One commitment I made to myself for 2014 was to have more Artist Dates. So on the last day of January, I managed to squeeze in my first Artist Date of the year.
If you’re not familiar with the Artist Date, check out Julia Cameron’s life-changing and ground-breaking book The Artist’s Way. Cameron encourages you to make time every week to take yourself and your inner artist on an “artist date,” a handful of hours where you are allowed to just play explore, get creative, seek inspiration and embrace solitude.
I started the date with meditation at the beach (see photo :)). It was a brisk forty degrees, so I stayed in my car. After meditation, I soaked in the view while savoring my cup of coffee. And I mean, savoring! After competing a Winter Detox, it was my first cup in 12 days. Ah…
Then I moved on to the library (only because nature was calling and the restrooms at the beach are not open in January – Hope that’s not TMI) and spent time crafting my plans for Feb.
This usually requires a bit of googling and exploring….finding networking events to attend, a new restaurant to try, an adventure to pursue, a course to take. As my mentor Marie Forleo says, “if it’s not scheduled it won’t happen.” I take that advice to heart and even map out things like volunteer commitments, meeting a girlfriend for coffee, date nights with my hubby, and self care such as a massage or a mani pedi.
I followed this by finally creating my vision board for 2014. Even though we’re already a month into the year, I had a lot swirling around in January and need to let some things percolate. This year for the first time I decided to get techy and make it via Pinterest instead of hauling out magazines. I had so many more images to choose from this way, endless inspiration and I was able to designate the board to be private as well.
You can also save a Pinterest board to a PDF to print, or I just copied each image and designed a collage.
Vision boards are not only fun but functional. They inspire creativity, awaken the ‘artist’ with in you, but also cast a net of possibilities.
Still mulling over what February’s artist date will be….would love to hear YOUR favorite artist dates. Share yours and inspire someone.