Week 10 ยท Welcome
Recovering Protection
Week 10. We're in the final third. This week we look at one of the trickiest topics: the ways we sabotage ourselves without realising. The behaviours that, on the surface, look productive, healthy, even virtuous โ but in truth keep us from creating.
Cameron calls them hidden addictions. Not drugs or alcohol โ although those count too. We're talking about over-reading, over-working, over-caretaking, scrolling, busy-ness as a default state.
"What we cannot face, we cannot create from."
โ Julia CameronThe well-behaved avoidance
There are addictions that society applauds: working too much, being always available for others, keeping a perfect house, being informed about everything, exercising obsessively.
All these things, in moderation, are healthy. But in excess, and especially at the cost of your own work, they are sophisticated forms of avoidance. It's easier to be busy than to face the blank page.
Your favourite escape
Each of us has a favourite escape. Some go to social media. Some clean the kitchen one more time. Some take on extra projects at work. Some over-care for others to avoid caring for their own creative life.
This week we identify our escape with affection and honesty. Not to demonise it โ to recognise it. Once we see it, we have a choice.
Workaholism
When work eats the space where the soul should breathe.
Compulsive caretaking
Being everything to everyone so you don't have to be anything for yourself.
Information addiction
Reading, watching, learning โ but never doing.
Over-busyness
A full diary as proof you're alive. A defence against the silence.
Week 10 ยท Inner work
This week's exercises
Exercise 1 โ Mapping the escape
Name your top three escapes. Not drug-level. Subtle ones. Cleaning when you should write. Reading articles when you should paint. Helping others when you should help yourself.
For each one, write when it appears, what triggers it, and how you feel after.
Exercise 2 โ A week of presence
For one week, before each escape behaviour, pause for one minute. Just one. Notice what you're avoiding.
You don't have to change anything. Just notice. Awareness is the first step.
Exercise 3 โ Limits to information
This week, limit your information intake. One news check a day. One social-media check. One podcast.
Notice what comes up when the well-behaved addiction is reduced.
Affirmations
Choose 3 of these affirmations and write them every morning after your Morning Pages.
"I can be present with what I avoid."
"Creating is more important than being busy."
"I have the right to protect my creative time."
"I am not what I do for others."