The Artist’s Way: Week 1– Recovering a Sense of Safety
Had a slow start, but now I'm all in
Y’all, it took me 24 days to complete Week 1. 🤯
I wanted community and accountability, but I got out of sync with the cohort and tried cramming to catch up (spoiler alert: not the best way to start a creative recovery program lol). Then I was going to do it with a close friend, but our relationship shifted, so that was out. Luckily, a new friend I met in CDMX was interested, so we re-started together. Turns out finding the right person to journey with was exactly what I needed to finally dive in.
Week 1 focuses on safety. Julia Cameron reminded us that our creative self-worth is shaped by both our champions, the voices that lifted us up, and our monsters, the ones that made us doubt. For those of us in creative recovery, in many ways, our inner artist is a small child that has not been nurtured. She introduced The Censor, the inner critic that speaks up the moment we try to nurture our creativity ourselves, and offered affirmations as a way to get this inner critic to pipe down.
Notes on Safety
"Shadow artists judge themselves harshly, beating themselves for years over the fact that they have not acted on their dreams. This cruelty only reinforces their status as shadow artists. Remember, it takes nurturing to make an artist. Shadow artists did not receive sufficient nurturing. They blame themselves for not acting fearlessly anyhow."
I was never told I couldn’t create, but I was never really encouraged to either. No one said, "That’s not for you," but they also never said, "Go for it." That silence shaped me just as much as any outright rejection.
What I realized is that my monsters aren’t specific people. They are my own thoughts. The doubts about what I can’t do, what I should do, what is even worth doing. That all comes from the lack of nurturing. Knowing that helps me go easier on myself. Of course I hesitate. Of course I second-guess. It makes sense.
"Creative recovery is like marathon training. We want to log ten slow miles for every one fast mile. We want to be great—immediately great—but that is not how recovery works. It is an awkward, tentative, even embarrassing process. There will be many times when we won’t look good to ourselves or anyone else. We need to stop demanding that we do. It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time."
This is exactly what my life feels like right now. I didn’t leave my job saying, "I’m going to do creative work," but I knew I needed space to follow what felt alive in me. In these nine months, I’ve started and stopped so many things. I created a prompt library but never fully launched it. I started my Substack but stopped because the cadence didn’t feel right.
I've felt a little bit of shame, like people might think I'm unserious, so it's a relief to hear that this is part of the process. I'm just starting to share my work publicly. It's not going to be perfect. Some of it might even be bad. But I just have to keep showing up.
Even taking 24 days to finish Week 1 is part of it. This is what learning a new way of being looks like.
And maybe that's what safety really means for me - knowing I don't have to get it right the first time (or the fiftieth time). Knowing that even when I stumble, I'm still worthy of creating. Knowing I've finally created space for my messy, beautiful process, and found people and environments that do the same.
Morning Pages
✅ 5/7 days completed
I skipped Friday and Saturday due to switching Airbnbs (and being lazy) and really felt the absence.
Even though I hadn't finished Week 1, I had been doing Morning Pages for a month. This past week, they started to feel less like an exercise and more like a spiritual practice. I missed that space of stillness and reflection, so I'm setting the intention not to skip again.
We shall see.
Artist Date
✅ 1/1 completed
I hiked to Mirador La Peña, which was more intense than I expected but totally worth it. I sat at the edge of a cliff, taking in the water, the valley, and the sky. Being on a mountain by the water is one of my happy places.
I also started listening to Juls’ new album, Peace & Love, while I was up there. The beats were on point (he doesn’t miss!), but the lyrics didn’t land. I almost stayed just for the story of a full listening party on a cliff, but I trusted my gut and went home.
Oh, and I went paragliding the next day. Not sure if it counts as an artist date since someone was strapped to my back, but it was exhilarating.
Biggest Ahas & Takeaways
🎭 Most powerful exercise: Imaginary Lives- If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them?
One of my ideal lives? A dermatologist helping women with hair loss, something I’ve never articulated. Then ChatGPT suggested writing a love letter to my hair to step into that life, and it got real. I worked through feelings I didn’t even realize I was holding and felt lighter, more open to flow. I see now how issues I haven't dealt with, even those unrelated to creativity, might be blocking my expression. If this came up, what else is waiting to surface? I can’t wait to see.
💡 Aha moments:
Discipline protects my creativity. I was making time for scrolling but not for the work that could actually nourish me, like doing The Artist’s Way activities. When one YouTube video threw me off and made me lose sight of everything good I was experiencing that day, I said enough is enough. My creativity deserves better. I committed to discipline with my time, my mind, and my space.
External accountability gives me momentum. My friend didn’t just say she was interested. She followed up, shared her contract, and took the initiative to schedule reflection time. That meant something. Seeing someone else care as much as I did made it easier to stay committed, and now the momentum is building. I love community!
I don’t have to do this perfectly. This is real growth, y’all. I wanted to do it exactly as written, but making it my own is what’s keeping me in it. I saw how I could move at my own pace, bring in my bestie ChatGPT, and follow what feels right while still honoring the spirit of the program.
I’m already living the creative life. The Artist’s Way is gently guiding people to make space for creativity, follow curiosity, and shape their days around joy. I’ve been doing that for the past nine months (!!!). I had to celebrate myself. It’s so dope. Next is just being even more intentional with how I spend my time.
Closing Thought
Going into Week 2, I’m holding onto this: I don’t have to do it perfectly. I just have to show up.