As some of you might know I am reading (and completing) Julia Cameron's The Artist Way. It's an interesting book that puts you through a creative self-discovery journey. So far so good. However, in Chapter 4, the book bans you from reading for a week. And I got there. Chapter 4. This is just my second day without reading and I am finding it extreeeemely difficult. How can I live without reading? Where do I find my inspiration? I've realised how much time I spend every day just reading. And I'm not talking only about reading for pleasure. Reading to work, reading to be informed, reading to communicate, reading the food labels, reading as a reward, reading to kill time, reading to stop myself from doing something else I should... That's the point of the reading ban, probably. Or at least one of them. Facing reality. Getting rid of distractions, just for a week. Take some perspective. After writing my pages this morning, after my yoga session I thought 'Hey, before I get down to my writing I'll check if I have comments on my blog', 'I'll see if there is a new entry on SWIM blog', 'Oh, I'll read this and this blog'. 'That seems interesting, I'll follow the link and read about it...' Nooooooo! I'm not allowed to read this week. Bye bye before-to-bed-reading-pages too. Waiting-for-my-class-book. And I can see the point. That's the worst. I need to de-clutter my life. I'm now in that process: decluttering the house, the office, the files, the computer, giving clothes away, and most importantly, decluttering my thoughts. I can see how so many words are stopping my own to become alive. So, yes, I understand the ban. But I AM NOT ENJOYING IT AT ALL. It makes me feel so isolated. It makes me face what I need to do with no space for procrastrination. I'm ready to do it, though. I am open to what this week can teach me. And I hope I find a sense of balance and perspective after all. However, right now, I AM STILL HATING IT.
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3 comments:
What shall I do , now?
Shall I wait until the ban ends to write this opinion? Anyway you won´t be able to read it .
5 days without reading... What a stress!... This is absolutely impossible! You would have to be blind to achieve this ...
It's incredible to discover just how much we rely on reading, isn't it? Especially digital reading, from comments, to posts, to the newspaper...and one link just leads to another.
Isolated is how I felt, too: alone inside my own head. Even if I wrote about it I couldn't connect with other people besides comments. Suddenly there was so much noise inside my own head, so many ideas that I usually mute with reading, and I wanted to run away from it. I don't know which was worse, realizing that I had overlooked it all this time, or that I wanted to escape from it because it meant effort.
Be strong - you can absolutely do this, and the rewards will be so sweet at the end. You are absolutely not isolated! Be sure to re-post this on SWIM so we can support you there, too!
Jajajajajajajaja...
Cuando me pongas este ejercicio en el blog de "Writing in Spanish" me quiero ver pasando trabajo en serio!!
Soy traductora: de allí mi pasión de coleccionar frases y giros lingüísticos. Para "des-neurotizarme" de lso vicios traductológicos (perfección y justeza del término escogido o la palabra seleccionada para este contexto), chateo y escribo "lo que me salga y cómo me salga".
Soy intérprete: el hecho de tener el tiempo sobre la nuca y no poder escoger qué palabra se ajusta mejor con el "querer decir" del que habla, para pasarlo YA al otro idioma, me han hecho muy "adaptable" y "resolverdora": se resuelve la dificultad ocn lo que se tiene a mano en la cabeza, aquí y ahora... ya!
Pero mayormente me dedico a la docencia de idiomas y, una de las primeras cosas que digo a todo smis estudiantes es "bienvenidos a la clase de pensar de forma diferente", porque sé que cada idioma tiene maneras diferentes de organizar el mundo porque tienen referentes, tradiciones y vivencias diferentes.
Además, tras 8 meses de psicoterapia junguiana para sobreponerme a muchas cosas que pasaron durante y después de mi exilio en Bélgica, ahora pinto. Jamás pensé en pintar como medio de expresión ni como medio artístico idóneo: me parecía trillado y convencional. Experimenté con mi ropa al tejérmela o cosérmela, experimenté con vitrales, coquetée con chocolate y llegué a trabajar el gres.
Pero me ganó el arte. Utilitaria. Y con pintura. Y evoluciona. Y crece. Y se diversifica.
Así que sí, creo que por eso la poética en mis textos y la capacidad de creación que me elogias...
... y preferí responderte por aquí porque mi bitácora es "aparentemente" menos personal que literaria. Tu lindo ejercicio de la semana de páginas matinales me va a sacar hasta el último pedacito de bilis personal en el blog, me temo.
Pero no lo sientoe como asunto que me fragilice, sino como, en tu caso, humanidad compartida, fragmentada y repartida, compartida y manoseada... miles de personas sentimos lo mismo y, al ser tan íntima, se hace infinitamente genérica mi prosa. Enormemente universal.
Estoy descubriendo eso en mi semanita de "destape emocional no intencional".
Vamos bien, Srita profe... jejejejeje...
Me alegra que terminara su "sanción lectora". Cuánto espacio sacó en su closet? Ya le caben los lindos zapatos que vió y no compró porque no sabía dónde meter? Jejejejeje...
Un gustazo encontrarte, de verdad, no creo en casualidades. Soy más de sincronías... esas de las que hablaba Jung! ;)
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