We have two guest bloggers this week. Big Thanks to Marilyn Henderson and Deb MacCaulay for stepping up in Week 6 and blogging their review of week 6:

Week 6 – the Artists Way Recovering a sense of abundance. Guest blog by Marilyn Henderson

This week has been full of tantrums and tears (mostly in the morning pages-er..mostly), with a stinking cold thrown in for good measure.  Volatile – moi?

These last couple of weeks have been the hard slog for me.  Thanks to the group I’ve been able to keep going at the pages and see it through.  It’s really been worth it.  I’ve reached a state of calm and clear thinking that you only get after letting it all out, having a good full on cry and letting rip. And once that knowledge of the truth has been revealed – what choices do I have?  I could bury myself deeper into denial or finally – actually do something about it and see what happens.

After all these emotional highs and lows, I’ve finally been able to read the chapter again and hear what Julia Cameron is saying, or at least saying to me.

What has really hit home is her simple question of ‘What gives us true joy?’  It struck me that I have denied this to myself for too many years to say.  I had a mental image of my artist self wasted away, weak and despondent from lack of attention and sustenance.   I’ve had to look at how I have denied myself the right to do art and do it well or badly, to be a beginner, to start again and try again, to experiment.  If it couldn’t be perfect then I wouldn’t allow myself to do it at all.  So I’ve successfully made myself very unhappy and dissatisfied.  I could choose to continue in this way, or –  if I want to –  take a deep breath and take the leap into the scary and unknown.  The luxuries I crave are not grand or expensive and I’ve promised myself that I’ll start doing them.  (So, out comes the hairbrush and my favourite song…)

This week is also all about money.  Money.  I am not very good with money, having it, keeping it or earning it.   Doing the counting hasn’t really been that revealing it’s just forced me to face up to what I knew already.  That I’m so mean with myself.  Nothing is spent directly on something I would really like to do. Julia Cameron is saying to us – do what you love, what brings you true joy and the rest will follow- the house, the bills will be paid, a partner, friends.  Frankly it sounds crazy, and yet – it does make sense in a bizarre way.  I realised I’ve been stopping myself doing anything because I had no money.  I still have no money, but I’ve committed to a couple of things and I’ll see if the universe will help me out.  I’ve got nothing to lose and in getting out there I might just enjoy myself. (woah, steady on!)

So this week has finally been about making the leap of faith.  I’m scared and excited.  .  My artist self is giving me a hopeful grin.”

Debs MacCaulay says:

Money, Money, Money!  What a week.

“The morning pages 7 out of 7 so does that deserve the winning lottery ticket this week at least. Only joking abundance obviously isn’t about the money.  Abundance is feeling rich even if we happen to be overdrawn and now we are learning that if we are overdrawn then we need to look at where and why we have such poor thinking = so much introspection.

Keeping tabs on what I spend has been insightful.  This week shows that I spend most on feeding and clothing the kids and on their entertainment and social events yet I am very stingy with myself. I question everything that I buy for myself.   I actually thought that I was quite good at treating myself I thought that I was mastering self love whereas what I have uncovered from this week is that that  isn’t  so true after all. Great how we manage to fool ourselves really easily yet get so p’d off if anyone else tries to fool us.   I am quite skimpy with myself so will work on that.

An interesting little conversation around money that I just over-heard whilst in the checkout at the supermarket.  Little boy asked his Nan for something and she said “no”.   She said she didn’t have the money. The boy said to her “of course you do” he said she had loads under her bed.  She looked very uncomfortable and embarrassed and said to him “I don’t know what you are talking about”. It was clear the little one had stumbled upon something she didn’t want him to know about.  I don’t know why she had a stash of money under her bed or how much it was.  All I know is that it just brought to my mind that sometimes we save for a rainy day or out of fear of not having enough to survive and sometimes in that process we can miss out on lots and deprive ourselves and our loved ones of things .    At the end of the day money is just energy isn’t it?  Do we value ourselves on how much we have that sometimes we find it hard to part with it.  Do we value ourselves so little that sometimes we spend too much?

I believe in a higher power haven’t got round to giving the power a name yet and I’m not too sure that the god word sits well with me.  Also I love to be in control so turning the control over to something/someone that I can’t even see is pretty scary.   I am working on that one too = lots to work on.

I haven’t completed all the tasks yet = working on that one too.

My artist’s date.

I remember being told by a member of family when I was a kid that I have 2 left feet and no rhythm so I have always been really self conscious about dancing.  Last night I went to my first dance class well zumba dancing which is exercise in disguise.  I had such a laugh I loved every minute of it.  Why I ever listened to someone else’s limiting beliefs I don’t know.  So overall I am feeling very abundant this week.  Looks like I will be dancing all the way to the bank.

Enjoy week 7.  I hope you all prosper wherever you go.”