The Artist's Way || Weeks 1-4 Experience

We often don't commit to long-ish things after we're done with our required degrees but I threw all my apprehension out the window to do The Artist's Way.

As I do the 12-week course (guided by the book), I'm trying out many new things while also balancing other things in life. I've seen a lot of these "how was it?" posts and videos on The Artist's Way so I thought I'd write them too! I'm going to share how I'm doing it, my experience with each aspect, and changes over time.

Instead of doing a post for every week (too short, too many posts) or a post for all of it (too much, might forget a lot by the end), I figured it would be good to break it down into 3 parts. This will hopefully keep up my motivation to actually finish the course too because I'm aiming to write these update posts and want to show that I'm doing the course well.

So, grab your favourite drink and catch up with me on this lowkey project!

what is the artist's way?

In case you're not familiar with it, The Artist's Way is a book by Julia Cameron guiding the reader through a 12-week course to live more like an artist. It's mainly to bring back creativity and self-exploration in our lives. Julia Cameron makes the reader work through many exercises every week and a couple of consistent exercises to address various areas of an artist's life.

The book is very well known and has sold millions of copies since it's publishing in 1992. It's an old book, but it still resonates with artists across mediums and countries. So many artists casually mention the book or credit it for their works. Although there isn't a 100% praise online, every single person agrees that there is something about the course that makes their life better.

The course is broken into 12 weeks and there's a chapter for every week in the book. Every chapter addresses a different problem in an artist's life and tries to show the way out. The chapters are fairly small so it takes about a 30 minutes to read one and it takes maybe another 30 minutes to do most of the exercises. The exercises usually tell you to write something or do something through which you'll understand yourself better.

There are 2 main things to be followed throughout the course, beyond the individual chapters. In fact, I'd say that these two are more important than the chapters.

The first is morning pages i.e. writing 3 pages, pen on paper, first thing after waking up. Stream-of-consciousness writing with no editing or thinking. The idea is to write it within around 45 minutes of waking up so that you get raw unfiltered thoughts on the page before our minds get muddled with the day's activities and to-dos.

The second is the artist date i.e. having a solo artistic date every week. It can be small things like going to a cafe or museum alone or trying out a new craft, or big things like a solo trip or exploring somewhere you've never been. The point is to spend time alone doing something that will fill your creative well. The thing itself doesn't have to be artistic as long as it's something you're interested in and can evoke curiosity.

The idea is to read the chapter and do the related exercises every week, along with morning pages and the artist date. At the end of 12 weeks, you or your life may have changed a lot. Or maybe it would change in subtle but powerful ways. I've never heard any person say that they've come out of The Artist's Way unchanged.

how i'm doing it

I actually tried The Artist's Way once before and failed. I tried it a couple of years ago alone and gave up in week 2 itself. It was simply too much to do alongside all the things life is made of. I was motivated but quickly lost it. I was trying to do all of it and when I couldn't do even a few, I paused thinking that I'll pick it back up when I have time. (I never had time.)

This time, I specifically decided to do it soon after I've settled into my new city because I won't have many social plans and so that it helps fill my weekends which will feel lonely without friends. I am also working different hours now which gives me my evenings off (I clocked out of my previous job at 7:30pm which was too late to do most things) so I would have more time to do The Artist's Way.

People generally do The Artist's Way when they're in a creative slump or haven't been creative in a long time. I'm not in either of those situations. I've been consistently writing for over a year so it's not like I need the course to save me. However, it doesn't hurt to try it out and be open to changes. I'd love to get back into drawing or try new hobbies instead of only writing all the time. I decided to just try it out and see what happens instead of hoping for a specific outcome.

Since I was in a city without friends for the first time, I thought of a few things to keep in touch with friends. One of them was roping friends into doing this with me. I roped in a friend who roped in a couple more and quickly the 4 of us became a group to do The Artist's Way together. All of them are friends from college (although at varying levels) who are fairly like-minded and are artists. I became really excited when they agreed to join.

A while before I moved to the new city, I saw The Bare Minimum Artist's Way on Substack. I loved the idea. It made so much sense, especially since I also didn't finish the course once before due to too many tasks and life stuff. The Bare Minimum Artist's Way became a big group doing it together and I was bummed that I couldn't join. It simply wasn't a good time since I had to join a new job, house hunt, and move.

While the 4 of us were discussing our approach, I brought up the bare minimum way of doing it. I planned to do only as much as I can and keep going, instead of trying to do everything. Although I'd have more time in the new city (simply because my off hours hadn't filled up with plans yet), it doesn't mean I want to burn out. It'll be a good time to rest too. My friends quickly warmed up to the idea and decided to do the same.

The amount of work the course has is a lot. 1-2 hours every day for 12 weeks. I'm convinced that the book is written for a full-time artist who doesn't have a main or another job because the schedule doesn't make sense. That's why the bare minimum way makes sense. Read the book, do whatever exercises you can/want to, and the morning pages and artist dates whenever/however you can.

We decided to make every week to 2 weeks as well, based on one of their suggestions. This way that we'll have more time for it. It can be a week to read and plan things and then a week to do the things, or just more time to do them. I really liked the idea because it gives more flexibility. This way I can also go on my planned trips without becoming a week behind. It does mean that the course will take us 24 weeks (6 months) which is a fairly long time but it's fine. Doing it is more important than doing it in a short time. Hence, whenever I say "this week" or "week 1" etc., I mean 2 weeks during which I did 1 week from the course.

After discussing things, we decided to start on the second week of April which gave my friends enough buffer time to buy the book. I was SO excited to start it and have discussions with them. They're really cool people and I couldn't wait to see how we all experience the course.

week 1: recovering a sense of safety

This week initiates your creative recovery. You may feel both giddy and defiant, hopeful and skeptical. The readings, tasks, and exercises aim at allowing you to establish a sense of safety, which will enable you to explore your creativity with less fear.

Although my previous stint with The Artist's Way lasted less than 2 weeks, it was still impactful because of the morning pages practice. I journalled sometimes prior to that but I never did it in the mornings. Switching to mornings unlocked a new kind of living. Journalling every day consistently also made a difference. I was so much more productive and creative. It felt like I was seeing my days through a new lens.

I loved that feeling so much that I kept up with the morning pages/journalling habit through the last two years. I journalled way more often than I did before I tried The Artist's Way and I tried to journal in the mornings whenever possible.

It is very difficult to complain about a situation morning after morning, month after month, without being moved to constructive action.

I especially journalled a lot in the few months before trying the course again. Mainly because I was going through a fairly stressful time with work and interviewing for Google. Then during the planning and the move. I journalled often to pour my anxieties on page and work through them. I journalled mostly at night but it was a practice that made a difference in my days.

The specific length of writing 3 pages is golden. Throughout the two years of journalling, I tried to write a minimum of 3 pages every time and it actually helped. My thoughts flowed more freely over time and I was able to go deeper to have proper introspective journalling sessions.

In the month before trying The Artist's Way again, I was journalling in the mornings on weekends and on most evenings after work. I expected that the morning pages may not have as much of a noticeable effect this time because it's not new anymore. I was curious to see if the book would cause any other lasting changes though.

When day #1 of The Artist's Way arrived, I started it with journalling while sipping a glass of iced matcha latte (that combination has become my weekend ritual). I woke up at 8:30 am but it took half an hour to freshen up and make the drink. Because I was noticing the time and planning for the upcoming days, I realized that I need to wake up at least 30 minutes earlier during the week to fit in morning pages before going to the office.

After writing 3 pages, I opened the book and read the introduction. I forgot that the book has a buuunch of reading for the first week because there are a couple of introductory chapters before week 1's chapter. Instead of doing it all in a day, I was chill about it. I took a couple of days to finish reading till week 1.

The book's full title is "The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" and the author takes the spiritual aspect seriously. There's a lot of talk about "god" and "creative energy" in this book which is a little hard to get through if you're not a religious person. I believe in the universe and energy but this was a bit too much for me. The author acknowledges it as well and says to rephrase things however we feel comfortable and move on, we don't have to dwell on how she thinks about it. I mostly ignored the spiritual stuff, focusing on the actions and the intent.

As the title says, week 1 is about recovering a sense of safety—realizing that being creative without a productive output is okay, encouraged even. It's all about thinking about why we don't see ourselves as artists and allowing ourselves to be them, even if we're bad artists.

It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.

This is the only week that I fully finished the first time I tried the course but it was so long ago that I didn't remember anything from it. So it really was new and made me think.

Firstly, I have to talk about the writing. Julia Cameron writes beautifully while getting her point across with clarity. There are some repetitions but it is intentional so that we can't ignore those points. I've annotated a lot in the introductions and the first chapter. There are so many good quotes that I feel like putting up on my wall.

Coming to the content itself, I really related to the point of this week. I actually wanted to pursue a career in the arts (journalling, English literature) but I was pushed to do computer science by my mom because the latter is a more practical choice. Although I regretted it a lot till my 1st year as a software engineer, I soon got over it because the pay as a software engineer is way more and allows me to pursue arts on the side. But still, the chapter's points about feeling like I'm not a real artist and having a "repressed artist" in me because of influences hit me.

The exercises were okay. It like a starter pack with fairly easy ones. I managed to do all of them but I liked the prompt to write about 5 imaginary lives the most. I wasn't supposed to think before I wrote but I had to. My brain was a bit blank after writing down 2. It made me think about the different paths I could have taken other than the 2 main ones in my mind. It was nice to think about alternatives, though. Who knows, if AI really does take my job, I could do one of them.

My least favourite were the affirmations. Although I'm a huge believer in saying good things and putting good thoughts out into the universe so that I get good things in return, I'm not a traditional affirmations person. It does not feel natural to tell myself that "I am worth it. I'm a good artist." etc. without context. Sure, I talk to myself and encourage myself but it's usually in the moment when I need it and not a conscious thing. I read the list of affirmations once and promptly forgot about them.

Overall, the main struggle in week 1 was writing the morning pages during the work week. I usually wake up at 7:45 am and quickly get ready to leave by 8:20 am or so. I don't have breakfast at home so all I do if freshen up and get ready. Since it's already a fairly early time (which I took a while to get used to, since I left at 10:30 am for my previous job), waking up earlier to write morning pages was hard.

I took the entire two weeks to figure out a good schedule. I woke up at 7 am, 7:15, and 7:30. I kept an eye on how long writing 3 pages took so that I can time my alarms well. Waking up earlier meant going to bed earlier as well. Sleeping earlier was the hardest because I'm used to doing my best creative work after 9 pm. Waking up earlier meant that I was also becoming too hungry to wait till breakfast at the office so I started having a banana or a protein shake.

Initially, I wrote the morning pages first and then got ready for work. It was just not working, though. My mind would still be sleepy to write the morning pages quickly and I ended up rushing to get ready for work. (I have a shared cab picking me up which I cannot keep waiting or miss)

Towards the end of the two weeks, I woke up very late and decided to get ready first so that I'll at least be ready to run to the cab. I sprint-wrote the morning pages after getting ready. That strategy worked really well. I started following the same order after that day. I saw somewhere online that the idea is to write morning pages within 45 minutes of waking up. I'm able to do that (since my optimal waking time seems to be 7:30 am) while also not going to office half-dressed. Win-win.

It helps that I am used to journalling and hence can write fairly fast, even if it's at the expense of my handwriting. The notebook I was using was my first ruled notebook after 5 years of dotted notebooks. Turns out the ruled notebooks have fewer lines than the dotted ones. Hence, since I am used to writing 3 pages in dotted books, writing 3 pages in ruled is like writing 2 pages in dotted. It felt a bit like cheating but hey, 3 pages is 3 pages. No one mentioned what book or what kind of pages. I was able to write 3 pages in 30 minutes.

We meditate to discover our own identity, our right place in the scheme of the universe. [...] Morning pages map our own interior.

Morning pages didn't make much of a difference this time, though. As I said earlier, I was already journalling often so it won't have a big effect. However, I was happy to get back to writing in the mornings. It took me a while to get used to it, and replace it as my after-work winding down activity, but it was nice.

Most of the time, I didn't write anything great or introspective. I mainly wrote about what I did the previous day and what I plan to do the upcoming day. Since I write my intentions for the day and why I want to do them in the mornings, it's somehow easy to follow through. I wrote more about this in my How I Journal post.

It was way too hot to go out for an Artist Date so I did my first one at home. I made a picnic setup in my room and doodled for an hour as my Artist Date. I got a drink and snacks. I played slow music in the background. I opened the balcony door to let the late afternoon sunlight in. I spent only around an hour doodling but I loved it. It was so therapeutic.

I hadn't doodled for at least 5 years. I LOVED doodling and making cool drawings. The hobby slipped away after college. My favourite doodle art till date is the one I made in 11th grade which hides the names of every student in my grade in the drawing. I started with my friends and somehow other asked me to add their names and eventually I added everyone's. Everyone came over to search for their names in the doodle. It was so fun. While doodling this time, I was reminded of all my past doodles and the memories associated with them. It was nostalgic.

An interesting thing that happened during week 1 was that I drafted a newsletter in my notebook by hand. I used to write blog post drafts in my journal back in 1st year of college and only wrote digitally for the last several years. Writing by hand takes long so I prefer not to. However, I got this idea while I was journalling (happens fairly often) and decided to try drafting by hand this time. I did feel like it was more freeing to draft by hand and I polished it later while typing it out.

week 2: recovering a sense of identity

This week addresses self-definition as a major component of creative recovery. You may find yourself drawing new boundaries and staking out new territories as your personal needs, desires, and interests announce themselves. The essays and tools are aimed at moving you into your personal identity, a self-defined you.

This chapter introduces a few concepts which are important lessons for everyone, not just artists. While reading this, I realized that this book is easily for everyone because what it talks about (at least so far) is important for all aspects of life. It's just that the problems affect the creative sides of us more and hence it's packaged as a creative recovery guide. It can easily be a guide to life a good life.

One of the friends doing The Artist's Way with me mentioned that the book felt like a rule book. I agree. This chapter does feel like that because we're introduced to a bunch of dos and don'ts. For example, we're introduced to "crazymakers" and how we shouldn't hang out with them to protect our peace. There's also stuff about paying close attention to life. We're also told to safeguard our progress because people who aren't on the path to recovery will be jealous and ruin our recovery. It's a lot to take in.

I liked the contents of this chapter, though. I'm fairly good at setting boundaries so I didn't have much to take away from the crazymakers part but the attention and synchronicity parts were nice.

I don't think I pay enough attention to my surroundings, it's something I've been working on for the past two years. Now that I don't have social media on my phone, I do spend a lot of time looking around and noticing while others are buried in their phones. I often people-watch and scenery-watch during travel. I can be even better about my attention, though. I tend to daydream and be buried in thoughts about something else. Recently, I forgot the route my cab took to office that morning and it took me a few minutes to recall. I don't want my days to be a blur.

Success or failure, the truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

The "20 things you enjoy doing" exercise was my favourite. It asked to list 20 things and then write the date when I last did them (as much as I can remember). I was able to write around 8 things easily but it got harder after that. I had to think. It was harder to remember when I did most of them and I was sad to realize that it's been a long time since I did many of them. I last did one of the things in 2014!

The "10 tiny changes" exercise was also nice. Although I haven't been intentional about doing them so far, my mind is more open to doing them, if that makes sense. Some things are related to what I already do and some are about new things. Some are to settle down better in the new city and make this place a comfortable home.

One of the point was to be artsy and crafty more. I did it by participating in a clay art event at work one day. I brought the clay home and spent a couple of hours making miniature clay models as an Artist Date later. There are 4 miniatures so far (combining what I made at the office event and this date) and they're chilling on my work desk. (I have since discovered that I'm actually allergic to the clay 😔 so I'll probably give them to a friend when I can.)

I want to make a physical album of my photos like the old days so I spent a couple of hours selecting photos and became so happy looking at my memories. I've had such great times with friends, I can't wait to see those photos printed.

I did another doodling session as the Artist Date as well and finished the doodle. It fills up an entire page in a new notebook that I planned to use as my next journal. It was really therapeutic and nostalgic again. I think my brain stopped thinking for a good while, I came out of it with a peaceful mind and no "top of the mind" thoughts.

My friends really liked the life pie exercise which is fairly common online as well. Basically draw a circle, divide into 6 pieces, and mark dots based on how you'd rate your life in each category like friends, work, play, etc. The idea is to understand where it is skewed, work on it, and check progress later. I initially skipped this exercise but after they raved about it, I did it. I'm fairly in a good place in life right now so my pie wasn't too skewed. It would be if I added romance but since I don't care about that, I added adventure and it was fine.

I started waking up later and later and hence rushed to write morning pages. It became a habit to note down what time I woke up and the time at which I started writing. Most of the days, I wrote in a sprint to finish 3 pages before I had to leave. All that rushing helped me write faster and soon I was writing 3 pages in 20 minutes.

My notebook finished at the end of week 2. When I started The Artist's Way, I was only halfway through. Writing 3 pages a day + doing the exercises + random writing meant that I flew through ~80 pages in a month. I hadn't journalled every day in a long time so finishing the notebook so quickly was a surprise. I started writing in it only in February.

My friends and I were chatting about our progress often. We spoke a bunch through week 1 and spoke more during week 2. They made time to write morning pages whenever possible and went on fun artist dates. It was really fun to chat with them and I loved how some conversations became about us rather than the book. It's like we're growing closer through this too. It's also interesting to see how we look at things in the book differently. There were already a few things that we had opposing opinions on.

I asked them if they had anything to add to this post and one friend said that, "I think as a reader I would like if someone told me to take this book with a grain of salt rather than a gospel/ rule book. Not everyone fits and sits with what is instructed but you take what helps you and what you like and use that" which is a very valid point. The book is aimed at a specific kind of person which most of us aren't so we have to see what we like and what works for us.

Another friend said, "I love that the tasks we do has given me a lot to think about - just about myself. doing those morning pages really helped with that. things I'd forgotten, hobbies I'd lost. it was nice. that being said I don't think all tasks are for everyone. there's some i didn't like at all, something others might like. it was nice to have variety"

week 3: recovering a sense of power

This week may find you dealing with unaccustomed bursts of energy and sharp peaks of anger, joy, and grief. You are coming into your power as the illusory hold of your previously accepted limits is shaken. You will be asked to consciously experiment with spiritual open-mindedness.

This is a fairly large chapter, again introducing a handful of concepts. I really liked the synchronicity part. It's about saying what we want to do and watching for coincidences that let us do those things. The clay event the previous week felt like synchronicity because it happened soon after I wrote the point about wanting to be more crafty.

6 months ago, I really wanted to switch jobs after something happened and got a call with an interview offer. It wasn't my ideal job (being in a different city) but it was an opportunity. I didn't think it would work out but I took it and did my best. It worked out.

First choose what you want to do. The how usually falls into place of itself.

All the chapters in The Artist's Way are titled "recovering...." because the author believes that all of us are artists, and many of us reading the book are recovering artists. Technically we were very artistic as kids and it usually gets suppressed as we grow so this book tries to bring that back.

There are several exercises and concepts that are about figuring out who you were as a child and bringing the play from your childhood to the present. I don't have a lot of memories from my childhood (most of it is a black hole except a few crystal clear scenes). I don't know what my favourite childhood toy or game was. I don't know the best movie I saw as a kid. I don't remember what my childhood room looked like. It had a bed, but I don't know which one or where it was.

"If I had a perfect childhood I'd have grown up to be...." no idea. "List 5 childhood accomplishments", I have nothing. "List 5 favourite childhood foods", I can only think of potato because my parents mentioned it later on. "Describe your childhood room", uhh, there was a bed but I don't know which or where it was. I had multiple rooms (we moved) but I don't know what they looked like.

My childhood self is a stranger to me. When I read my old diary from 6th grade, it's like I'm reading words from someone else. I threw away the diaries from my 7th to 9th grades so I can't check them, but I'm sure they're the same. I wouldn't say that my childhood was great so I'm not all that sad about not remembering it either. I only know my teenage self, from 10th grade. My memories are a bit more from 9th and 10th and fairly more from 11th grade.

All the exercises and concepts related to childhood were useless for me. I'm sure that there are more to come and I'm sure that they'll be useless too, for me.

There was an exercise to list the people I wish I could meet or hang out with who are dead. I didn't find that useful either. I don't really think about dead people. I don't think about real people whom I don't come in contact with much either, beyond the news and watching a few YouTube videos here and there. I'm way more concerned with the people around me.

Going into week 3, I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it well because I had a 5-day trip planned for a friend's wedding. We had a super busy schedule. I dealt with a sad allergy during and after it as well. Wrote all about the trip in this journal-like post if you want to know the details.

I did whatever I could the rest of the days. The trip + allergy messed up the timeline in my mind as well so I thought that I did the clay artist date this week but I hadn't, it was the previous week. So I missed the Artist Date this week. Can I count an hour of blogging as an artist date? Probably not since I'd do it anyway and it drains the creative well instead of filling it.

I did morning pages 10/14 days. I expected to do only 9 but on the last day on the trip, I was at an airbnb and woke up early to write morning pages. My room had a big window with a lovely view, I enjoyed writing morning pages there.

I started a new notebook this week too! It's a cute notebook that my friend gifted for my birthday. She gifted all 3 notebooks in the Expressions series by ITC's Paperkraft. The books each have an old city on the cover and looks vintage. I chose the Paris one to start with. It's got plain pages. I haven't written in plain pages in a hot minute but since I broke my dotted notebook streak, I might as well try this out. This was the notebook in which I did the doodle (on page 1) so it was natural to start writing in it.

After years of writing in dot grid notebooks, my handwriting became really small (because the space between two dots is tiny). It was actually a struggle to switch to writing bigger because of the rules pages. Using the plain pages reverted my handwriting back to being tiny. Writing tiny meant that I was writing more per page and hence writing 3 pages started taking longer due to the plain pages. I take 30 minutes to write 3 pages now, if I write really quickly. If I write slowly, it takes around 40 minutes. I had to adjust my wake up time to accommodate this.

Despite everything, I was able to somehow keep up with blogging and even did an extra thing. I made Pinterest images for the first time in 2 years. Clo hosted a GYST (Get Your Shit Together) session so I used that time to be productive. I had some time left after doing other stuff so I made Pinterest images and pinned them. Does Pinterest even work for blogs anymore? I don't know. I'll let you know.

week 4: recovering a sense of integrity

This week may find your grappling with changing self-definition. The essays, tasks, and exercises are designed to catapult you into productive introspection and integration of new self-awareness. This may be both very difficult and extremely exciting for you. Warning: do not skip the tool of reading deprivation.

I coincidentally saw a post on week 4 a couple of days before I had to start it so I knew that there was some "reading deprivation" involved. I had only seen the title of the post, though. I didn't want to spoil week 4 for myself but I was dreading the week. When I read the chapter, I was a bit enraged.

Although there are a couple of ideas that this chapter asks us to go through, the main one is reading deprivation. You are asked to not read anything for a whole week. The first feeling that rose was rage because why does the chapter specifically target reading? What did reading even do? Why is it a negative thing? I'm a reader! It's part of my identity. I talk about books all the time. Why is reading a bad thing?

Instead of writing off the chapter immediately, I went online and searched for week 4 experiences. After reading a few posts, I had more understanding and I calmed down. The thing is, this book was written a few decades ago when other forms of media were not very prevalent. Reading was the way most people wasted time. For example: reading magazines to pass time.

Translating the ask to modern day, it becomes media deprivation. The reasoning makes sense too. All of us waste a lot of time consuming media when we could be creating or pursuing hobbies. I could try lettering instead of watching tv or try to draw something instead of reading a novel every day. It makes sense, but it is hard.

Sooner or later, if you are not reading, you will run out of work and be forced to play.

Great idea in concept. Not so great if you're working 9-5.

I tried, though. A few people mentioned online that although they hated it, it helped. So I gave it a shot. I stayed off reading, tv, and even reading news or articles online. I made a list of things that is allowed and a list that is not. I let myself have music (many others mentioned that they kept only music and it was fine), necessary media for work etc., and texting (I couldn't not talk to my friends too). My friend and I were watching a Kdrama together so I let myself have that as well, since it was more of a friend thing than media. Everything else was out.

Day 1 was fairly easy. It was a Sunday but I had a blog post to write, friends to make plans with, and a Kdrama episode to watch and discuss other things with a friend. I wrote about 2k words for the blog post this day. The problem was at night, when I'd normally wind down with a book or something on TV. I couldn't wind down with no-brain things. I decided to try drawing an illustration.

I can't say that the media deprivation week didn't help at all because I drew for the first time in 2 years. Returning to Procreate wasn't smooth. I forgot a bunch of the controls and had to relearn things. But hey, I drew a bit! At least! I stopped after a short while though because it was tiring and not a great wind-down activity before bed.

Since I couldn't do anything that I usually did, I went through my night routine and went to bed early. It took me an hour to fall asleep, though.

Day 2: I worked from home. I blogged for a while after work, watching an episode with my friend, then stayed on Discord to chat with friends. I drew a bit and completed the base of half the illustration. I sliightly broke the media deprivation by looking at snaps from my friends. I was in bed early again but wasn't sleepy and I caved. I was on it only for a few minutes though.

Day 3: Woke up at 7:45 am and rushed to get ready and write morning pages. Cheated a bit by leaving more space between my sentences so that I could finish 3 pages 🤪 I was going into work after many days since I was dealing with a super annoying allergy. Worry about the allergy was on my mind almost all the time. After coming back home from work, I immediately started blogging since I couldn't do any other wind down activity. It was tiring. I wrote a lot and went to bed early.

Day 4: Woke up at 8 am! My allergy meds are the drowsy kind which makes waking up very hard. Got dressed in 10 minutes. I couldn't finish morning pages at home so I took my journal to work and spent 10 minutes in a phonebooth to write. Technically, I still finished within 45 minutes of waking up. Instead of blogging immediately after work, I worked out as a wind-down-from-work activity. I still didn't feel like I had enough energy to be productive so I journalled a bit. It was nice. I could blog better too, after that. I journalled again before bed because I needed a wind-down-to-sleep activity. Wrote a total of 7 pages this day.

Day 5: Woke early enough to write morning pages a bit leisurely. Did an Adult Thing that I've been procrastinating on for months but couldn't get it done. Did another task that had been postponed for a month. Worked out after work, blogged a tiny bit, spent hours setting up mom's new phone and showing her how to use it.

Day 6: Finally did the Adult Thing. Took 10 minutes because I called at 9 am instead of 6 pm. Played badminton with my team after work so I didn't need another transition activity. Blogged with full focus and finished the post. Margins of the Week, 14k words. My longest post yet. I was burnt out from writing the post and not consuming anything over the week. On the way to the kitchen to fill my water bottle, I passed by my mom watching an old movie on TV. It mesmerised me and I ended up sitting down to watch the rest of it with her. Broke my media deprivation streak with the movie. I only watched the second half but it was so captivating. I don't regret it.

Day 7: Fully broke my media deprivation week by reading a book and watching YouTube. Enough.

In short: media deprivation week was super productive and super tiring. I drew for the first time in 2 years. I wrote my longest post ever (14 thousand words!) in 5 days. I started working out at home after work and it worked so well that I'm still doing it. On the other hand, I was the most tired this week, mentally. It felt like I had wrung myself out. I wasn't getting good rest or good sleep.

My main problem was that I couldn't think of good transition or wind-down activities to replace media consumption. After a full day of working and using my brain, I cannot jump into another brain activity. The only no-brain activity I could think of was laundry but it barely takes 10 minutes. Everything else takes effort. There were a few alternatives suggested in the book but they weren't fit for what I was looking for.

Another problem was that I already create a lot. I blog regularly. So removing media did not lead me to do a lot of new things. I defaulted to blogging way more than usual. I'm also a big of a binge-writer, as in, I try to write blog posts quickly while the idea is fresh on my mind instead of spacing it out. That idea was fresh on my mind and I couldn't let it go to do other stuff.

The thing is, I already have a fairly good balance between creation and consumption so removing consumption sucked. Instead of filling my creative well in big ways like going on solo dates often or exploring often, I do it in small ways. I do something different on a smaller scale. I consume mindfully for a short time. It's been 2 years since I quit social media and I have no consumption apps on my phone already (except Snapchat which isn't endless like others), so I am fairly good at staying in the present and not overconsuming.

Instead of writing the massive post in 5 days, I may have taken 7. That did not need this week. I would have gotten to working out eventually as well, I don't think I specifically needed this week. The only real difference it made was that I opened Procreate for the first time in 2 years. I didn't draw much but it was a start.

I absolutely hated not being able to read novels. It's not like I read every day and I have gone weeks without reading before. The problem was that I was already stressed this week with my allergy and couldn't take my mind off of it.

I had initially planned to try media deprivation for 2 weeks but was more than happy to drop it after 6 days. In fact, because I didn't consume anything for those days, I overdid it in the next few days. I finished 3 books in 2 days and watched a lot of TV. I took a break from writing.

Since it was the end of May by this point, I had to write my newsletter. I always send out a newsletter on the 1st of every month and this time, it was bad timing. I procrastinated for days and wrote it on May 30th. After all, I was travelling early on May 31st to Bangalore where I'd be for a week. I couldn't write it then.

In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.

Technically, I was supposed to start The Artist's Way week 5 in the first week of June. I knew that I couldn't do it with the travelling so I decided to take a break or consider it extended. Now, I'll definitely put it in as extended week 4.

I don't know if I can call an entire week an Artist Date but the week in Bangalore was like filling my well to the brim. I had a lot of plans. I met many different friends, went places, and had 3 sleepovers during the week. I had so much fun with the people I love and miss and came away sleep deprived but with a heart full of joy. In between all that, I had many hours to myself. I decided to work from the Bangalore offices.

I explored an office alone for 2 days. I didn't know anyone there but I had to be there for the entire work day (internet wasn't working where I was staying). Surrounded by people, I spent the two days alone, exploring by myself. It was a bit weird to be alone in office but it was interesting too. I got to linger and explore on my page, in breaks between work. On the third day, I went to a different office where I knew someone. She showed me around and I explored a bit by myself too.

As the weather in Bangalore is pleasant and the area I was staying in had good roads for walks, I took a lot of solitary walks. I went for a short run for the first time since I moved out of the city. I travelled for an hour on the metro (out of necessity) and people-watched. I took in the Bangalore skies and thoroughly enjoyed my favourite aspects of the city.

Somehow, I wrote morning pages most days! I wrote at 7 am in the morning with birds chirping outside the window. I wrote in my best friend's house after a sleepover while everyone else was asleep. If I couldn't write in the morning due to sleepovers, I journalled in the evening.

After 9 days in Bangalore (covering both weekends), I returned to my new home and got back to the usual routine. I had no time to read The Artist's Way, let alone start week 5. My friends were busy too so we decided to start week 5 on June 15th. My week 4 became a whole month 🤣 Better to extend or take breaks and return instead of quitting, right?

endnotes

I don't know how to write this so let's pretend you're interviewing me 😂

• Wow that was a very detailed account of your first 4 weeks, Sumedha! I have to ask: in short, would you say that The Artist's Way is helping?

I didn't start the course because I was a struggling or blocked artist. I haven't seen any great changes like I expected. Although some people might have big changes or revelations through the exercises, I haven't yet. I did realize some things but nothing so big that it changed something in my life. But honestly, even if the only change that comes out of this is that I play around with day-to-day things more (like outfits), I'll consider it a success.

It's nice that the book is so action-focused instead of just talking about concepts. Within the reading itself and at the end of every chapter, there are exercises to do in the week. That is helpful. I wouldn't say that I liked doing them but the way the course is structured is nice.

There's one pattern I've noticed which may be because of The Artist's Way: I'm doing more impromptu things based on my interest. For example, I liked a few YouTube shorts about The Rain in España while on the trip and decided to watch it immediately. Similarly, shorts about Legally Blonde led me to watch the movie. My friends and I danced at a friend's Sangeet on the song You Are My Soniya which made me rewatch Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. The thing is, I watch maybe one movie a year, maximum, and only when people take me to the theatre. I don't watch movies at home. But now, I've already seen 3 movies in the past few weeks.

Outside of media, I'm trying new outfit styles. I'm noticing others' outfits way more, noticing what they pair together and how different people style clothes. I've already tried 2 new styles in the past couple of weeks, with another couple that I'm planning to try out soon. I dug out an old yellow shirt from my closet and wore it twice already, liking it anew.

Action has magic, grade, and power in it.

• Did the morning pages make a difference?

Can't quantifiably say because I was journalling often before as well. I did notice some difference in doing it in the morning. It helps in setting intentions for the day. Because I write what I plan to do and why I want to do them, I'm more likely to follow through with the plan. Morning pages helped me pour my anxieties out before I had to show up in front of people which was nice.

Although I can't specifically see a lot of difference, I'm compelled to keep doing it so it must be affecting beyond what I can articulate. It's the only aspect of the course that I'm following through with every day.

• Interesting. Did the Artist Dates have an impact?

I haven't yet done a proper Artist Date so it's not like I can talk about the impact of the concept itself. Most of my Artist Dates were at home, in a comfortable space. I explored the Bangalore office alone but it wasn't planned as an Artist Date as such. However, I liked that the Artist Date forced me to make time to play, even if it was at home.

Although I have since discovered that my super annoying month-long allergy was due to the clay, it was nice to play with clay for a while. I loved doodling for the first time in years.

I want to plan dates outside of my comfort zones soon.

• We'll be waiting for updates! Do you have any last words for now?

The Artist's Way is a fair bit of commitment. It's a proper course, asking 1-2 hours from us every day. My friends and I reduced it a bit by increasing the time. However, it's still a bunch of time towards something that most other people don't know and don't think about.

When I casually mentioned that I'm doing this and explained it to a colleague, she was surprised that we're doing it because it takes a lot of time. I can't say that all of that time is worth it yet, but it isn't totally useless. Even if there are things that I can't do right away, at least it's not buried in the back of my mind anymore. The book specifically says to wait for synchronicity too, so I'm keeping an eye out for it.

Leap and the net will appear.

Read my experience of The Artist's Way weeks 5-8 here.

chat with me!

Have you ever done The Artist's Way or are considering doing it? Have you made a time commitment to something "random" like this, which doesn't directly benefit your career or finance?

Have you noticed any synchronicity which changed your life?