• Remember, this is your journal and you can tell the truth.

• The more specific and honest you can be, the more creative juice you’ll get. Think of this process as a way to access your own inner energy elixir.

• Be generous with humor and self-compassion as you work on this. Remember, the essence of who you really are—that is, the creative genius part of you that is inspired to put your work into the world—is hanging out underneath the little dramas.

• You are not making art; you are inquiring about significant matters using art supplies. If you keep forgetting this is not art, give yourself permission to make the worst images that ever existed in the history of the world. Then try to make them even worse.