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The Joy of an Artist Date

Artist Date

 What is an artist date?

Artist dates are a concept created by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way. The idea is that once a week you take yourself somewhere that will inspire you. Perhaps you go for a walk in nature, to a museum, go people watching in a cafe.

Here is what Julia Cameron has to say about artist dates:

 An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, you inner artist. In its most primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you preplan and defend against interlopers. You do not take anyone on this artist date but you and your inner artist, a.k.a. your creative child.  

For many people the thought of going somewhere alone is scary, so my suggestion would be to start with somewhere familiar, somewhere you feel really comfortable. Once you have achieved that, you can start to stretch your comfort zone a little. 

What are the benefits of an artist date?

When you are thinking about your writing life it is important to ensure that you are feeding your writer, whether that is reading or going on an artist date. You must make sure that you are putting as much in as you are taking out, otherwise your writing will become lifeless and empty.

You might be wondering how you are doing to make time to  go out for two hours a week, every week. 

artist date

We’re all busy, and, as with all habits, it may not be possible every week, but if you put it in your diary, and make it a priority, you might surprise yourself. As a writer you set time aside for your writing, that is important to you, whether it is writing a book, journaling or writing blogs and newsletters. You probably also make time to read, remember one of my favourite quotes from Pam Allyn: 

Reading is like breathing in, and writing is like breathing out.

Well, it can also be argued that your artist dates are an important part of that breathing in. Their purpose is to inspire you and give you food for thought, to enrich, and enhance your writing. So, really, artist dates and reading are like breathing in, and writing is like breathing out! 

Artist dates are also a great way to step away from whatever you are currently writing and give your brain time to breathe. When we allow ourselves to relax and shift our focus away from our writing it is amazing how inspiration flows. 

artist date

What sort of places can you visit for an artist date?

Well, the obvious places are things like museums, art galleries, bookshops, cafes etc. But you can go literally anywhere. If you are writing a book about a particular location or time in history for example you might want to visit somewhere relevant. Perhaps there is a famous writer’s house or museum near where you live that you could visit to soak in some of their genius. You might want to visit the seaside or a woodland. 

You might decide to take yourself to a cafe with a book of poems, or go to the cinema to watch a film that you have heard good things about. It really doesn’t matter where you go, there is inspiration everywhere.

The important thing is that you value your writing enough to commit to taking this time away to feed your inspiration and allow yourself to be the best writer you can be. 

If you are looking for some writing inspiration and a group of friendly, supportive writers, why not join A little word told me… this group is for enthusiastic amateurs. If you are a professional writer or write for business, over at Booksmith Academy (the book writing business which I run with my sister, Jen) we are just starting a fabulous new budget membership to support you with your writing. You can find out more about InkWell Scribes on the Booksmith Academy website. 

 

 

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click the link and buy the product/service associated I will receive a small payment in return. The product/service will not cost you any more. I never recommend anything I have not experienced myself. I always appreciate any purchases made using my links as they enable me to continue writing and helping more people. 

 

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!

You can't teach an old dog new tricks

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”

All my life I have heard people using this phrase, usually in defence of someone’s bad behaviour or as an excuse for not doing something that they don’t want to do.

For a long time even science seemed to back up this theory. It really seemed that if someone was a certain way, or had certain habits once they were fully grown, it was impossible for them to change. 

Deep down though we knew that this was hogwash, because people did change, every day. Is it easy? Not usually. But nothing worth doing every is. 

We now know that you can change the way you think and even how you think, thanks to a magical thing called neuroplasticity.

What is neuroplasticity?

I know, neuroplasticity sounds like mumbo jumbo but it is just the process of re-routing the neural pathways in your brain so that you respond in a different way to a situation.

Wikipedia defines it as: 

“Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it previously functioned.”

By its very definition, neuroplasticity means you can, in fact, teach an old dog new tricks.

Why am I talking about this though? 

Well, there are two times when I am quoted this most often, one is when I talk about a daily writing habit, and the other is when I talk about mental health.

Why should you write every day?

There is considerable evidence that writing, even for ten minutes, every day, has so many physical and mental health benefits. It boosts your immune system, lowers blood pressure, eases anxiety and depression and even helps with asthma and cancer. With a list of benefits like that, why wouldn’t you make the effort to write? It’s only ten minutes. Everyone has ten minutes. Yet people tell me all the time that they can’t find the time, they can’t journal. Ultimately though we make time for the things we think are important. 

writing

If you are someone who believes they don’t have time to write every day, be honest with yourself. Is it that you can’t find the time? Perhaps you don’t want to write, and that’s fine. But if you do want to add writing to your daily routine, sit down and make it happen. Within a few weeks of making the effort you will be doing it without having to even think about it. 

gratitude

A new habit is one thing but changing the way you think isn’t quite so easy!

Well, actually it is. It’s the same principle. You just have to train your brain to respond in a different way to the way it always has. It sounds difficult but if you want to make the change, you can. Whether it is training yourself to take a deep breath before you respond to a situation or trying to be more positive, you can do it. 

 

A great way to teach yourself to be more positive is by starting a gratitude journal. Every day write out 5-10 things you are grateful for and eventually your brain will start to notice the positive aspects of life more than the negative. The research around gratitude can be found here. If you want to learn more about gratitude, why not take a look at my blog: “Can gratitude really change your life?”.

It is said that it takes 21 days to create a new habit, that isn’t long in the scheme of your life. Surely it is worth taking the time to learn something new and change your life for the better?

How do I start journaling?

How do I start journaling?

Journaling is a hot topic at the moment…

…but how do you start?

Well, before we look at how you start journaling, let’s look at why you should start. 

Here are just a few of the reasons: 

  • It increases confidence
  • Strengthens your immune system
  • Boosts creativity
  • Improves your memory
  • Helps you achieve your goals
  • Improves mental health
  • Increases emotional intelligence
  • and so much more.

All this sounds good doesn’t it? That’s a lot of benefit for just a few minutes writing a day. But how do you access all these magical benefits? Well, it is easier than you might think. 

I write a diary isn’t that the same thing?

Well, no, it isn’t. When you write a diary you write down all the things you have done in a day. You might include how you are feeling, physically and emotionally, but it is an account of a section of your life. Journaling is different. You might not write about anything that is happening to you, or you might. You will more than likely talk about how you are feeling, but it isn’t the same style of writing.

Journaling is a process

When you sit down to journal the idea is that you write and write without filtering what you write. You don’t worry about what you write, what other people would think if they read it, what your handwriting is like, spelling and grammar, you just write. 

When you write in this way your brain accesses information in a different way and you stop writing things that you are aware of and begin to access things in your unconscious mind.

Journaling

But I don’t know how to start!

That’s ok. There are tools that can help you to get started. Many people use journal prompts when they first start journaling. You can find lots of examples of journal prompts if you do a quick search online or you can create your own. Prompts such as: How am I feeling today? and What am I most angry about right now? can be useful prompts to get you started.

You could also join my journaling membership, A little word told me… , and I will guide you on your journaling way.

Journaling

Ways to start

  • Prompt journaling – using a prewritten prompt to get you started.
  • Gratitude journaling – writing a list of all the things you are grateful for everyday (try to write at least 5 things every day).
  • Reflective journaling – writing about all your thoughts and feelings and getting them out onto the page so you can process them.
  • Creative journaling – which involves art techniques along side written entries to encourage creativity.
  • Bullet journaling – this is a way to organise yourself where you create lists and use specific symbols to categorise items.

 

The key to successful journaling, for me, is carrying on writing when you feel like you have nothing else to write. Don’t stop writing, even if you have to say; I don’t know what to write, I can’t believe I’m writing this nonesense, I don’t think this is going to work, what a load of rubbish…” for a few lines. Once you get past this stage, that is when the magic happens. That is when you break down the wall between your conscious writing and real self discovery.

Are you going to give journaling a go? Let me know how you get on. I love hearing about people’s experience with this powerful technique. 

 Read more about the benefits of journaling: 

Journaling to preserve memories

Journaling for adults with ADHD

Writing helps you release negative emotions

Negativity

Negative emotions can be very damaging

When we hold on to negative emotions the impact on our mental and physical health is huge. It is so easy to walk around carrying those heavy weights, ruminating on things which have upset or hurt us. 

It may be an argument you had with someone or a hurtful comment that was made in passing that has stuck in your head. Before you know it, it is eating away at you and you are obsessing. 

Before I continue I would like to qualify that actually I don’t believe any emotions are “negative” because they all serve to show us things and teach us about ourselves, but for ease of discussion I am going to call them negative in this article.

 

What are the physical consequences of carrying negative emotions?

Well, they are pretty significant. We know that people who tend to be more negative and who spend more time experiencing negative thoughts are more likely to have cardiovascular problems, digestive issues, degenerative brain diseases, they suffer more from stress, struggle with hormone imbalance, compromised immunity and they take longer to recover when they are sick. These sound like things we would like to avoid in an ideal world, don’t they?

How can writing help?

Well, since writing is proven to lower blood pressure, boost your immune system and reduce anxiety and depression, just by writing anything you will be improving many of the things on that list.

There are some specific writing activities which will help you go even deeper and allow you to really work through those difficult emotions that you are carrying around with you. 

 

change

Writing activities to release negative emotions

Write in your journal

When you write about how you are feeling it allows your unconscious mind to process events in a different way and may allow you to see things from another person’s perspective, or to be more objective when thinking about a situation. Write for as long as you can, and then write some more, and see what appears on the page. Don’t be afraid to be 100% honest, you can always burn or shred the paper afterwards, no one else ever needs to read what you write.

 Write a letter

Writing a letter to someone who has upset you or made you angry is incredibly therapeutic. The clever thing about this activity is that our brain can’t differentiate between a letter that you write and send and one you write and don’t send. Write everything out and destroy the letter. You will feel so much better for having got it off your chest and it will stop you from ruminating on all the things you should have said. 

Negativity

Where can you feel it in your body?

Often you will feel negative emotions in your body, either as a tightness in your stomach or perhaps in your shoulders. Take a moment to think about where you are feeling this emotion and then write about that and how it feels.

 Write a frustration list

This is the opposite of a gratitude list. Write a list of all the things that are annoying you, causing you grief or frustrating you in some way and get it all out of your head. Then turn it around and write a gratitude list. 

 

It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but 5-10 minutes writing out your emotions could change your whole attitude. It could help you move through some tough emotions. Because emotions are transient. They don’t last for ever. But they can feel like they do when something really upsets or angers you. You go round and round and round and after a while it’s hard to get off the merry-go-round of negativity. As you go round next time, grab a pen and a piece of paper and try one of the techniques above and see how your mood can shift and those negative feelings move on and past and you can start to see the blue sky appearing from behind the big black clouds again.

Give it a try. You won’t regret it.

National Reading Month

National Reading Month

March is National Reading Month.

 A whole month to celebrate the magic that is reading, and of course the month which contains World Book Day, a day either loved or hated by children and parents alike. 

As an ex-teacher and self proclaimed bibliophile, I am fascinated by how people engage with books. Probably my favourite thing about teaching was seeing that magical moment when something just clicks and a child suddenly has confidence reading. This usually happens around the age of 6 or 7 years old. Seeing the joy in their face when they realise they can read whole pages of words without having to sound them out is pure magic. 

Sadly, for many children this is around the age their interest in reading peaks.

Statistically children read more books a year in Y3, which is 7 and 8 year olds, than at any other time in their lives, around 37 books a year. Of course it is also around this age that most children move onto longer and more complex books, but the average reading age in the UK is only 9 years old and 18% of people said they never read, when surveyed. 

I’m not going to pretend that there haven’t been times when I haven’t read as much as I do now. When my children were younger I perhaps read three or four books a year but I have always had a book on the go. I appreciate that some people are unable to read, for whatever reason, but these statistics include audiobooks.

When people say that they don’t read, it makes me sad. Reading is one of the greatest joys in my life. Sitting in a comfy chair or in bed, with a good book and a cuppa is one of my favourite things in the whole world. Extra points if it’s raining and double points if Im in a caravan or conservatory with the rain on the roof.

Reading is breathing in…

When it comes to reading, I agree with Pam Allyn; “Reading is breathing in and writing is breathing out”.

Obviously my work is based around the power of writing, but it is so much more than that, because I do believe that to be a writer you have to be a reader. We see it all the time in young people. Those who read and are read to, have wider vocabularies and a better grasp of grammar and sentence structure than those who show no interest in reading. Without both we can’t survive.

 

Reading

How can you celebrate National Reading Month?

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Visit your local library – So many libraries are struggling to stay open and they are such an incredible resource. Why not pop along to yours and find out about all the resources and services they offer now. They are definitely not just a place to borrow books any more.

2. Start, or join, a Book Club – Book Clubs are a great way to enjoy books with other book lovers. If you enjoy reading a particular type of book, why not start a book club specifically for that type of book? You will always find other people with similar taste if you ask around. Remember Book Clubs can be run online now so you don’t have to just find people in your area.

3. Start a Bookstagram account – If you really enjoy reading, Instagram has an incredibly friendly community of fellow booklovers. People share book reviews and photos of the books they are reading. It’s a wonderful way of making other bookish friends. (If you decide to do this, look me up and let’s be friends: @katebeddow).

4. Visit the home of a famous local author – Most parts of the world have houses you can visit which have connections to famous authors. Why not have a day out and find out more about an author who lived near you?

5. Find a local book event – Perhaps there is a book signing at a local bookshop, an event at your local library, or a talk being given by an author locally. Have a quick google search and see what you can find.

6. Read a book – I know it seems obvious, but this is the single most important thing you can do during National Reading Month!

Reading

Any reading counts!

There is no judgment about what you read. If you want to read a magazine, newspaper, graphic novel, classical novel, romance, thriller, murder mystery, historical fiction, fantasy… then read that! Honestly, it isn’t about what you are reading, it is about keeping those reading muscles flexed. If you enjoy reading children’s books (I know I do!), read those, read a recipe book or a car manual, it really doesn’t matter. The benefits of reading are extensive; increased empathy, reduced stress, prevents cognitive decline, increased vocabulary, improved empathy and improved readiness for sleep to name just a few.

To say nothing of the joy it brings when you find a book or a series that really captures your imagination and draws you in. There is no better feeling than finding a book you don’t want to put down. 

How will you celebrate National Reading Month? I hope I have given you some inspiration, and also some reasons why it’s a good idea to embrace the joy of reading.

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