0:00

I'm Shankar Vedantam, here to tell

0:02

you about a great mystery. That

0:04

mystery is you. As

0:07

the host of a podcast called Hidden Brain, I

0:10

explore big questions about what it means to

0:12

be human. Questions like, where

0:15

do our emotions come from? Why

0:17

do so many of us feel overwhelmed by

0:19

modern life? How can we

0:21

better understand the people around us? Discover

0:25

your hidden brain. Find us

0:28

wherever you get your podcasts. Well,

0:31

it looks like we just crossed five million

0:33

podcasts in the world, so it is with

0:35

some humility that I introduce mine, Kelly Corrigan

0:37

Wonders. Once a week, we

0:39

share heart-to-hearts with smart, good people, like

0:41

Bryan Stevenson, Anna Quinlan, Father Greg Boyle,

0:44

talking about how we treat each other, how we

0:46

treat ourselves, and how we might do both better.

0:49

Kelly Corrigan Wonders is a podcast for

0:52

people who like to laugh while they

0:54

think and aren't afraid of feelings. Join

0:56

us for Kelly Corrigan Wonders. We

1:26

are so excited to be here today to talk about our

1:28

last two weeks or shared our experiences

1:31

with listeners yet. Oh, right, right, right. So

1:34

we should probably do that now, shouldn't

1:36

we? We absolutely should. And

1:39

we absolutely are going to because I'm Kristen Meinzer.

1:42

And I'm Jelenja Greenberg. And this

1:44

is by the

1:46

book on Patreon. Yeah,

1:57

who's to help? In

2:12

each episode of Buy the Book for Patreon,

2:14

we choose a different self-help book to live

2:17

by, follow it to the letter, and weigh

2:19

in on whether or not it actually changed

2:21

our lives. And today

2:23

we're continuing our 12-week series

2:25

of Living by the Artist's

2:27

Way, a spiritual path to

2:29

higher creativity by Julia Cameron.

2:32

Every other week we're releasing an

2:34

episode documenting our adventures living by

2:36

the artist's way. Today we're sharing

2:39

our experiences with weeks three and

2:41

four. And after all

2:43

six episodes air, we'll be hosting a

2:45

live book club for all you Patreon

2:48

members who sign up at our club

2:50

level. Be there. Yes, be

2:52

there. And now, Jelinta, let's do

2:54

it. Oh, let's. So

2:57

reminder, at the top of our last

2:59

episode we gave you the biography of

3:01

Julia Cameron and the overview of the

3:03

artist's way as a whole, as well

3:05

as the steps for weeks one and

3:07

two. So be sure to go back

3:09

and listen to that episode if you

3:12

haven't already or if you just want

3:14

to hear those beginning steps again. This

3:16

week we're continuing by telling you the

3:18

steps for weeks three and four. Here's

3:21

how you do it. Step one,

3:23

continue to do your morning pages

3:25

every day. For more details on

3:27

this exercise, which requires waking up

3:29

30 minutes early and doing stream

3:31

of consciousness long handwriting, listen to

3:33

last week's episode. Step two, go

3:35

on one artist's

3:37

date per week. We outlined

3:39

this in the last episode, but

3:42

just like the weeks prior, set

3:45

aside time for just you and

3:47

your artist self to go on

3:49

a date for maybe an hour

3:51

or two to nurture your creativity.

3:54

Step three, in week

3:56

three, recover a sense of power.

4:00

Draw your childhood room. Consider

4:02

your favorite things about it and put something from

4:04

that room into your current one. Describe

4:06

five traits you like in yourself as a

4:09

child and five childhood accomplishments. List

4:11

three of your rotten habits and

4:13

three more subtly bad habits. List

4:16

three nurturing friends and their traits that

4:18

best serve you. Then call one

4:20

of them. List five people

4:22

you admire and five more people you

4:24

secretly admire and think of how

4:26

you can cultivate their good qualities in yourself.

4:29

List five dead people you wish you'd

4:31

met and five more you'd like to

4:33

hang out with in eternity and ask

4:35

yourself, what traits do they have that

4:37

I can look for in my friends?

4:41

Step four. In week four,

4:43

recover a sense of integrity.

4:46

Describe, draw, or clip an image of your

4:49

ideal environment and place it next to your

4:51

workspace. Convert a

4:53

part of your house into a private spot for

4:55

you and your creativity. List

4:57

nurturing toys you could buy your artist

5:00

like books or theater tickets. Describe

5:02

yourself at 80, then write a letter from

5:04

you at 80 to your current self. Do

5:07

the same for yourself at age eight. Write

5:10

an artist's prayer and use it every day of

5:12

the week. Plan a full

5:14

day extended artist's date vacation and

5:16

prepare to execute it. Throw

5:18

out one low self-worth outfit

5:21

in your closet. Practice reading

5:23

deprivation and observe your moods

5:25

and output. Look at

5:27

one situation in your life that you

5:29

feel you should change but haven't. Ask

5:31

yourself, what is the payoff for

5:33

staying stuck? That's what the

5:35

book says, and so that's what we did

5:38

for two weeks straight. All

5:45

righty, Jo Elenta. It's time. It's

5:47

time for us to hear about your third week

5:49

of Living by the Artist's Way. I

5:51

want to hear about it. The listeners want to hear about it. Tell

5:54

us all about week three. First of

5:56

all, Kristin, I have to say, remember

5:58

how in weeks... one and two, I

6:00

was like, I like how there isn't

6:02

much God stuff in the actual like

6:04

day to day like steps or like,

6:06

you know, weekly stuff. I

6:08

take that all back. I take that back because

6:11

there was a lot of God this week. Oh,

6:13

I'm glad you noticed because you know how

6:15

last week I was like, there's so much

6:18

God, how do you not see it? And

6:20

then this week there was even more. This

6:22

week, it was like God central. Yeah, it

6:24

was so much talk about like synchronicity and

6:26

answered prayers and God and the law of

6:28

attraction, basically. She talks about

6:31

being guided by like divine forces and

6:33

the power of God so much

6:36

in week three. And I did, I

6:38

love how much she talks about accomplishments

6:40

as answered prayers and God is like

6:43

the only true motivating force. Yes.

6:45

Like we're not doing shit on our

6:47

own or our accomplishments aren't things we

6:50

achieve, not just like answered prayers. So

6:52

I wrote about my frustrations in my

6:54

morning pages to get that step out

6:57

of the way. Nice. So that is

6:59

combining step one with step three. I

7:01

like that. Yes. Yeah.

7:04

So after I got annoyed by that,

7:06

I decided I would do the like

7:09

childhood room exercise the book tells you

7:11

to do. Yes, that's also part of

7:13

step three, recovering your sense of power.

7:15

Yeah. So I wrote

7:17

about my childhood bedroom and my favorite

7:19

part, which was this bookshelf I had

7:21

and it was like half full of

7:24

books, half full of like knickknacks and

7:26

tchotchkes and toys and like momentos from

7:28

places I'd been. So it was

7:30

a very fun thing to look at, you know,

7:32

and I decided to bring

7:34

some of that vibe back. I have

7:36

an old My Little Pony from when

7:38

I was like five and I thought

7:40

I would put it out on my

7:42

bedside table. But someone took issue with

7:45

that. What do you think? Why

7:50

is that on your alarm clock?

7:52

Because we're supposed to put like

7:54

something that reminded us of like

7:57

fond childhood memories in a

8:00

prominent space. It

8:03

feels like you're waking up to a nightmare.

8:07

You don't like it? I

8:09

would love to not roll over and stare

8:11

at that. You don't like her sweet empty

8:13

vacant stare? Yeah it's

8:16

like Annabelle the doll or

8:18

something. Ponybelle? Yeah I don't...

8:21

You're not feeling her? Not

8:23

my favorite choice. Okay all

8:25

right I can I can

8:28

do some design adjustments. All

8:35

right that is just a teaser for

8:37

this episode of Buy the Book. To

8:39

hear the full episode visit patreon.com/listen to

8:42

Buy the Book and become a member.

8:44

We have multiple tiers you can join

8:46

at. At the highest tier you get

8:48

to join me and Gillette for live

8:51

monthly book clubs and there are lots

8:53

of other great things on patreon. Photos,

8:55

how-to lists, the written rules of every

8:57

book we've ever lived by, mini-sodes, oh

9:00

so much more. Again join us at

9:02

patreon.com/listen to Buy the Book.