There will be many times when we won’t look good - to ourselves or anyone else. We need to stop demanding that we do. It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.
In order to be an artist, I must:
Show up at the page. Use the page to rest, to dream, to try.
Set small and gentle goals and meet them.
Remember that it is far harder and more painful to be a blocked artist than it is to do the work.
Remember that it is my work to do the work, not judge the work.
The Artists Way basic principles
Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
- Shakti Gawain
Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse.
…the recovering artist must avoid taking the first ‘think’. For us, that think is really self-doubt: “I don’t ‘think’ this is any good
If god doesn’t work for you, “blend in the influence of someone who is ever so slightly more amused by you, someone less anal. David Byrne is good, for instance. Gracie Allen is good. Mr Rogers will work.”
- Bird by Bird
Affirmations are a powerful antidote for self-hate, which commonly appears under the mask of self-doubt.
