I have yet to post about my “return to the rye” but that changes with this post.
I am on a journey of rediscovery. My goal is to share steps I am taking along the way to really heal myself and my inner child. I won’t go into great detail about my past quite yet, these first posts will be very focused on the rediscovery process and the steps I am taking to heal.
I don’t think my story is vastly different than anyone else’s… you know… killing your inner child “Is part of the process of growing up,” but I am here to say what if it doesn’t have to be? I mean there are loads of people out there who have grown up and haven’t killed their inner child. We see it every day on TV, we hear it on the radio, we taste it at fine restaurants, you get the point.
My documentation of the journey of rediscovery begins with a tandem of books I am leaning into. Books—things I once feared (I took weekly remedial reading classes until I was 11 years old), I then grew to love and then cast out for tasks I deemed “more productive” (corporate work OR brain rot media consumption to relax from said corporate work), books, are my first step into rediscovery.
Book One: The Artists Way
The Artists Way by Julia Cameron is one of those books you hear the best of the best talk about. Authors, comedians, filmmakers, painters, actors, they all have experiences of reading this book at the beginning of their careers, or when they felt creative blocks, or when they wanted to quit, and then THIS BOOK guided them back to their calling. So this is where I am starting, a few pages a day and following the rule set in the book to get back on my feet (Morning Pages and Artist Dates I am already aware of). I plan on following the steps slowly and incorporating what feels good, not just doing as I am told or what others recommend. I will follow up as I go.
Book Two: The Creative Act
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin is a similar book from what I understand, but less a plan and more an anecdote. I have read several sections, but as I go back through it now I am going to take notes, annotate, and really work to incorporate aspects into my life as I get back in touch with my creative side.
Plans
As I go through this process and work to publish my experience I plan to create in ways that I haven’t recently. I have an internal feeling (manifestation plan) that experimenting and publishing my initial “failures” will be a huge part of letting go of this oddly serious feeling that tends to ruin creative moments. The feeling that dulls the good times. The feeling that flicks the financial/monetary switch in my brain. The “shit art” is not real art feeling that keeps my paintings in the basement, my music on the hard drive, and my writing locked safely in folders. I plan on painting, writing, making videos, doing improv, releasing music, and cooking multi-course meals for people. I won’t limit myself and along with other forms of creative expression, I am confident that as I continue to allow myself to be goofy, fail, and learn this process will catalyze something incredibly special, valuable, and powerful.