After yesterday’s breakthrough and understanding that I need to shift from soul excavation to creative expression, I am feeling a little formless today, and want to define the second act of this project for myself.

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100 Liminal Days is an experimental project of embracing my current transitional season after exiting my business by sharing an honest, real-time account of my self-initiation experience in daily posts. I’m using The Artist’s Way as a guiding tool, and sending shorter weekly recaps only via my newsletter. Visit Day 1/100 to learn more and sign up in the footer of this page to get the weekly recaps delivered to your inbox.

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I’ve really appreciated the structure that The Artist’s Way has provided for me, and I also am hearing loud and clear that I’ve gone as deep as I need to go at the moment. I suspect that I’ll be called back to the depths again before 100 Liminal Days has been completed, but just like when diving into deep water, we can only stay under for as long as our mind and body allows. My mind and body are calling me to spend some time recovering at the surface level, integrating what I’ve uncovered so far.

The Second Act of 100 Liminal Days

In practical terms, I know this new part of the project involves investing 6-7 hours per week into my qigong teacher training program. The live classes are 2-3 hours per week, and to be certified by the end of the 3-month program, I need to log at least 50 practice hours. That means I need to spend at least 4 hours in practice each week. Before the class started, I was spending about 10 minutes per day or just over an hour per week practicing qigong. So this is a significant increase that I need to adjust my schedule to accommodate for.

I also have a notion that I ought to have time blocks on my calendar for making art, aside from writing these blog posts. I do consider writing in this form an expression of my creativity, but I’m feeling a draw to paint and finish my Into the Wild project. The third installment of the series took a lot longer to get started and all I did was spray paint the base coat before it stalled out for another couple of months. I also have been gifted five more skulls that I have wanted to paint and potentially sell. (I don’t need all of these skulls around my studio and yard!)

And although I do feel like I will take on some form of manual labor job for a short season soon, I don’t think that comes until after the teacher training is complete.

So what does this leave me with where 100 Liminal Days is concerned?

I am on Day 34/100. I’ve just crossed the first third of this initiation. I’m entering the Second Act. I think it would be helpful to me to define what the next 33 days look like, so here’s my plan, publicized for that little seal of accountability.

1. I will reduce my writing sprints from 3 hours to 2 hours. My writing has gotten faster as I’ve practiced this habit daily, so I think this is enough time.
2. The time I reclaim will be reallocated to practicing qigong or learning from the lectures.
3. I commit to cooking more meals and painting at least once per week as a way to work in creative expression other than blogging.
4. I will continue to prioritize my keystone habits, a weekly Artist Date, and reading the book chapters and reflecting on what I’m learning, but I’ll allow myself to skip the Artist’s Way exercises if it feels like it will excavate more than I am ready to dig into right now.
5. In the weekly check-ins, I will share any art or creations I have been working on.

This feels like a great way to continue the journey, maintain structure for my days, and shift from soul work to making art. My posts are likely to become shorter, but I will continue to summarize the days in my weekly newsletter. Let’s see how this unfolds from here!

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