Coaching the Artist Within (Part II)

The next exercise is called Embracing Dualities. To begin, I am to make a long list of dualities:

Attachment and detachment
Process and product
Personal and commercial
Work and play
Idea and expression
Discipline and flexibility
Individuality and relationship
Material and spiritual
Being and doing
Knowing and feeling
Simplicity and complexity
Mind and body
Fiction and nonfiction
Art and craft
Rock and jazz
Practice and performance
Draft and final
Solitude and sociability
Now and then
Want and need
Write and journal

Now I am to take each pair on my list, one at a time, and for each member of the pair I am to say the following:

“Attachment is available to me. Detachment is available to me. Both principles are available to me, and I honour both equally”. Then I am to repeat for all of these dualities with the point being that one does not cancel out the other. I get that. I have been a bit of an extremist in the past, taking and idea and turning it into an absolute. To be honest, I still do it a little bit but I am getting better.

I just did the exercise and it was surprisingly good. I almost skipped it because it didn’t seem very powerful, but sometimes deep meaning lies in the simple and this is one of those times. The most uncomfortable one for me was “journal and write”. I tend to think of journaling as a way to avoid writing. I have also picked up from somewhere, everywhere, that journaling is either a prelude to writing, separate from writing or an excuse not to write. When in actual fact, journaling is its own process and has its own value. Another uncomfortable one for me is “relationship and individuality”. I tend to see a relationship as the loss of individuality, or at the very least, the compromising on availability. Again, not necessarily true. I will have to ponder this exercise some more and return to it frequently.

The next exercise is a continuation of the first and is called Eliminating Dualities. Eric recommends looking at your work and instead of asking “Should I be more disciplined or more spontaneous?” I should say “What does my work require of me?”. Subtle, but quite a difference. Perhaps the key to this is to see the work as it sown entity, its own body, requiring certain assistance from me. After the work is created it does take on a life of its own and I am usually slightly stunned thinking “Where did this come from?” Like anything that is gaining shape and forming it needs certain things from me so by putting the focus on what the work needs, not what I need or I feel like doing, it might provide much needed perspective.

Uncle Eric is really quite clever… He says this exercise will bring about a “profound change. You begin to make decisions based on an integrative, holistic, nondualistic basis rather than in accordance with the connotations that words like research, craft and discipline carry. You gain freedom and clarity. You start each day fresh, you start each moment fresh, and you return to each project fresh.”

Amen to that!

The next skill is Generating Mental Energy, which is something I have given a decent amount of thought to in recent months. I was in a horrible, horrible job for a while and I remember someone saying to me “Take that mental energy you are putting into worrying about that job, and getting upset about that job and put it into something you love, something that interests you”. So I’ve been working on doing that. In this exercise – Contemplating Mental Energy – Eric states the following:

Keeping a defensive lid on life is real work and a real energy drain. No one mentally tires out more completely than the person who knows she ought to make meaning in a certain way but refuses to do so, unless it is the person who wages internal war about whether it would be better to pursue this or that meaning-making route.

I declared war on myself from the moment I realised I wanted to write. And the war continues, although I am pleased to say I am winning more battles these days.

In this exercise I must answer the three following questions:
What generates mental energy?
What saps mental energy?
What replenishes mental energy?

Mental energy is generated by excitement, ideas, enjoyment, laughter, fun, intrigue and stimulation.

Mental energy is sapped by worry, distress, illness, boredom, over stimulation, procrastination, self loathing and grief.

Mental energy is replenished by self belief, adventure, fresh air, dreaming, exploring, opening, hoping, playing, resting, reading, planning and achieving.

The next exercise makes me want to giggle. It is called “Cultivating Positive Obsessions” and it involves bringing my current project to mind and saying “You fascinate me” and “You are SO intriguing” and “I am dying to work on you” and “I’m getting SO excited” and “I’m thinking about you day and night”.

It’s hysterical! Like my stories are lovers or something…”Oh baby, I can’t wait to see you tonight, the things I’m going to do to you…” Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

The next skill for Coaching the Artist Within is Creating in the Middle of Things. Eric poses the following question: How does a person manage to create in the middle of things?

I am not someone who has small children (or any children, although I do have a dog) or a career that requires 10 hour days. Time for me is not something I have to carve out of my day. It is there in abundance and I’d say I use about 50% of it constructively…maybe a little less. I do not watch a lot of television and I do read a lot which I consider time well spent. But I do surf the net a lot (more reading) but as we all know, the internet is pretty much A number 1 in the art of time suckage. It’s a time burglar!

When I was working through the Artist’s Way early this year I got up 20 minutes early every morning for just over 3 months and wrote my “morning pages”. I stopped after I’d finished the book mainly because I couldn’t find the encouragement within myself to continue…plus I write in my conservatory and it was winter and very cold out there in the mornings! I have not returned to morning pages since and I do not miss them.

In regards to creating in the middle of things, I just need to schedule time and ACTUALLY DO IT. That is the kicker for me, all the time in the world (well, not quite! I still have to earn a living) and I do not use it to my full advantage. I will make an appt with myself for tomorrow night to create. I may paint or write for at least 30minutes from 7:30pm.

Phew…that’s all the exercises I have in me for today. :)