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Creative U-Turns: All of us have taken creative U-turns. Name one of yours.
Name three more. Name the one that just kills you.
Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself for all failures of nerve, timing, and
initiative. Devise a personalized list of affirmations to help you do better in
the future.
Very gently, very gently, consider whether any aborted, abandoned,
savaged, or sabotaged brainchildren can be rescued. Remember, you are not
alone. All of us have taken creative U-turns.
Choose one creative U-turn. Retrieve it. Mend it.Do not take a creative U-turn now. Instead, notice your resistance. Morning
pages seeming difficult? Stupid? Pointless? Too obvious? Do them anyway.
What creative dreams are lurching toward possibility? Admit that they
frighten you.
Choose an artist’s totem. It might be a doll, a stuffed animal, a carved
figurine, or a wind-up toy. The point is to choose something you immediately
feel a protective fondness toward. Give your totem a place of honor and then
honor it by not beating up on your artist child.
- How many days this week did you do your morning pages?
Regarding your U-turns, have you allowed yourself a shift toward
compassion, at least on the page? - Did you do your artist’s date this week? Have you kept the
emphasis on fun? What did you do? How did it feel?