Here we are, ending Week 3 and starting Week 4 of The Artist Way.  I have to admit, I haven't followed all of it to the "T".  I've done some, but not all, of the writing for the Morning Pages.  I've done some of the tasks.  I'm not that great at doing my Artist Date.  I am reading each chapter.  A failure, do you think?  I'd say not.

That is, if my writing on my manuscript is any proof.  A remarkable thing happened this past week.  Last Sunday, to be precise.  In the past, I've been known to sit down and pound away on the computer for hours.  Sure, I was very pleased with all I'd accomplished from writing all day and many times, part of the evening.  However, I also felt a certain amount of resentment.  Resentment that while I'd gotten a lot of writing done....I hadn't gotten to anything else that I enjoyed.  Like reading, knitting, getting out and about, etc.

Somehow, magically, all of that changed this past week.  I decided to truly balance my time.  2 hours for writing and that left me many other hours in each day to pursue other interests.  Well, it worked.....Each day I worked for 2 hours and managed to finish up another chapter.  By evening, there was no resentment because I also had time for other things I enjoyed.  But...there was also NO guilt that I hadn't written anything all day.  I love my new arrangement and yes, I attribute The Artist Way to this.....so, I sure don't feel like a failure.

Week 3's chapter was titled, "Recovering a Sense of Power."  The first part talked about "anger" which on first reading it, I didn't think I could relate to.  Well, a week later and looking back, I find it was pretty relevant.  One paragraph that makes a whole lot of sense now was:

Anger is meant to be acted upon.  It is not meant to be acted out.  Anger points the direction.  We are meant to use anger as fuel to take the actions we need to move where our anger points us.  With a little thought, we can usually translate the message that our anger is sending us.

Based on what I said above, I now think that "resentment" was more "anger."  Anger that I couldn't seem to be balanced enough to write and also achieve other things that I enjoyed.  Anger did indeed "point the direction."  It was fuel for me to take action.  I translated the message that anger was sending and this past week has been THEE most rewarding and comfortable balancing my writing.  No guilt, no resentment, no anger.  Just moving forward with my creativity and going with the flow.

That's it for The Artist Way this week.  Now I'll warn you, this coming week will definitely be a huge challenge for me. (as already noted in my moans and groans on Kat's blog)  And in all honesty, I'm not sure I can accomplish one particular part of it......no reading.  Yes, I said no reading all week.  That means my pleasure book, my blogs and I guess my emails.  Cameron refers to this as "reading depravation."  Check back next Sunday to see how I've handled this and keep your own creativity flowing like the water.