Stiggly Holistics
12th July 2021
Happy Muse-Day Sweet Lovely One,
I think I first happened upon Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way in 1999, or thereabouts. It was the first time I had lived alone without room-mates or a partner in a long while, and I had recently given up my Monday-Friday day job as a school teacher in exchange for a different kind of lifestyle - one that was more suited to exploring my creativity - making room to discover what I really wanted to do.
I still remember those delicious mornings. I'd get up (sans alarm) and make myself a stove top coffee (in the pot my Italian friend Cristina had gifted me), then jump back into bed with my journal to write my morning pages. I took it all very seriously - the weekly artist dates with myself, the writing assignments, the media-free challenge. I loved all of it. (There were some really good artist dates, things I'd never have done otherwise).
It inspired me so much in fact, that I later on in my new career I would often incorporate aspects of it, into workshops and classes I was teaching in the holistic realm.
One of my very favourite writing assignments in that book was to write a letter to our current self from our 8 year old self and/or our 80 year old self. Back then I always preferred the letters I received from the older version of me, and it was so easy for me to visualize myself at 80, sitting on a stoop (always a stoop) writing the letter, describing the garden - and all the things.
These kinds of exercises ask us to tap into our inner wise-soul self, or our inner child. And help us remember that "the answers are in us all along". My 80 year old self was so kind to me, so compassionate, so wise - and so full of advice. She never gave me a hard time about my mistakes, or questioned why I was redirecting my career, or anything like that. She was always calm, quiet and tender. My 8 year old self tended to ask lots of questions - endlessly curious - and she would drag me out to the park, to museums, to take photographs, do cartwheels, to smell roses, to look up at the sky with wonder.
"She" is me - both selves. The wise woman and the curious child.
These parts of ourself never go away, they just sometimes lie dormant.
The other day, my friend Pamela mentioned working through this book again and these particular assignments are the ones that vividly popped in my head. I realized then how frequently I return to these parts of me for answers, even now over 20 years later.
I don't write the actual letters very often anymore, but I can often sit and "be" - ask the questions, offer the wisdom. And it always feels helpful. Indeed I might go as far as to say it is one of the most kind things I can do for myself when I get into one of those funks where I question all my decisions and speak unkindly to and about myself.
Have you ever dipped into The Artist Way?
Whether or not it appeals to you as a whole, I really recommend cherry-picking this particular exercise. It is much more deeply healing (and self-assessing) than you might imagine - if you allow yourself to go there, of course. I actually find it a bit like a compass to course-correct and help set me back on the path I am trying to be on.
Ideally you write this letter long hand, on paper, but if that very notion means you won't do it at all, forget that - send yourself an email if that works best for you.
It's important that we write FROM our 8, or 80 year old self (rather than to). This perspective is important, because this is how we tap into all our inner knowing, all that creativity, that sense of fun. It is this angle that helps remind us of our playful energy and/or the things you wish to accomplish in this one precious life. (And if you are actually closer to being actually 80, bump up that number, it's all good!)
So, I have decided I am going to do this again. I am considerably closer to my 80 year old self than when I first worked on this assignment, and much further removed from my 8 year old - (Indeed it has been a full year since I could pull off a cartwheel!) - but I know it will still be a really nourishing assignment.
Who is with me?
I am actually even thinking of having a one time online (Zoom) group class for this, to get us motivated (so we actually do it).
Does that appeal to you?
Let me know, I'd love to hear from you.
I wish you sweet, cool, watermelon slurping, summer deliciousness.
I love you so much,
Love love love
Sacha xxx
I will see you in a fortnight, but look out for an alert about a zoom class coming soonish.
