It's a date! The Artist's Date

The third of those tools that have been immensely beneficial for my creative life is the artist‘s date. 
Julia Cameron describes the artist‘s date as a receiving tool. During an artist‘s date you are opening yourself up to insight, inspiration and inner guidance.
But what is an artist‘s date? It‘s a certain period of time per week that is dedicated to „a date with yourself“. So no other people are allowed to join. It can be an hour or maybe even two hours per week that you take out for yourself to take yourself out on a „date" and spend quality time with yourself. Yeah, but what exactly am I supposed to do during that time?
Anything that makes you feel special!
What I found very helpful was to understand is that your inner artist is a child. What would you as a child have liked to do? Would you watch a certain film? Would you go to the zoo? Would you take a long walk along a river and throw stones into the water?
Would you like to attend a flamenco or a hip hop class? Maybe you‘d like to sit on a hill to watch the sunset or the stars.
Whatever you do, it is important to do it on your own!
Choose whatever feels like fun! Something playful.
It does really not need to be fancy at all! It doesn‘t need to cost anything. And if you can‘t go outside for whatever reason and you have a family and it feels entirely impossible to carve out just an hour for this important date with yourself, talk to your family and explain to them how important it is to re-charge your batteries. 
Apart from nourishing your inner artist it will also help you to be a better partner and parent!
It‘s about taking care of yourself, giving yourself, your inner child the attention that you need. 

What can help you to be more playful? Play is immensely important for creativity! Maybe it‘s taking the box full with Lego blocks and spend an hour with them to build something. Without the kids, of course. Just you. 
This is really important.
You could also just put on your favourite music and dance like noone is watching. No one should be watching anyway ;)

These dates will help you to fill your creative cup. They will also improve your overall energy level, which will benefit all around you as well. Just in case you were worried about being selfish ;)

I would also recommend to keep a notebook or your inspiration journal with you, just in case an idea comes up. It‘s pretty likely that it will happen during those artist‘s dates. 

And one more thing: Keep your phone off during those dates. Nobody appreciates a date that is constantly checking their emails, facebook or instagram. And neither does your inner artist or inner child! Turn it off and enjoy this offline time. 

Let me know what kind of artist‘s dates you have been enjoying or you are planning to do. Come back and let me know how you did.
Share your ideas. We all benefit from each other!

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Be creative!
Lots of love,
Romana xx

P.S.: Here is the -> link <- to the mentioned Casting Actors workshop on 6 and 7 of June 2020.


More creativity boosting tools:
Morning pages
Walking