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✨ The Anti-Blocked Artist Club – WK5: Recovering a Sense of Possibility
Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
This week, we stepped into: Recovering a Sense of Possibility You don’t need to own the book to follow along. I’m reading and curating each chapter for us, editing it so it fits our language, our experiences, and our community. If you do want to dive deeper, I still recommend supporting a Black-owned or local bookstore.
If you’d like to go deeper this week especially with the EFT tapping flow we used to release the virtue trap and realign with our Source connection — you can upgrade to a paid membership and access the full After-Party Notes. The written tapping sequence will help you move through it on your own time.
The Dark Divines is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my art consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Key Themes We Explored
1. Limits
This week we looked at how artists perceive limits & how dangerous that can be when we start believing them.
Limits are one of the biggest illusions that block our creative energy. They keep us trapped in survival mode, where everything feels like a problem instead of a possibility. And that’s what we unpacked together: how to stop seeing life as a list of obstacles to overcome and start remembering that we’re co-creators.
When you believe you’re limited, you start making smaller moves. You edit yourself before you even begin. But creativity is a dialogue with Source & Source doesn’t edit. It expands & wants to move through you with permission & faith.
We talked about how overthinking is often just disguised disbelief. Every time you tell yourself you don’t have enough time, resources, or talent, you’re reinforcing a false boundary. The truth is, limits dissolve when you move when you take that first small, faith-filled action.
The opposite of feeling stuck is feeling sourced. When you’re tapped into that creative current, there are no walls, only directions you haven’t explored yet.
2. The Virtue Trap
This was a big one.
The virtue trap is that sneaky conditioning that tells us being good, nice, or selfless is the highest form of art or womanhood. But it’s actually one of the most effective ways to silence yourself.
We talked about how this “good girl” energy shows up creatively saying yes when you mean no, hiding your bold ideas, or shrinking your dreams to stay likable. The truth is, it’s not virtuous to betray yourself. It’s exhausting.
Being self-first isn’t selfish, it’s sacred. It’s how you stay connected to your Source. When you create from overflow, everyone around you benefits. But when you keep pouring from depletion, resentment, and obligation, your art & your energy starts to dry up.
We used our EFT tapping session to release that pattern. To stop performing niceness and start embodying authenticity. When you let go of the virtue trap, you make space for inspiration again. You remember that your light doesn’t need permission to shine, it just needs alignment.
🌑 In the After-Party Notes, we go deeper into this: how to identify when you’re in the virtue trap, how it shows up as burnout or guilt, and how to reprogram that energy into softness, self-trust, and possibility.
Main Activity: Forbidden Joy + The Wish List
This week’s main exercises are about remembering what it feels like to say yes to yourself again. So many of us are used to self-denial that we don’t even realize how often we tell ourselves “no.” Julia Cameron calls this The Forbidden Joy exercise, and I want you to treat it as a permission slip.
One of the favorite tricks of blocked artists is saying no to themselves. And we get so used to it that it starts to sound normal. We tell ourselves we’re being responsible, mature, or realistic, but really, we’re just cutting off our life force. It’s astonishing how many small ways we find to be mean or miserly with ourselves without even realizing it.
When I say this in class, people usually protest “I am good to myself!” and maybe that’s true on the surface. But when we dig deeper, there are always those quiet places where joy is waiting to be reclaimed.
Exercise One: Forbidden Joy List 10 things you love and would love to do but have quietly decided you’re “not allowed” to do. Don’t overthink it - just write the first things that come up. It could be something small like going dancing again, buying flowers every week, or getting your hair done just because. It could be something bigger like taking a trip, starting a new creative hobby, or changing your environment.
The point isn’t to make another to-do list; it’s to name the things you’ve been withholding from yourself. Sometimes the simple act of acknowledging them begins to dissolve the block.
Once you finish, post your list somewhere visible somewhere you’ll see it every day. Let it remind you that joy isn’t something you earn after working hard enough. It’s something you’re meant to live in.
Exercise Two: The Wish List We followed that with a speed-writing exercise that helps you access your desires before your logical brain has time to interfere. Wishes are allowed to be wild, frivolous, tender, even a little ridiculous. The goal isn’t to justify them, it’s to reconnect with your sense of wonder.
Set a timer for five minutes and write as quickly as you can, finishing these ten phrases:
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I most especially wish…
Don’t edit, explain, or censor yourself. Let the words move faster than your doubt. You might surprise yourself with what shows up when you let your spirit speak freely.
Both of these exercises are invitations to remember that joy, imagination, and possibility are not luxuries they’re necessities. They keep your creative current alive and help you remember that your dreams are not unrealistic; they’re simply waiting for you to stop postponing them.
Tasks
This week’s tasks are all about rebuilding faith not just in Source, but in yourself. They’re small but potent ways to shift from disbelief to divine possibility.
* The reason I can’t believe in a supportive God/Source/Universe is…List five grievances. Be honest, whatever name you use for the divine, this is your space to say what’s real. When we avoid expressing our disappointments with the divine, they turn into quiet disbelief. Let this be a moment of clearing.
* Start 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 those desires — clip them, buy them, photograph them, draw them, collect them somehow. Personally, I think this is where your Lotus Life Deck comes in beautifully. Use your abundance page, career page, or the one-sheet wallpaper that blends all your categories into a single digital vision. You can add these images directly into your Canva template so your desires live somewhere you’ll actually see them. Keep adding to it throughout this course.
* List five imaginary lives.Have they changed since you first wrote them? Are you starting to live out pieces of them? You may want to add visuals or notes about these lives to your image file as well.
* If I were 20 and had money…List five adventures.Add images or symbols of each one to your vision file — not for fantasy’s sake, but to remind yourself that youth and freedom are states of mind, not age.
* If I were 65 and had money…List five postponed pleasures.Collect images for those too. It’s powerful to visualize the version of you who didn’t wait to enjoy life.
* Ten ways I am mean to myself are…Just like naming what you want helps call it in, naming how you self-sabotage helps you release it. Make the invisible visible.
* Ten items I’d like to own that I don’t are…You might want to collect images of these too. It’s not about materialism — it’s about allowing yourself to expand what you believe you deserve.
* Honestly, my favorite creative block is…Maybe it’s TV, scrolling, rescuing others, or staying “too busy.” Whatever it is, draw or cartoon yourself doing it — not to shame yourself, but to meet it with humor and awareness.
* My payoff for staying blocked is…Explore this in your Morning Pages. Every block has a payoff — usually comfort, control, or avoidance of risk. Awareness is the first step toward release.
* The person I blame for being blocked is…Write it down and take it to the page. Let your journal be a space for truth, not judgment.
Week Five Check-In
* How many days did you complete your Morning Pages (or documentation practice)? How did it feel? Are you starting to notice your personal “page and a half of truth” moment — that point in your writing where the noise quiets and something honest begins to speak?
* Did you take yourself on an Artist Date? What did you do? How did it feel? Have you taken one yet that felt truly adventurous or out of your norm?
* Did you experience any synchronicities this week? What were they? Share them in the comments so we can build a collective thread of possibility together.
* Were there any other issues or breakthroughs this week that feel significant to your creative recovery?
We’re officially halfway through The Artist’s Way journey six weeks in, six to go. Next week, we move into Recovering a Sense of Abundance, where we’ll explore the energy of receiving, circulation, and creative flow through wealth. You made it halfway through the 12 weeks, and that deserves to be celebrated. Do something this week that feels like a reward, and let me know in the chat what you choose.
Get full access to The Dark Divines at lotuslaloba.substack.com/subscribe
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Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
This week, we stepped into: Recovering a Sense of Possibility You don’t need to own the book to follow along. I’m reading and curating each chapter for us, editing it so it fits our language, our experiences, and our community. If you do want to dive deeper, I still recommend supporting a Black-owned or local bookstore.
If you’d like to go deeper this week especially with the EFT tapping flow we used to release the virtue trap and realign with our Source connection — you can upgrade to a paid membership and access the full After-Party Notes. The written tapping sequence will help you move through it on your own time.
The Dark Divines is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my art consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Key Themes We Explored
1. Limits
This week we looked at how artists perceive limits & how dangerous that can be when we start believing them.
Limits are one of the biggest illusions that block our creative energy. They keep us trapped in survival mode, where everything feels like a problem instead of a possibility. And that’s what we unpacked together: how to stop seeing life as a list of obstacles to overcome and start remembering that we’re co-creators.
When you believe you’re limited, you start making smaller moves. You edit yourself before you even begin. But creativity is a dialogue with Source & Source doesn’t edit. It expands & wants to move through you with permission & faith.
We talked about how overthinking is often just disguised disbelief. Every time you tell yourself you don’t have enough time, resources, or talent, you’re reinforcing a false boundary. The truth is, limits dissolve when you move when you take that first small, faith-filled action.
The opposite of feeling stuck is feeling sourced. When you’re tapped into that creative current, there are no walls, only directions you haven’t explored yet.
2. The Virtue Trap
This was a big one.
The virtue trap is that sneaky conditioning that tells us being good, nice, or selfless is the highest form of art or womanhood. But it’s actually one of the most effective ways to silence yourself.
We talked about how this “good girl” energy shows up creatively saying yes when you mean no, hiding your bold ideas, or shrinking your dreams to stay likable. The truth is, it’s not virtuous to betray yourself. It’s exhausting.
Being self-first isn’t selfish, it’s sacred. It’s how you stay connected to your Source. When you create from overflow, everyone around you benefits. But when you keep pouring from depletion, resentment, and obligation, your art & your energy starts to dry up.
We used our EFT tapping session to release that pattern. To stop performing niceness and start embodying authenticity. When you let go of the virtue trap, you make space for inspiration again. You remember that your light doesn’t need permission to shine, it just needs alignment.
🌑 In the After-Party Notes, we go deeper into this: how to identify when you’re in the virtue trap, how it shows up as burnout or guilt, and how to reprogram that energy into softness, self-trust, and possibility.
Main Activity: Forbidden Joy + The Wish List
This week’s main exercises are about remembering what it feels like to say yes to yourself again. So many of us are used to self-denial that we don’t even realize how often we tell ourselves “no.” Julia Cameron calls this The Forbidden Joy exercise, and I want you to treat it as a permission slip.
One of the favorite tricks of blocked artists is saying no to themselves. And we get so used to it that it starts to sound normal. We tell ourselves we’re being responsible, mature, or realistic, but really, we’re just cutting off our life force. It’s astonishing how many small ways we find to be mean or miserly with ourselves without even realizing it.
When I say this in class, people usually protest “I am good to myself!” and maybe that’s true on the surface. But when we dig deeper, there are always those quiet places where joy is waiting to be reclaimed.
Exercise One: Forbidden Joy List 10 things you love and would love to do but have quietly decided you’re “not allowed” to do. Don’t overthink it - just write the first things that come up. It could be something small like going dancing again, buying flowers every week, or getting your hair done just because. It could be something bigger like taking a trip, starting a new creative hobby, or changing your environment.
The point isn’t to make another to-do list; it’s to name the things you’ve been withholding from yourself. Sometimes the simple act of acknowledging them begins to dissolve the block.
Once you finish, post your list somewhere visible somewhere you’ll see it every day. Let it remind you that joy isn’t something you earn after working hard enough. It’s something you’re meant to live in.
Exercise Two: The Wish List We followed that with a speed-writing exercise that helps you access your desires before your logical brain has time to interfere. Wishes are allowed to be wild, frivolous, tender, even a little ridiculous. The goal isn’t to justify them, it’s to reconnect with your sense of wonder.
Set a timer for five minutes and write as quickly as you can, finishing these ten phrases:
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I wish…
* I most especially wish…
Don’t edit, explain, or censor yourself. Let the words move faster than your doubt. You might surprise yourself with what shows up when you let your spirit speak freely.
Both of these exercises are invitations to remember that joy, imagination, and possibility are not luxuries they’re necessities. They keep your creative current alive and help you remember that your dreams are not unrealistic; they’re simply waiting for you to stop postponing them.
Tasks
This week’s tasks are all about rebuilding faith not just in Source, but in yourself. They’re small but potent ways to shift from disbelief to divine possibility.
* The reason I can’t believe in a supportive God/Source/Universe is…List five grievances. Be honest, whatever name you use for the divine, this is your space to say what’s real. When we avoid expressing our disappointments with the divine, they turn into quiet disbelief. Let this be a moment of clearing.
* Start 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 those desires — clip them, buy them, photograph them, draw them, collect them somehow. Personally, I think this is where your Lotus Life Deck comes in beautifully. Use your abundance page, career page, or the one-sheet wallpaper that blends all your categories into a single digital vision. You can add these images directly into your Canva template so your desires live somewhere you’ll actually see them. Keep adding to it throughout this course.
* List five imaginary lives.Have they changed since you first wrote them? Are you starting to live out pieces of them? You may want to add visuals or notes about these lives to your image file as well.
* If I were 20 and had money…List five adventures.Add images or symbols of each one to your vision file — not for fantasy’s sake, but to remind yourself that youth and freedom are states of mind, not age.
* If I were 65 and had money…List five postponed pleasures.Collect images for those too. It’s powerful to visualize the version of you who didn’t wait to enjoy life.
* Ten ways I am mean to myself are…Just like naming what you want helps call it in, naming how you self-sabotage helps you release it. Make the invisible visible.
* Ten items I’d like to own that I don’t are…You might want to collect images of these too. It’s not about materialism — it’s about allowing yourself to expand what you believe you deserve.
* Honestly, my favorite creative block is…Maybe it’s TV, scrolling, rescuing others, or staying “too busy.” Whatever it is, draw or cartoon yourself doing it — not to shame yourself, but to meet it with humor and awareness.
* My payoff for staying blocked is…Explore this in your Morning Pages. Every block has a payoff — usually comfort, control, or avoidance of risk. Awareness is the first step toward release.
* The person I blame for being blocked is…Write it down and take it to the page. Let your journal be a space for truth, not judgment.
Week Five Check-In
* How many days did you complete your Morning Pages (or documentation practice)? How did it feel? Are you starting to notice your personal “page and a half of truth” moment — that point in your writing where the noise quiets and something honest begins to speak?
* Did you take yourself on an Artist Date? What did you do? How did it feel? Have you taken one yet that felt truly adventurous or out of your norm?
* Did you experience any synchronicities this week? What were they? Share them in the comments so we can build a collective thread of possibility together.
* Were there any other issues or breakthroughs this week that feel significant to your creative recovery?
We’re officially halfway through The Artist’s Way journey six weeks in, six to go. Next week, we move into Recovering a Sense of Abundance, where we’ll explore the energy of receiving, circulation, and creative flow through wealth. You made it halfway through the 12 weeks, and that deserves to be celebrated. Do something this week that feels like a reward, and let me know in the chat what you choose.
Get full access to The Dark Divines at lotuslaloba.substack.com/subscribe