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?

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