I did my morning pages or “brain dump” pages as I call them every day. Morning pages (brain dump pages) is a tool used to get all of crap out of your head, making it easier to focus on your work. I’ve been exceptionally tired this week, which generally causes me to dump my brain anyway. I have no idea at this point if the brain dump pages are helpful as I’ve had two things happen afterwards; I either find myself dwelling on things I wrote about or the opposite, I let them stay on the page, freed from the torment of my own brain. Hopefully, the more I do it, the more the latter will occur.

Artist dates are periods of time where you do something for yourself, with yourself and your brain. For my artist’s date, I did something I’ve been putting off. I started working on CafePress again. I’ve put so many things ahead of CafePress I often forget about it. I felt like there were other things I should be doing, but it made me feel good to look through some of the better photos I’ve taken. I started wondering if I shouldn’t be doing more with photography. I’m not great, but I sometimes wonder if I could be a great photographer.

Affirmations are a positive statement of belief. In working with affirmations, you turn negative statements that others have said to you or you’ve said to yourself and turn them into positives, then read or say the positives every day. Working with affirmations just feels weird, awkward, and fake. Maybe I’ll feel differently after the twelve weeks are over, but trying to convince myself of something by reading it over and over just feels like I’m trying to self-brainwash. My inner censor or critic just kicks into higher and higher gear and I feel dirty afterwards. I’m not wired to accept brainwashing I guess, not even when it comes from myself.