The Artist's Way: Week Five
Do I stay blocked or finally open up to the possibilities?
Week Five of The Artist’s Way: Recovering a Sense of Possibility
July 7 — July 13, 2025
This week you are being asked to examine your payoffs in remaining stuck. You will explore how you curtail your own possibilities by placing limits on the good you can receive. You will examine the cost of settling for appearing good instead of being authentic. You may find yourself thinking about radical changes, no longer ruling out your growth by making others the cause of your constriction. (Cameron, 91)
“Hi, I’m Claire and I want to quit,” I wrote in my morning pages on day one of this week. I feel just as blocked as when I started and week five’s readings had me wondering how much of that is on me.
Sometimes these reflections are really hard to write. I almost feel like I need a couple of days between the weeks so I can sit with my thoughts and really digest the lessons and realizations.
I was hard and judgmental towards myself this week. I hated pretty much everything I created (especially while I was making it) and gave up on a lot of ideas and projects. I tried painting puffins. I tried editing my video with all my footage from 2024. I tried drawing. And it all felt like walking through mud, knee-deep. There’s a voice asking why I’m even trying.
I have said before that creativity is a spiritual issue. Any progress is made by leaps of faith, some small and some large. (Cameron, 93)
I know my feelings of frustration, defeat, and fear are telling me something but I’m struggling to understand what. I think this week forced me to recognize that I am the one keeping myself blocked. I am the one shying away. And this puts me in an uncomfortable position because I can no longer in good conscience allow myself to stay blocked.
Morning Pages & Artist Date
I did five days of morning pages and skipped my artist date. It was helpful to journal through these difficult feelings and I did get some clarity with some of the tasks, like listing ten ways I’m mean to myself and exploring the payoff for being blocked.
My payoff for being blocked is a false sense of safety. By keeping myself closed to my artistic dreams, synchronicity, and the abundance of my creative higher power, I do not need to worry about vulnerability or failure. I call it a false sense of safety because there is a voice, deep inside me, that begs to create—to give this all a chance.
The need to create, to capture, to document has always been there. And it is an honor to give myself the time and space to do those things in a meaningful way. By staying blocked, I’m denying myself of my most heavenly right—to be present and create.
Art Gallery
One of the ways I continue to keep myself blocked is only considering drawing/painting to be considered art. The reality is, I got film back from my birthday and scrapbooked them this week. I made up songs on my ukulele. I used my imagination playing in the pool. I brought my camera around and took photos. When I consider this, I was abundantly creative this week. And I look forward to what comes up next week.
I’m not quitting.
Love,
Claire