Week 9, Day 7 — Compassion

You know it's funny, I got really into the tasks this week — I dug through my morning pages, analysing some of the actions and insights I came across, before working on busting blocks that have acted as barriers to some of the projects I've been putting off — yet I hadn't really considered what the aim of the week was.

Recovering a sense of compassion.

One thing I've learnt is that I need to be a lot kinder to myself.  I've learnt that I put myself under a lot more pressure than is necessary at times.  And I've learnt that in spite of my fears and angst, things usually work out in the end — often exceeding my expectations.  Some of my ingrained negative believes are still hanging over me, so I'm going to need to continue my work with the affirmations.

Tonight I had set aside an hour to reply to letters I received from school kids in England who had written to me as part of a project.  I was pleased as punch when their teacher contacted me and invited me to take part, so wanted to make sure I did them justice with my responses.  One wee boy wanted to know where I got my ideas from when writing, while another had questions about the different ways people train.  While I'm by no means an expert in the field, I found myself imparting what wisdom I have.  I enjoyed it.  I think after 9 weeks of The Artist's Way I've reached the point where I can take my own positive personal experiences and supplement them with a healthy knowledge of the other options that are around — that's my carefully worded way of inferring stuff I might once have regretted not being able to do.  I hope there's some useful advice in there somewhere.

The last part of my night should have been spent on my Artist's Date.  Unfortunately, I've found myself sniffling and feeling under the weather, so I had to sacrifice my trip into town in favour of a nice long soak in the bath.  It was very relaxing, but I don't feel like it has did the trick.  I'm going to email my weekly check-in to Debbie then head to bed and hope I feel a bit better in the morning.  I have a busy week and a huge month ahead of me, so let's hope I can get things off to a good start.

K