Today’s post is the check-in for Week Six, Recovering a Sense of Abundance. Here’s how things are going so far in my journey through The Artist’s Way.

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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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The Artist’s Way Week Six Check-In

How many days this week did you do your Daily Pages? Have you used them yet to think about creative luxury for yourself? How was the experience?

The Daily Pages continue to be the easiest thing I do almost any day of the week. Today marks 58 weeks of writing consistently. This week, this was a place to sort out my thoughts and feelings related to money and abundance. Journaling always helps me to figure out what I am really feeling under the surface.

Without Daily Pages, I think I would be pushing myself to keep following the original structure I set for myself for these 100 Liminal Days. It was through journaling that I could see that not only was I forcing myself to keep digging deeper when meeting resistance, but also to understand that this was not helpful to me in the end.

I also gained a lot more understanding from spending time interpreting a short dream and journaling about that, too. The dream about diving deep into a pool and wondering when I would hit the tangible, solid bottom so I could push back up to the surface before I needed a breath of air revealed a simple truth: it’s time to integrate and shift into the second act of this liminal season.

As far as dreaming about creative luxuries, I did draw out how I would like to rework my studio/office space. This was fun to think about how I can make my space more functional. I have been talking about this office makeover for months but haven’t made the time for the project yet. I’m trusting that it will become a priority soon, but currently focusing on some other responsibilities outside of settling into the new flow of qigong teacher training, 100 Liminal Days, and creating some art.

Did you do your Artist Date this week? What did you do? Have you considered allowing yourself two? What did you do? How did it feel?

I wrote a post yesterday about this week’s Artist Date at a book signing and launch party for a new children’s series, Pet Shop Racers. I thought I was going to have a week without an Artist Date just because of the schedule with Emily home all week, but when she couldn’t make it, I went alone. As I was sitting there and seeing the behind-the-scenes of the graphic novelist’s process, I realized it was a totally an Artist Date! This really fed my inner artist and inspired me. I’m glad I am finding new activities for Artist Dates outside of solo hikes. I’ll look for more activities like this one to check out soon.

As far as considering allowing myself two in one week, I haven’t! It feels challenging enough to get one in my schedule. Next week is much busier with social connections, but I am getting a massage on Sunday that I’ll count as a date with myself 🙂

Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it?

I had two really cool synchronicities this week! The synchronicity that made me weep was one that affirmed me in the new name of my LLC, Embracing the Tree, and gave me a symbolic understanding that this liminal season is calling me to resist temptations to move into higher actions to earn money just yet. I know that will come in short time, but I am seeing how I still have more to learn in the liminal first.

This first synchronicity was when in my qigong teacher training lecture, the teacher explained Huang, the Chinese word for the “sinew body” or our connective tissue, as the foundational part of our body that is involved in the energy work I’m doing as I practice my qigong skills. He used an analogy of a sail catching wind, which was the exact imagery from a significant dream I had in April that I understood to be an activation of my dharma, my calling. It included imagery of an indigenous person holding the qigong pose, Embracing the Tree. Noticing this synchronicity between the lecture and my dream was like a little nod from God letting me know that this qigong stuff is more important to my dharma than simply a practice to help me cultivate a peaceful mind.

The second synchronicity was small and funny, but really tied well into this week’s focus on recovering a sense of abundance. On Monday, Em and I visited some thrift stores around town and purchased these two little frames of vintage art we want to hang in our bathroom. All of the wall space in there consists of tile, so on Wednesday when we were looking at where we wanted to hang them, I said, “We need some command strips!” (You know, those little double-sided stickies for hanging things on the wall without damaging the wall.)

Later that same day while walking through a parking lot, I looked down, and lo and behold, I found two command strips that have not been used! When I showed Emily, she reminded me that I just said we needed them that morning.

I believe that even a silly synchronicity like this is a message. For me, this one had two messages. The first is a reminder that abundance is all around us if we are looking for it. It’s not always in the form of money.

The second was a message letting me know that I was in the right place at the right time.

Two weeks ago, Em added something to my calendar for this week. She set up plans for a happy hour with one of her long-time friends, his wife, and me since we’ve not ever all spent time together.

I get fussy when she doesn’t ask me before putting something on my calendar, but the truth is, I lean towards not making plans because I like a spacious calendar. So, I told her I might go, and never really committed until I finally said yes the day of.

On our way to the happy hour, her friend called and had totally forgotten about the get-together, but Em and I decided to go anyway. It was in the lot of the bar we were going to that I found the command strips. So, I think this was just letting me know that deciding to be social and spend time with Em was the right thing to do versus keeping my calendar open for just more of the same. It was good for me to practice being more flexible.

Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery? Describe them.

My qigong teacher training continues to bring me a lot of joy and purpose. I have realized that I have so much to learn and the movements I have been doing are the easy things, but there are so many more to learn that challenge my mind and body. It has been exciting to practice something that is hard for me. And, as I learn more about the fundamentals of qigong, the more drawn to this practice I feel. I have even been envisioning where I might teach in the future, or how I will get more practice time in as a teacher later. It feels like I am settling into the idea that I could really be a qigong teacher in a few months.

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Week Seven is all about recovering a sense of connection. Cameron says next week will help us identify genuine creative interest as we connect with our personal dreams. I’m happy to keep going through this beautiful, transformational process.

If you are also working through the Artist Way, I’d love to hear about how you are doing. Drop a comment or hit reply to my weekly newsletter. And if you aren’t yet on the newsletter, you can sign up via the form below the video below. Next recap goes out Tuesday!

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