Writing as a spiritual practice for your own support

​Have you ever kept a diary, or written in a journal?

In challenging times like these, writing can be a very powerful tool and practice for your own foundational support.

Often, when I meet with clients or have students in a class I’m teaching, I’ll give an assignment where I’ll ask people to do some journaling.

Sometimes, I’ll ask them to answer a particular question.

For example: “What do you really want”

Or here’s another question: “What is this experience trying to teach you?”

Another assignment I’ll give is to ask you to do stream of consciousness writing.

Julia Cameron, in her book The Artist’s Way, teaches about the morning pages, where you write down three pages non-stop of stream of consciousness writing.

You allow all the thoughts and feelings experience to come up without lifting up your pen, non-stop until you reach three pages.

You just let out whatever wants to be let out. And it can be surprising what emerges.

I had a student in one of my recent workshops who shared how he had been journaling for a few days. He decided to look back on what he had written. He was shocked because he saw that what he had written was largely negative, a lot of doom and gloom.

He didn’t realize that he was deeply focused on what was going wrong in his life and the world.

In that moment, he had the awareness to choose another way of how he could look at life. And so he chose to write about what good he was experiencing in his life.

When we allow ourselves to write and to journal, two things can happen.

One, we allow a process for inner reflection to happen, where we can give voice to those thoughts and those feelings that lay within us.

We give our inner world a pathway to outer expression so that whatever we may be experiencing can have a chance to breathe and to have some light shined upon it.

When we see our words concretely in front of us, we bring greater awareness to what it is that we are experiencing.

With greater awareness comes the ability to choose.

Sometimes, we find great meaning when we reflect. We can uncover what matters to us, and we gain a greater perspective on life itself.

Two, another thing that can come out of writing is the expression of your latent creativity.

Writing allows your imagination to run wild. You can visit distant lands or meet new characters.

You allow yourself to ask imaginative questions, like, “What if? What’s possible?”

For your coaching assignment this week, if you choose to take it, I encourage you to do a little bit of writing.

Spend some time journaling.

You could use your pen and write in a spiral notebook from the dollar store, or you can use a specially dedicated one with a beautiful design on the cover. There’s something powerful about writing with your hand.

Or, if you prefer, you could use your computer, tablet or smartphone to type out your thoughts and feelings.

Either way is okay.

For this assignment, simply write out whatever comes to your mind.

Give yourself the opportunity and the space to give voice to what is on your heart and in your mind.

What is wanting to express itself this day?

You are a creative being, and writing is a creative process.

Creativity allows you to embrace and express your own powerful life force, a reminder of your own agency and potency, especially helpful in the midst of challenging times.

Let this be your act of creation in this moment.

Abundant Blessings and Namaste.

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