#1 do not take the first drink and you will never get drunk and #2 do not ever think for one second that I can return to alcohol and be OK. Last April I received my 47 year coin from AA for not drinking alcohol. It requires bringing into relief what you are after, not just avoiding or resisting what you are against. The discipline to sit down to divine and define what that call is about is a crucial step and necessary habit. The skill of artists, healers, and change agents is being able to listen differently than others, to go where that calls on them to go, and in finding their way through, capturing and re-presenting something of that journey and its discoveries for themselves and for others.
Steven simple writer for nebraska how to#
It is in not knowing how to aim for that that art and artists fail and whole societies become built around distractions and shiny objects. It is what that something else is that makes art and artists. The next is not in just deciding to say no, but in knowing how to sit down and do something else. So, in your reference to belief systems or the resistance, the first skill for the artist is in recognizing the distraction or opposition. There has to be a next and a something else. In reality, when AA works, it is not remotely around thinking about or resisting taking that next drink… It is about providing something else to do that also helps provide a new way of being and doing that does not include the use of alcohol or other dependencies. I am guessing this will not be posted, but I lost your email and will respond to this post here, beginning with I agree it is half right, or, rather, a step short in what really works – beginning with your observation on AA and defining anything you do on what you are not going to do.
We identify the sin: keeping up with Kim. Adhering to this discipline, we don’t spend years investigating why we can’t stop following the Kardashians.
(It’s really the principle behind AA.) Mussar is the opposite of psychotherapy. It’s like a mental version of yoga or the martial arts. Have you heard of Mussar (pronounced moo-SAHR)? Mussar is a spiritual discipline from Jewish mysticism. The third component is the ability to enact #1 and #2 over time. This is “Put your ass where your heart wants to be.”ģ. It’s the ability to take action, to DO what we know we should. Alcoholics Anonymous is built on this component. This is the ability to NOT do what you know you shouldn’t.
You don’t need an IQ of 138 or a degree from Stanford.ġ. Nor is it a skill that requires talent or genius. It’s not a skill like carpentry or brain surgery, in the sense that you have to study it and work at it and eventually acquire mastery of it.Ī novice can make it happen the first time out of the box. Let’s examine this skill-the ability to sit down and work-which is not really a “skill” at all but something far more elementary and primal. I’ve been in this racket for almost fifty years and I’ve heard every variation on “I’m a writer,” “I will be a writer,” “I know I can be a writer.” How many can stop drinking, stop partying, stop distracting themselves? How many people can turn off Facebook, close the door, and sit down and focus? Not for three days or a week or for the duration of one novel or one screenplay? It’s almost embarrassing to state it because it’s so self-apparent.Īnd yet, how many people can do it? I mean really do it. The single most critical skill for the artist is this: Or is it something more crass, more commercial? The ability to brand herself? To network, to pitch, to create buzz? Is it profundity of insight, depth of compassion, understanding of human nature? A passion for truth? Capacity for hard work? The ability to overcome criticism and negativity? Is it talent? Imagination? Mastery of her craft?
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