Poetry Dowsing Week Seven: Uncovering a Sense of Resilience

This is a weekly exercise for a 12 week program for creative exploration and self care. A new exercise will be posted each week for the duration of the program. All post titles are matched up to the chapter names in Julia Cameron’s book “Finding Water”, which is our source text. Please read Poetry Dowsing: A Path to Your Creative Well for more information.

Week Seven Intentions

Last week we focused on resolve and small steps. This week, we’ll be focusing our energies on resilience. These two qualities can strengthen each other. When things threaten to overwhelm us this week we will take a moment to remember all of the difficult parts of life that we have made it through. Remind yourself that you are here and you are doing what you do because you are resilient.

A personal note about resilience

The negative parts of life are always so much easier for me to remember than the positive ones. Especially, when it comes to personal achievement. I’ve made a lot of bad decisions and been on the receiving end of some pretty bad behaviour. Setting aside the idea that it’s all my fault (it’s not), there’s still that niggling feeling that I should have done things so much better.

I rarely give myself credit for survival or resilience.

Resilience is an amazing trait and somewhere deep down inside I believe we all have it. There are moments when I am more resilient than others. I usually face a crucial moment in time where I have to decide if I want to move beyond my challenges or give up. Regardless of whether I am successful against these challenges, it is the resilience deep inside of me that keeps me coming back and trying to overcome.

What are your moments of resilience? We all have them. This week, when things don’t seem to be going my way, I’m going to remember all the things I have survived. I’m going to give myself credit for them. I hope you will do this for yourself, too.

This week’s dowsing exercise

Resilience requires going into the fray and it’s hard to do that alone. A lot of times we have people surrounding us who are perfectly suited to helping us with these battles. These are the friends that you can pick up the phone and call at any time of the day or night. They’re the ones that will let you vent a thousand times over the same issue and not appear to flag. These are the people that we would fight for in any battle and we know they would be there for us.

We are not alone.

For this week’s exercise, I want you to think about your friendships. Who are your pillars, that you can turn to for support and empathy? Each one of these friends has unique traits that draws us to them. List those friends along with a few traits that you appreciate. When you feel like you’re alone and things have got you down, reference this list.

For extra credit choose a friend off this list and send them an email, a postcard or give them a call and tell them how much you appreciate them!

This week’s quote:

“Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Important reminders

• This process centers on recovery and self care in regard to your creative self. Be gentle!
• Make adjustments as needed, you know yourself best and your positive mental health is paramount.
• Commit to using your basic tools of Morning Pages, Artist Dates and Walks.
• Sharing is not mandatory, but we’d love to share the journey with you! Tag all posts regarding these exercises as #PoetryDowsing so we can support you within the Twitter community.