that you want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." – Toni Morrison

How do you connect with your creative Muse?  Greek poets would "invoke the muse" to open the door to creative ideas and thoughts.  The word Muse comes from the Greek mousai, and refers to the goddesses of creativity and the "arts".  I choose to believe that those goddesses live within me.  When I need a dose of inspiration I turn my creative expression over to the goddesses that live within.

The reason that I like to do that is because it makes a clear division between me and my creative expression.  I become a partner in a curious adventure.  I am not "in charge" of the outcome so my critic has nothing to say.  My function is to carry out the wishes of the Muses and I do so to the best of my ability.

AFFIRMATION: I Am Inspired to practice creativity in all of my experiences.

Who or what is your creative muse?  Here are one or two ideas for enticing "them" to stay.  Make a place for "her"-an alter, some flowers, some nice music and a candle?  Freewriting (stream of consciousness).  Take your muse on a date to a place that you know "he'll" love.

CREATIVE JOURNAL EXERCISE

Write a poem calling on your Muse.

Then let your Muse do the creating today and create a self-portrait on your journal page.

Let's dance with the moon's energetic glory as we embrace her illuminated pull and connect to her power with balance and grace.

🙌 Join us in the Art Room (free): https://intentioninspired.com/art-friend

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🔔 Subscribe to the Intention Inspired podcast at https://intentioninspired.com/podcast

💞 Who do you know that would be inspired by today's intentional sessional? Sharing is caring.

All things on Earth have a natural cycle.

Nothing on the physical plane shows cycles better than the Moon. (The tides, the water that evaporates and turns to rain, fruit that falls, rots, and then creates new life).

The moon is a goddess symbol.

In pagan traditions, it is said that the moon represents the Maiden, Mother, and Crone as the waxing, full and waning moons. the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth.  It is also a symbol of the spiritual aspects of femininity, such as intuition, psychic abilities, creativity, and wisdom. The moon is ever-changing. It grows from a thin sliver to a round, glowing orb and then slowly fading back again to nothing.

AFFIRMATION: I am manifesting all that aligns with my highest potential.

But what does it mean to Dance With The Moon?

No matter which phase the moon is in there is a "dance" that goes with it.  The strong magnetism of the moon calls us to Dance.  Each cycle of the moon holds a different meaning. The New Moon is the time we set our intentions, begin new projects and plant our seeds for manifesting. During the New Moon, we do a dance of starting anew and a dance of replenished energy.  During the waxing moon, we set our intentions and dance, refreshed, with planting the seeds of our dreams.  The Full Moon is a time for releasing—when all human traits are amplified. We dance with the Stillness to stay in balance from the heightened energies.  It is a time of illumination and harvesting the seeds we have planted if we stay open to receiving.  The waning moon invites us to dance with gratitude and sharing the abundance.  I am drawn to the Moon...she always invites me to Dance.

Guess what we are called to create today?

We are going to Dance with the Moon ... or at least create a journal page that reflects that dance.

The moon shows up in many of my paintings and I have always been somewhat of a "night owl"  There is just something about her that pulls me.

Today, let's explore a few creative exercises to access our magical, creative child.

🙌 Join us in the Art Room (free): https://intentioninspired.com/art-friend

👁 Learn more about Intention Inspired: https://intentioninspired.com/

🔔 Subscribe to the Intention Inspired podcast at https://intentioninspired.com/podcast

💞 Who do you know that would be inspired by today's intentional sessional? Sharing is caring.

"It took me four years to paint like Rembrandt, but a lifetime to paint like a child." – Pablo Picasso

What do you think Picasso meant when he said the quote above?

Children create in a magical state. Until rules or conditioning begin to dampen their imagination they exhibit a freedom to their creativity. They do not realize it but their experimentation with everything is all the expression of their creativity. To them it is just their natural state of being. To children the world is a wonder, a playground and canvas to be decorated.

AFFIRMATION

I am a creative being. Each moment I create my reality.

We have spoken about this childlike state of creativity before. I think it bears further reflection because finding and feeling that magical creative state of being can not only change our “art”. It can change our life as well.

What makes us discard that sense of wonder and playful experimentation? What makes us begin to believe that our creativity has less value? Why do we allow our creative inner child (or our curious inner child, or our vulnerable inner child, or our magical inner child) take a back seat to the grown up, responsible, “rational” parts of our personality? This phenomenon happens so often that it has to be more than just someone else saying we aren't creative. That is what I normally hear. Someone with “authority” in our early years creates a creativity wound and that may be the total story. As important as our creativity is to our growth, our relationships and communications, our joy in the moment it seems like these questions might require deeper ponderings.

CREATIVE JOURNAL EXERCISE:

To connect us to the Magical Creative Inner Child let's try some of these prompts.

1. Maybe if we are connected to them we will have a greater understanding of their story. Your Inner Critic may show up as you do these exercises. Hand them a box of crayons and a coloring book.

2. Look to your left. What is the first thing you see? Write a poem about whatever that is. Don't try to sound scholarly or fit into a particular poetic style. Don't judge or edit yourself…Don't try to make sense. A Magical, Creative childlike poem. See if you can bring that child in.

Choose one living thing and focus on it with childlike curiosity. How does it move? What textures does it have? What colors? What would it feel like? What is its home like? Whatever questions come to you…find the answers.

3. Do a multi-layered, abstract, no thought work of art. No subject just lay colors over colors to see what happens.