Antardhun : A weekly support group for creative practice

Antardhun : 12 weeks to discovering and recovering your artist within:

This is an invitation to those who miss the artist within themselves. And to those who are willing to commit to a process that will be fun along the way and which aims at recovering the creative flow.

The process has two aspects: 1. The Morning pages. and 2. The artist date.

Those who would like to join us on this twelve week programme, have to commit to both, the morning pages, the artist date, and a once a week meeting in which we give and get feedback from each other.

Morning pages, essentially, is a form of brain drain, in which you empty out the overactive mind. On a full scape notebook, get down three pages, in long hand. This writing is not meant for sharing, not even with yourself. It is basically a tool to get to the other side. The other side of your moods, your whining, your fears. Mostly, to the other side of the censor, the villain of the artist's life who doesn't let her be creative. Morning pages is a time tested therapy that can help you get over depression, long held grudges, fears, and so, naturally, the artists block. Although this process might be more attractive to writers, the morning pages are meant for anyone who wants to be her own shrink, heal herself, and get on with life anew.

The artist date: Most of us have an artist within, an undernourished child who has been forgotten to sing.The morning pages will work only if we do something to strengthen the artist. For a couple of hours every week, we take our artist out on a date, and let her play. This date need not be expensive, you can borrow your child's crayons and fill out a blank sheet / you can learn the lyrics of your favorite song and record them as your ring tone. No request by the inner child is to be put down as unreasonable.

The weekly meetings : Once this process is understood, all it needs is implementation. Instead of a facilitator, the group can do with a moderator. Manjushree Abhinav, an author and a film maker, who has been working on and off on the morning pages since the last few years, would like to regularize her own practice with the help of this group.

We plan to have a small group of ten people, who will meet once in a week for a couple of hours. The first meeting will happen at Raksha Bharadias (author) home, on 12th August, tuesday afternoon, from 4 pm to 6 pm. RSVP. Send a mail to manjushree.abhinav@gmail.com, with ur cell no, so that the address can be texted . Please come with a brand new full scape notebook and a pen.