Trail Guide to Containers
Summary
If you feel stuck, it might be because you are running on empty. Maybe you need a bigger container to hold your growth, or maybe your container has a hole in it. Either way, to start building momentum you need to create a container.
Containers are mental boundaries that define a goal or project you are working toward — like a pot that grows a plant. When you create a container, it allows your efforts to grow and evolve over time.
Skill Levels
First and foremost, if your basic needs of safety and housing are not being met, those needs must be addressed first. When those fundamental needs are unsatisfied, it is difficult to find the extra effort to put into personal growth projects. Don’t be hard on yourself in this situation.
If you need support, try reaching out to local government or your community to see what resources they might be able to supply to provide a stable environment for you to live and grow.
Easy
Set an intention: Containers should be manageable. If your goal is more of a long-term investment, think about what a small step forward would look like and create a container around that action. It is important to be both excited about the possibilities available in the future and realistic about the effort that will be required for success.
Trust Yourself: Trust yourself and see where it takes you. If you feel doubt or fear, don’t shame yourself and attack your intuition. If you blame your intuition for problems instead of having compassion, you will become further disconnected from it. Even if things don’t go as planned, try to detach your expectations from your morality.
Medium
Set A Date: The most classic way of setting a container is setting a timeframe. You set a due date to finish a project or set a timer to finish a test. We learn this process in school and then take it with us to work and our personal lives. Knowing the end date can help conceptualize your process so that it doesn’t feel overwhelming, because at least you know it will end.
Personal Contract: In The Artists Way, one of the tasks assigned in the first and last week is to sign a creative contract listing your commitments to yourself. This level of dedication places a level of accountability on the situation, making it harder to procrastinate or give up without disappointing yourself.
10 Signs of Healing: Knowing where you are going is just as important as knowing how long it will take to get there or assuring you make it to the end (see above options). As a way to mark your path, identifying ten signs of personal healing or growth can act as landmarks that assure you are on the right path and help acknowledge when you have reached the end so you can celebrate. Sometimes success sneaks up when we are busy grinding, but keeping these signs somewhere you will see them — like in a diary or taped in your closet can help keep you motivated and on track.
Hard
God Jar: In the final week of The Artists Way, one of the tasks suggests creating a ‘God Jar’ to “place your fears, resentments, hopes, dreams, and worries” into and free yourself up to take the next action. Even without any religious context, writing down your problems on a sheet of paper and placing it in a jar—therefore out of your hands—relieves you of the pressure to take care of everything yourself. Visit our wishing well.
Record A Video: If a photo is worth 1000 words, how many does a video create? If you are expecting to go through a big transition, creating a video that states your goals and intentions going into the process will help you connect with the person you were before the experience once you are on the other side, trying to reflect on the tangible changes that have occurred. Sometimes it’s hard to put these things into words, but if you can see it, it becomes much clearer.