Today’s post is the check-in for Week Eleven, Recovering a Sense of Autonomy. Here’s how the last week has gone 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 to get the weekly recaps delivered to your inbox.

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The Artist’s Way Week Eleven Check-In

How many days this week did you do your Daily Pages? How was the experience?

I did my Pages every day this week, and as I am reviewing what I wrote, I can see that most of the days were a struggle this week. With all of the extra bustle due to the holidays, I spent more time this week thinking about all I needed to do. I have also been on my moon cycle which makes me extremely tired and uncomfortable, so my ability to focus on writing was somewhat limited this week.

Even with a lot of mundanity in the Pages earlier in the week, I found some flow in the last couple of days.

Did you do your Artist Date this week? What did you do? How did it feel?

I did not have an Artist Date. Emily and Fritz came with me on my Tuesday morning hike which was really fun to show them River Place where I’ve been hiking a lot on my solo hikes. We saw the Great Blue Heron again, too.

Even though it was not an Artist Date, I did spend some time on my own baking in preparation for Thanksgiving. I enjoyed baking cookies, a pie, and my mom’s recipe for chicken dressing.

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

There have been several different sources of learning (podcasts, books, conversations) that have touched on a similar idea related to holding the tension between opposites. A paradox. A third way. Specifically, it’s this term called the Third Way that has my attention. It’s a way my church describes a distinctive belief that Jesus demonstrated a third way instead of the traditional dualistic thinking of the ages.

The term itself first showed up for me at church years ago (it’s the primary reason I attend this church, and my recent sermon on authenticity centered around this concept, too) but the synchronicity came last night when I was reading more of The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope. The author was sharing a story about the life of a Jungian analyst named Marion Woodman who got cancer. Remarkably, Woodman embraced the reality of death early on in her cancer journey and reframed cancer as an initiation into another chapter of her dharma. Marion teaches that we cannot undergo initiation until we learn to live in paradox.

Cope also quotes Woodman discussing Jung’s developmental strategy for standing in paradox and living in the tension of opposites.

Holding an inner or outer conflict quietly instead of attempting to resolve it quickly is a difficult idea to entertain. It is even more challenging to experience. However, as Carl Jung believed, if we held the tension between the two opposing forces, there would emerge a third way, which would unite and transcend the two. Indeed, he believed that this transcendent force was crucial to individuation. Whatever the third way is, it usually comes as a surprise, because it has not penetrated our defenses until now. A hasty move to resolve tension can abort growth of the new. If we can hold conflict in psychic utero long enough we can give birth to something new in ourselves. ~ Marion Woodman

I’m sitting with this idea of the third way, and strangely, it seems like my own dharma sits somewhere in this story. There is something deeply resonate about this idea of holding tension between the opposites. It feels like my life has been training me to master that skill of “holding conflict in psychic utero”. I expect that I’ll write more about this in future posts.

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

Yes, there were at least a couple of things that felt poignant this week.

The first is situated in the teaching of The Artist’s Way Week Eleven: Recovering a Sense of Autonomy when Cameron writes that in order to recover as an artist, we must move out of our head and into a body of work. She added that this starts by moving into our physical body itself and recommends walking or another form of movement.

This was the trailhead for a string of thoughts that led me to review the data of my keystone habits, knowing that my workouts have been the biggest area for improvement since beginning 100 Liminal Days. Because this project is about deliberate practice, not just checking boxes to say I did the things, I knew I must focus on improving in this area. This birthed the third act of 100 Liminal Days when I’ll be most intentional about nurturing and listening to my body.

The other significant encounter of the week was a long conversation with a new friend at a party Saturday night. The best way to describe this is to say that she is a wise soul who has been through the trenches of her own kind of trauma, but has emerged from that pain to discover higher levels of consciousness and spirituality. As I shared vulnerably about where I am with my life, I sensed that she could see the magnitude of what I am experiencing in my own liminal season. I could tell that she has been where I am now, and she had wisdom to share for my journey. She acknowledged the loneliness that comes with this type of awakening or expanded awareness and encouraged me to look up and out. There are others, and when we raise our eyes to this new horizon, we begin to realize that we are not alone in this after all.

Another thing that feels significant enough to mention is the poem I wrote yesterday. I didn’t intend to write a poem, but my journaling took on this particular cadence as my thoughts flowed out. I’ve had a difficult time describing the arc of this journey in the liminal, but the poem has been the best way to put my experience into words.

Next week is the final week of The Artist’s Way – week twelve is about recovering our sense of faith and is all about trusting the creative process and letting go of our need for control. This fits well with the theme of my poem! After wrapping up the Artist’s Way course next week, I’ll continue to write daily for another three weeks before 100 Liminal Days comes to a close. (If you feel a twinge of sadness about it coming to an end like I do, don’t worry! I have some plans brewing to continue writing.)

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