0:00

It's that time of the year. Your

0:02

vacation is coming up. You

0:05

can already hear the beach waves,

0:07

feel the warm breeze, relax,

0:10

and think about... Work. Work.

0:13

You really really wanted all the work out

0:15

while you're away. monday.com gives the on the

0:17

team that peace of mind when all work

0:20

is on one platform and every. Once in

0:22

the think things just flow wherever you

0:24

are Tapped the banner to go to

0:26

monday.com. Hey,

0:31

Kristen. Yeah, Jelenta. We

0:34

are now over halfway through

0:36

the artist's way. Woo-hoo-hoo! Yes!

0:39

Yes. So happy about that. But

0:41

I have a problem. I

0:44

am not a professional artist, nor

0:46

do I know which way I should be going. You

0:49

know what? I'm in the same position as you.

0:52

What? Do

0:54

you think that week seven and eight are going to

0:56

be like the magical weeks that turn us into true

0:58

artists? Well,

1:02

I think we are about to find out, because

1:05

I'm Kristen Meinzer. And I'm Jelenta

1:07

Greenberg. And this is Buy

1:09

the Book on Patreon. Buy

1:28

the Book. Buy the Book. Buy

1:30

the Book. Buy the Book.

1:32

Buy the Book. Buy the Book. Buy

1:34

the Book. Buy the Book. Buy the

1:36

Book. Buy the Book. Buy

1:38

the Book. In each episode of

1:40

Buy the Book for Patreon, we choose a

1:42

different self-help book to live by, follow

1:45

it to the letter, and weigh in on whether or

1:47

not it actually changed our lives. And

1:49

today, we're continuing our 12-week

1:52

series of Living By the

1:54

Artist's Way, a spiritual path

1:56

to higher creativity by Julia

1:58

Cameron. Every other week,

2:00

we're... We're releasing an episode documenting

2:02

our adventures living by the artist's

2:04

way. And today, we're sharing our

2:06

experiences with weeks seven and eight.

2:09

And after all six episodes

2:11

air, don't forget that we will be

2:13

hosting a live book club for all

2:15

of you Patreon members who sign up

2:17

at our club level. It's gonna be

2:20

fun. We're gonna talk

2:22

some shit. And

2:24

some not shit. All right, let's get

2:27

this episode underway with

2:30

our rules and our overview.

2:32

Yes, yes, of course. At

2:35

the top of our first episode in this

2:37

series, we gave you the biography of Julia

2:39

Cameron and the overview of what's in the

2:41

artist's way as well as the steps for

2:44

weeks one and two. And

2:46

in the subsequent episodes, we've covered weeks

2:48

three through six. So be sure to

2:50

go back and listen to those if you haven't already. This

2:53

week, we're continuing by telling you the steps for

2:55

weeks seven and eight. So get ready. Here's

2:58

how you do it. Step one, do your

3:00

morning pages every day.

3:03

Every day, wake up 30 minutes early and

3:05

write three longhand strictly stream of

3:08

consciousness pages. For more information

3:10

on morning pages, listen to our first artist's way

3:12

episode. Step two, go

3:14

on one artist's date

3:16

per week. An artist's date

3:18

is a block of time in which

3:20

you and only you nurture your own.

3:22

You nurture your creative consciousness through an

3:24

excursion. It can be a night of

3:26

bowling, a visit to a strange church

3:28

or anything else. To learn more about

3:30

artist's dates, listen to our first episode

3:32

in the series. Step

3:34

three, in week seven, recover a

3:37

sense of connection. Ask

3:39

yourself, what would you do if you didn't have

3:41

to do it perfectly? Make a

3:43

jealousy map listing those you're jealous of,

3:45

why, and one action you can take

3:47

for each to move toward creative risk

3:49

and out of jealousy. Adopt

3:51

the mantra, treating myself like a precious

3:54

object will make me strong. Listen

3:56

to one album, take yourself to

3:58

one sacred place. Create one wonderful

4:00

smell in your house. Wear

4:03

a favorite clothing item for no special

4:05

reason and buy yourself one wonderful pair

4:07

of socks or gloves. List

4:09

five favorite films and five favorite

4:11

topics. Make an autobiographical collage

4:14

and hang it in a place of

4:16

honor. Step four,

4:18

in week eight, recover a sense

4:20

of strength. Name your creative

4:22

dream, where you'd like to be in five

4:24

years in relation to your dream, and

4:27

what actions you can take this year, this week,

4:29

and this day to be closer to it. Write

4:32

about what you would have been if you'd

4:34

had perfect nurturing during your childhood. Pick

4:36

a color and write about it in the first person. List

4:39

five things you're not allowed to do. Then

4:42

do that thing on paper. List

4:44

20 things you'd like to do. Plan a

4:46

perfect day in your life as it currently exists.

4:49

Then choose one festive aspect of

4:51

that day and live it right

4:53

now. That's what the book

4:55

says, and so that's what we did for Two Weeks

4:57

Straight. Okay,

5:04

Jolenta, I want to

5:06

hear all about your seventh week of Living

5:08

by the Artist's Way. Tell us about

5:10

it. So this

5:12

week's chapter piqued my interest at

5:15

first. I liked reading about the

5:17

creative flow state. It was very

5:20

Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. And

5:23

then of course she had to bring God into

5:25

it a lot and be like, it's God working

5:28

through you. Tap into what

5:30

God wants. And I'm like, can it be what

5:32

we want? Can it be us working through ourselves?

5:35

Oh, listeners, this is an ongoing

5:37

theme. Sorry if we sound like a broken record, but we're

5:39

just going to keep bringing it up. We're going to bring

5:41

it up. And it keeps feeling like a bait and

5:43

switch. Like she always reels me in and

5:45

then is like, but also it's all attributed

5:47

to God. And I'm like, what? You had

5:49

such like valid points up until then. Yeah.

5:53

God is an invalid point, but just attributing

5:55

so much to it all the time is

5:57

getting old. Yeah. distract

6:00

myself from the god of it all, I decided

6:02

to jump right into my artist state for the

6:04

week. And the book

6:06

recommends going someplace that feels sacred and

6:09

it also recommends listening to an album

6:11

as part of the artist state. So

6:13

I went to one of my favorite

6:15

places to sit outside and look at

6:17

a tree in my neighborhood. It's

6:19

these church steps next door to my house.

6:22

Oh, I know those steps. Yes. I've sat

6:24

on those steps with you before. Exactly. And

6:27

a bonus, it is technically out of church, even though I'm

6:29

not going there for church reasons. So,

6:32

you know, technically out of church. And

6:35

I listened to some music.

6:37

I listened to Beyonce's Country

6:39

album, which I'm thoroughly enjoying.

6:41

Love that album. It's

6:44

so freaking good. So good. I

6:46

love Country. I love Beyonce. What can be

6:48

better? Yes. And here's what I thought

6:51

after a while of sitting there. I

6:53

know I'm supposed to be waiting here to be inspired, but

6:55

I kind of feel like I'm forcing it. Like

6:58

this is really working from outside in, which isn't horrible.

7:01

But like I kind of feel the same way I felt

7:04

when I was a kid and I'd sit on this bridge

7:06

we had over a creek in our

7:08

backyard. And I would like to sit there

7:10

and try to look wistful and like wait for something exciting

7:12

to happen. This has the same vibe.

7:15

And like I've seen pictures of

7:17

me waiting on that bridge and I look like

7:19

a fucking dweeb. So I don't know.

7:22

Giving me very corny vibes. And

7:26

it feels kind of pointless. All

7:33

right. That is just a

7:35

teaser for this episode of Buy

7:38

the Book. To hear the full

7:40

episode, visit patreon.com/listen to Buy the

7:42

Book and become a member. We

7:44

have multiple tiers you can join at. At the highest

7:46

tier, you get to join me and Gilenta

7:48

for live monthly book clubs. And

7:51

there are lots of other great things

7:53

on Patreon. Photos, how to lists, the

7:55

written rules of every book we've ever

7:57

lived by, mini-sodes. So much more.