Giving Yourself an Artist Date

Everyone could stand to bring a little more creativity into there lives. Even if you don't consider yourself an artist humans are faced with problems that could easily be solved with a little bit of creativity. Creativity is the enemy of functional fixedness.

Picture from Hunter's Writings

Enter the artist date.
The artist date is a simple adventure (originally conceived by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way) you take once a week that will help arm your creativity in the battle against functional fixedness. It's not hard to do, considering the impact it will have on your life. The concept of this is to take some time for yourself. 

The Rules for Dating yourself:

1. It has to be for yourself - no chores, no strict schedules, and no not enjoying yourself
2. It has to be enough time for yourself - Ok so technically, the real rules dictate that you are supposed to take 2 hours of the week for yourself. I know for me, I am more likely to not do the artist date if I use the excuse that I don't have enough time. I also have used the excuse what could I possibly do for 2 hours (answer there are a slew of things). If this time is simply too much, I say it is ok to embellish a little. For me, I feel like out of the 168 hours that I have during the week, I can at least take 1 hour out for myself.
3. It has to be by yourself - This one is the one that I struggle with myself because I am very people centered. Not to mention, if you have someone in your life that doesn't understand why you are taking this alone time, and they want to be with you every breathing second of the day, than you may receive some negative feedback from this person. I understand this because I have many people in my life who are expert guilt trippers, if I don't give them the time that they feel they deserve from me. You have to stay strong on this matter though in order to see the benefits for yourself. 

What are the benefits?

• Originality- you will have more genuine and more precise thoughts. This will help increase creativity.
• Lowered stress levels- effects similar to meditation, in fact your artist date could be meditation if you wanted to.
• Clarity of mind- your mind will get a break from everything it has to digest throughout the day by switching gears and activating the pleasure hormones inside.
• Discover yourself- this one was the most scary and most critical part of the artist date for me. I feel like I am able to enjoy this little things more and I get to discover my thoughts on things and sometimes surprise myself.

At first it will feel...well to me it just felt awkward. I figured I waste my time on so many other things, why not do this one thing for myself. What have you got to lose besides an hour?