Monsters & Cheerleaders Creative Journey

Monsters & Cheerleaders

Week one:
 
Set your alarm to wake up a half-hour earlier than usual every morning; get up and do three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness morning writing. Do not reread these pages or allow anyone else to read them. Ideally, stick them in a large manila envelope, or hide them somewhere. Welcome to the morning pages. They will change you.
 
List below a few creative affirmations from Week One that have particular significance for you. Also below, copy any “blurts” from your morning pages —those negative statements about yourself and your life that tend to crop up in each day’s morning pages. Convert these blurts into positive affirmations.
 
Take yourself on an artist’s date. You will do this every week for the duration of the course. A sample artist’s date: Take five dollars and go to your local dollar store. Buy silly things like gold stick-on stars, tiny dinosaurs, some postcards, sparkly sequins, glue, kid’s scissors, crayons. You might give yourself a gold star on your envelope each day you write. Just for fun. Record your experiences below.
 
Time Travel: Describe below three old enemies of your creative self-worth. Please be as specific as possible in doing this exercise. Your historic monsters are the building blocks of your core negative beliefs. (Yes, rotten Sister Ann Rita from fifth grade does count, and the rotten thing she said to you does matter. Put her in.) This is your monster hall of fame. More monsters will come to you as you work through your recovery. It is always necessary to acknowledge creative injuries and grieve them. Otherwise, they become creative scar tissue and block your growth.
 
Time Travel: Select and write out one horror story from your monster hall of fame. You do not need to write long or much, but do jot down whatever details come back to you—the room you were in, the way people looked at you, the way you felt, what people said or didn’t say when you told about it. Include whatever rankles you about the incident: “And then I remember she gave me this real fakey smile and patted my head... .”
 
Below, write a letter to the editor in your defense. Write this letter in the voice of your wounded artist child: “To whom it may concern: Sister Ann Rita is a jerk and has pig eyes and I can too spell!” For added fun, copy this letter onto nice stationery and mail it to yourself
 
Time Travel: Below, list three old champions of your creative self-worth. This is your hall of champions, those who wish you and your creativity well. Also record (be specific) encouraging words they’ve said to you. Even if you disbelieve a compliment, record it. It may well be true.
 
If you are stuck for compliments, go back through your time-travel log and look for positive memories. When, where, and why did you feel good about yourself ? Who gave you affirmation?
 
Additionally, you may wish to write the compliment out and decorate it. Post it near where you do your morning pages or on the dashboard of your car. I put mine on the chassis of my computer to cheer me as I write
 
Time Travel: Select and write out one happy piece of encouragement below. Describe why this vote of confidence meant so much to you. Once you are done, write a thank-you letter to the person who gave you this encouragement —even if it was you. Mail it to yourself or to the long-lost mentor
 
In working with affirmations and blurts, very often injuries and monsters swim back to us. Write about them below as they occur to you. Next, work with each blurt individually. Turn each negative into an affirmative positive.
 
Take your artist for a walk, just the two of you. A brisk twenty-minute walk can dramatically alter consciousness. Below, record reflections you made on this walk.
 
 
1.How many days this week did you do your morning pages? Seven out of seven, we always hope. How was the experience for you?


Did you do your artist’s date this week? Yes, of course, we a