The Artist’s Way – Week 4 – Recovering a Sense of Integrity

So far, we’ve learned to embrace our inner child (week 1), build a strong personal identity (week 2), and take control over our life (week 3). This week, we focus on Recovering a Sense of Integrity.

Integrity is one of the key ingredients to a happy life guided by an unwavering moral compass. It is the quality of being truthful and having strong values as well as moral principles. What are your values and moral principles? 

“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively”. 
– Bob Marley

Recovering a Sense of Integrity looks at integrating a strong feeling of self-awareness that requires true devotion. Be ready to make honest changes, reveal ‘Buried Dreams’, and practice ‘Reading Deprivation’.

Before We Start: Week 3 Checklist

In week 3, we experimented with synchronicity and the spiritual openness of the soul. Recovering a sense of power requires us to deal with criticism and emotional outbursts, such as anger and shame. A tough job for this hangry panda, I must say. How did week 3 go for you?

• How many days did you do your Morning Pages? How did that feel?
• Did you take yourself out on an Artist Date? What did you do and how did that feel? 
• Describe the other things that are relevant to your recovery (if any).
  
  

Honest Changes

Once a week, we get to have a cheat day. I used to trick my partner into thinking that we didn’t have a cheat day yet, so we can get another one of my favorite Pizza at Gino’s (writing about it already makes me drool). But the truth here is: I’m cheating myself. I often write in my Morning Pages that I have a lot of bad days: I wake up feeling extremely tired and I feel like I’m dragging a lifeless body throughout the day. I get depressed and I start to turn to the one thing that makes me wiggle and smile: COMFORT FOOD.

In the short run, it’s the best medicine for me. However, on the long term, my food craving is another bad coping mechanism that comes with consequences (e.g. weight gain, low energy). My white lies are actually hidden black lies that feed my vicious circle of negativity. I changed my diet and promised my partner not to trick him anymore. As a result, I noticed a significant change in tone when writing my Morning Pages. 

Honest changes slowly come to the surface when the Morning Pages become a ritual. The basis of a successful creative recovery is the commitment to acknowledge and accept your real thoughts and feelings that are hidden in denial. The Morning Pages ritual helps you come to the realization about what you need and what is toxic to you. This will lead to self-expression of the true self. Over time, you’ll notice honest changes once you open yourself to your true thoughts and feelings that will be exposed in your Morning Pages Ritual.

Buried Dreams 

When I was in school, no one ever asked me what I love to do. I was just taught to do what I had to do. When people ask me what I love to do, I have no idea. I was simply not conditioned to think this way. So, how do dig up the things we really love to do?

Oftentimes, buried dreams carry the answer to your true needs as recovering creative beings. There are ways to train your subconscious mind to discover what you really love to do. The following exercise is spontaneous. Therefore, you must be quick to write down whatever pops up in your mind:

• 5 hobbies that seem to be fun to you;
• 5 courses that speak to you;
• 5 things you’d never do, even if these seem fun;
• 5 skills you’d really want to have;
• 5 things you love to do in the past;
• 5 weird things you’d like to try some time. 
  
  

Reading/Media Deprivation

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? What do you do whenever you’re bored? What do you do when you’re in the bathroom? What do you do before going the bed? In this digital age, we are ALWAYS online. It’s not bad at all. It can make us more productive. However, we forget to take time to detox from overstimulation. Consequently, it can disturb your inner peace and your mental state of mind. 

Take a moment to return to silence. Reading/media deprivation returns us to inner silence as we close the doors to external disturbance. It helps open up our inner source of creativity that entails your own thoughts and feelings. During this reading/media ban, disconnect yourself from social media and do activities such as: listening to music, cooking, cleaning up, painting, training, meditating, dancing, and so forth. 

Personally, I find it very difficult to not check my phone and I love reading books. Especially when we have to stay at home to protect ourselves ànd others during this pandemic. Nonetheless, there is plenty of time in a day to devote to reading/media deprivation. For instance, I put aside 2 hours per day to commit to media/reading deprivation:
– 1 hour for my work out in the morning
– 20 minutes to study a course
– 30 minutes to read a book in the afternoon
– 10 minutes to meditate before going to bed.

Week 4 Exercises to Recover a Sense of Integrity

• Describe Your Ideal Surrounding
  City or farmland, urban or suburban, hipster or hood, etc. What’s your favorite season and why?
• Travel through Time: Letter to Future self
  Describe yourself when your 80 years old. What did you enjoy doing after your 50’s? Now write a letter as that 80 year old to your current self. What would you tell yourself, what would you advise, and what dreams would you tell yourself to pursue? 
• Travel through Time: Blast from the Past
  Dig up your memories of when you were 8 years old. What did you love to do and what were your favorite things? Now write a letter as that 8 year old to your current self. What would you tell yourself? 
• Create Your Personal Space
  Look around you in your house. Is there a space you could make your own private space where you can place a chair and a table with some candles or whatever. A personal space for your spiritual practices. 
• Life Pie
  Draw your life pie and compare that with the previous one. Is there a change in the pattern? Continue to provide yourself of things that could help the recovery of your creative self. 
• Personal Mantra
  Write your own mantra and implement that into your daily routine for a week. 
• Extensive Artist Date
  Plan a mini vacation for yourself.
• Look in Your Closet
  Take away an outfit from the time your self-esteem was extremely low and substitute it with a new outfit. 
• Getting Rid of Old Habits
  Take a close look at a moment in your life wherein you had the feeling that changes had to be made and currently still haven’t changed. What is the point of staying in this old situation?
• Breaking the Reading/Media Ban
  If you break your reading/media ban, write down what exactly happened. How did you feel and why?
  
  

Next: [ Week 5 ] – Recovering a Sense of Possibility

Thanks for reading!
This article captures what I consider to be the highlights of the book and articles that helped me gain understanding of the subject matter, and should only be treated as such. If you enjoyed this article, hit the follow button for more articles and summaries.

Cameron, J. (2017). The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity(12th Edition ed.). New York: J.P. Tarcher/Putnam.