In launching your creative journey, it often helps to commit yourself in an official manner. You may wish to use this contract—or devise one of your own making—for each Artist’s Way book you study, or your ongoing Artist’s Way practice. Sign it, date it, and amend it as needed. You can create a new contract as you deepen your commitment.
I, _, realize that I am entering the Artist’s Way process, which will both test and liberate me. I commit myself to the four pivotal tools of creative self-care: Morning Pages, Artist Dates, walks, and writing for guidance.
I commit to following the Artist’s Way process by working the book _, and doing the tools and exercises to completion. I acknowledge a responsibility for spiritual balance. I commit myself to adequate sleep, nutrition, exercise, solitude, and personal compassion through gentle self-care.
_ (Name)
_ (Date)
An affirmation is a positive statement that declares something you desire is already a reality. To the untutored ear, an affirmation is a positive statement of belief that may sound a little too positive to our skeptical selves.
In working with affirmations, we are working with the power of our subconscious minds. We are seeking an agreement between our conscious and our subconscious selves. We strive to be positive, and when the negatives emerge, we must uproot them like weeds in our garden. It takes a certain amount of daring to try working with affirmations. We must be willing to stand firm in the face of our subconscious’s bluster and bile.
Writing our affirmations daily, we will soon sense their power. The ideal time to work with affirmations is in the morning, just after Morning Pages. Pen in hand, we put our dream on the page. We listen to our ugly objections as they roar to the surface of our mind. Ignoring their vicious content, we again insist on the positive. Affirmations can reflect our highly individual aspirations.
Many of us feel deep-seated resistance as we strive to work with affirmations. We are suddenly too tired to write them. They are too hard, or mere busy work. It sometimes helps to put our resistance on the page in black and white: “My resistance to doing affirmations is…” Fill in the blank.
Affirm the Affirmative
Take pen in hand. Select an affirmation that reflects your ideal. Write your affirmation five times, listening to hear any blurts that may surface. Write down the blurts, and convert any negatives to positives.
O Great Creator,
We are gathered together in your name
That we may be of greater service to you
And to our fellows.
We offer ourselves to you as instruments.
We open ourselves to your creativity in our lives.
We surrender to you our old ideas.
We welcome your new and more expansive ideas.
We trust that you will lead us.
We trust that it is safe to follow you.
We know you created us and that creativity
Is your nature and our own.
We ask you to unfold our lives
According to your plan, not our low self-worth.
Help us to believe that it is not too late
And that we are not too small or too flawed
To be healed—
By you and through each other—and made whole.
Help us to love one another,
To nurture each other’s unfolding,
To encourage each other’s growth,
And understand each other’s fears.
Help us to know that we are not alone,
That we are loved and lovable.
Help us to create as an act of worship to you.
Believing Mirrors—people who see your strength and possibility
Blocked—stuck creatively, unable to go forward
Blurt—a negative comment from our inner critic disparaging our power
Catcher’s Mitt—a believing mirror able to field our dreams
Crazymaker—a person whose toxic behaviors thwart our creativity
Creative Cluster—persons gathered to enhance our creativity
Creative Saboteurs—people who cause us to doubt our own strengths
Fuse Lighter—a person who sparks our creativity
Grabbing Time—choosing to use snippets of time rather than waiting for great swathes
Grounding—tools that anchor us in our own recovery
Inner Critic—a negative voice that attacks our efforts
Laying Track—writing without rewriting
Lowering the Bar—setting a low and doable daily quota for our work
Media Deprivation—no reading, no use of computer, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or other media
Piggybackers—people who climb aboard our creativity, claiming to “help”
Shadow Artist—a person who fears committing to an art form, and so chooses something adjacent to their desired art
U-Turn—abruptly abandoning an art form
Wet Blanket Matador—someone who squelches our creativity
Writing Station—a comfortable spot committed to our creativity