Tag: Journalling

Seeking Guidance

We all need guidance sometimes, whether it is for a life-changing decision like retirement or how to negotiate a difficult situation. Where we go for such guidance will vary from seeking professional advice to asking a friend. But what about all those little decisions in between or ones we’re not even sure how to ask for?

Some of you will remember that I’ve written about Julia Cameron’s seminal text The Artist’s Way before. So when I felt I needed a little more instruction on pursuing a more creative life, who better to turn to than the same author? Her latest book, Living the Artist’s Way differs from the first in that its focus is the spiritual. It is another interactive book, requiring the reader to pursue their own answers and what I love about it is the fact that while remaining devotional at heart, she never veers into dogmatism or preaching. She, like me, believes that we must each find a path that we are comfortable with.

Where it all started
Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

The Four Pillars

For Cameron believes that a creative life – in its fullest sense – rests on four pillars. These are: morning pages, artist dates, walks and asking for guidance. The focus here is on the first and the last.

Morning pages

This is journal writing to the rest of us. She requires us to write three pages at a time and to do so at the start of the day. Why in the morning? Well, it is a way of decluttering before you begin the day’s tasks. If you have had strange dreams, been fretting in the night or gone to bed a little disturbed by events, here is your chance to write them out and away.

My dreams are often fairly crazy (could be the CBD oil) and sometimes linger if I do not set them down and come to terms with them. The morning pages also let me reflect on the day ahead and, most importantly, set my intentions.

This year’s journals Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

As you can see, one soon fills us a lot of journals. Writing in this way not only helps our mental health (seeing our thoughts written out on paper makes them so much clearer and less scary). It also helps to improve our writing, since, as in anything, practice is key.

If nothing else, it keeps a record of our life that is rather more reliable than memory and certainly more honest that photographs. And if your life is really exciting, a constant source of entertainment. I love Gwendolyn’s comment in The Importance of Being Earnest:

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.’

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Ah, if only my quiet life should merit such a comment!

But I become frivolous.

Ways of looking at prayer

Cameron suggests that at the end of our morning pages (and any other time we feel the need) that we use this opportunity to write down what it is that we would like help with. This is the point that we can ask for guidance and wait for the answer and transcribe it.

The answer may be immediate or it may take some time, but it will come.

Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.

Mother Teresa

I love the way that Mother Teresa has described prayer above. It is a act of humility: giving our own desires over to a higher, benevolent power.

In the Quaker tradition it is known as holding in the light. We still our minds in the silence and wait for guidance. It may not always be what we want to hear, but it will always be right.

Cameron’s technique works in the same way. Once we have finished burbling in our journals and emptied our minds, we are ready to receive our counsel.

Here is an example from her book that I think could be of use to many of us.

‘Often, when we slow down, we find that we open the door to guidance and inspiration. It is a paradox that by easing up on ourselves, answers seem to come to us as if out of nowhere, and often with powerful speed.

Ask your guidance what you could do to ease the pressure on yourself. Can you take a break or a nap? Can you push a deadline? Can you give yourself a full day of ‘no expectations,’ where you ask for nothing from yourself?

What do you hear? Can you give it a try?

Julia Cameron, Living the Artist’s Way

Because prayer, once asked, requires action. Our guidance will help us proceed in a thoughtful way. If we pray for a friend who is sick, our counsel may prompt us to send a letter or make a call. If we ask for advice, as above, we may need to set better boundaries for ourselves or those we live with.

Sources of inspiration

Over the years, I have found many places which give me inspiration on how to live. If you are a member of a religious organisation, you have the holy texts, but for the more secular amongst us, poems and inspirational quotes can act as a doorway to contemplation.

A time for reflection

The arrival of spring with its promise of rebirth in the natural world coincides with festivals for many of the major religions: Ramadan, Passover, Easter and Holi, just to name a few. And as people celebrate throughout the world, we too can join in our own way. There is so much to be grateful for – not least that we have survived the hardships of winter.

And if you are new to prayer, I suggest this one.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was “thank you”, that would be enough.

Meister Eckhart

Happy Easter

As the Easter holiday begins next Friday, there will be no post then, but I hope to return with news of some of our creative ventures.

May the long weekend give you an opportunity to relax and reflect and perhaps begin the habit of asking for guidance.

Plum blossom
Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

Fifteen minutes

Soon after I was diagnosed with MS, my nurse offered me a course on managing fatigue. What a gift! Here was an opportunity to find solutions to the most troubling and disabling part of the condition.

Each week, I went along and gained insights: some helpful, some less so. But the one thing that struck was the notion that I should measure activities by time and not by task. This was a novel idea. It was also one that took a great deal of effort to adopt.

After all, most of us think of completing a project as one entire, fluid action. We set time aside to do it, yes, but that is flexible. We do not stop half way through. Or a quarter. Or an eighth.

Managing fatigue meant slicing time into portions that you could cope with. For me, that was about fifteen minutes. Despite recovering well, I still find it the ideal amount of time to work without the consequences of fatigue and brain fog.

Mini breaks

Sadly, not this kind of break. Image: Danny Mc on Unsplash

Battering myself against this truth got me nowhere. I’d soldier on, vowing that I could easily do more only to find myself, half an hour later, prone upon the sofa or feeling nauseous.

Slow learner that I was, I hadn’t realised that half an hour broken into two with a short pause in between was quite manageable – or even an hour or more. The breaks were key, whether is was to sit for a while before resuming a walk or stretching and getting a drink when writing.

Though I hope that none of you reading this suffer in the same way, I do think that little parcels of effort paradoxically get us further than when we are faced with huge tasks.

This week, I’ve been pondering all the wonderful things one can do in fifteen minutes that enrich our lives. If you have a quarter of an hour, you may like to try some.

Journal

I’ve finally got back to my journaling and doing it regularly and seriously. I am aided by the woman who started it all’s new book, Living the Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.

I’ve written about The Artist’s Way before, and this is a sequel. Whereas before, she wrote about the creative journey, here she focuses on guidance.

And with so much uncertainty in my life at the moment, it is exactly the help I need.

You can think of guidance as heaven sent or from the depths of a benevolent subconscious, but if we trust the method, we can use it to find solutions to even the most complex issues and subsequently, a greater sense of calm.

Read a poem

This Christmas, I was given a gorgeous selection of poems which I added to one I bought in Maine. Poetry seems to be luring me back. I once wrote a great deal of it and reading and being inspired by these verses seems to be a prelude to my own renewed practice.

The perfect short read

One can, of course, guzzle poems as sweeties from a jar, but I like to take my time. When teaching, I instructed students to view them as condensed short stories and give them ten to fifteen minutes to read properly. A good poem is like a very dense, and very satisfying morsel.

If you find one you love, write it out in a notebook or even strive to learn it. The beauty of it is revealed through time and reflection. Here’s one of my favourites from Watching Swallows. 

Thaw

Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flower of grass,
What we below could not see - Winter pass.

Edward Thomas

Make a nourishing meal

With new science showing the link between good physical and mental health, eating properly becomes an imperative rather than a life-choice. Convenience and high fat foods are less convenient when they result in diabetes or Alzheimer’s. And despite the popular assumption that cooking a wholesome meal is time consuming or expensive, I rarely spend more than fifteen minutes on a light meal and no more than thirty on a main one.

Homemade soups, flavourful salads and pasta dishes can all be easily whipped up in quarter of an hour and include a good portion of your fresh fruit and vegetables. Fuelled on deliciousness, your fifteen minutes will be productive too.

Turkish pasta topped with olive oil, spring onion, yogurt and za’atar spice. Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

A side dish with sliced apples, carrots and other raw fruit and vegetables is always a great accompaniment.

Take a walk in nature

Yesterday the winter sun shone brightly and I took the dog to a gorgeous park not far from where I live. Hampden Park is elegantly landscaped and densely populated with ambling visitors and a wide array of wildlife.

On the lake, I spotted a military-looking heron in his grey uniform, three large swans, dozens of mallard ducks, moor hens, coots and, I believe an Egyptian goose. This colourful and unusual creature is probably one of the many exotic escapees now living wild in the UK.

Hermione didn’t know what to chase first.

The combination of fresh, cold air; a gentle walk serenaded by birdsong and hints of spring bursting in every corner was an excellent tonic for the spirits. Immersion in nature for as little as fifteen minutes is enough to improve one’s mood. Add a little exercise and meditation on a bench and much of one’s daily self-care is satisfied.

Make art

I thought I would end with my latest daily exercise. I spotted this book whilst browsing in Much Ado Books. Whether it was the charming style of the illustrator or the chiming with the topic for this post, I decided to purchase it.

After all, a good doodle always gets me into a great mood and learning a little about colour and shading is a bonus.

Time well spent

My list of 15 minute exercises is rather longer than we have space for here. I attempt to do them all regularly and find that despite the handicap of my fatigue, my days are generally productive.

A short time to meditate, learn a language, or take a nap can be incredibly refreshing. Mixing the cerebrally taxing and physically restful allows an abundance of projects to be completed each day. And if you only have five minutes? You can read my blog!