Category: Spirituality

How Rituals Can Inspire Your Best Writing  

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment
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Sitting down to write may be the hardest thing to do when you don’t have a clear idea what you plan to write. Or perhaps you have the writing blahs where writing process doesn’t excite you. In those times, it might be helpful to develop a writing ritual.

 Writing rituals are a set sequence of actions that put you in the proper frame of mind for your writing session. They usually involve words, gestures and revered objects or symbols similar to what you might see for a religious or community ceremony, such as a child’s baptism. Simple actions like lighting a candle, listening to a particular piece of music, burning incense or doing a brief meditation can all be part of a ritual.

Most important, rituals set the tone, opening up mental and emotional space so you can write. They’re intended to create mindfulness and spark creativity.

I must confess I do not have a writing ritual. I usually don’t have a problem getting into the proper mindset for writing. But I can see how they can help other writers who may be stuck staring at a blank page.

Who needs writing rituals?
 * People who are stuck in a current work in progress
* People who want to begin a writing practice but don’t know what to write about and fear the blank page in front of them
* People who want to keep creative ideas flowing

Rituals shouldn’t be confused with routines, which are a set of actions designed to move toward a particular goal, such as finishing a chapter or producing a certain number of words on the page. They can involve a set of steps to get your writing session started or setting up your physical surroundings, such as making a cup of coffee or tea, clearing your desk, getting your notes together, and using a particular pen to write, writing at the same time and in the same place every day, etc. Routines deal with the physical surroundings and logistics of your writing sessions and are usually done every day. 

What routines lack, however, is mindfulness. Their focus is on the mundane tasks that make your writing session possible. But rituals bring intention and awareness to the activity, inviting imagination to open up for you.

Rituals are transformational, explains Mason Currey, author of Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (which admittedly I have not read) as interviewed by Vox. “Rituals create and mark a transition towards a different kind of mental and emotional state.” They create a state of awareness that you can’t get from routines.

When I think of rituals, I think of a ceremony. Rituals are often connected to faith or community, like attending church or practicing yoga once a week. While routines are performed every day, I don’t think rituals can or should be done every day, but perhaps once a week or once a month to reclaim your focus. Rituals are separate from your writing routine and should be treated differently.

“Writing rituals help us nurture habits that are essential to our creativity,” writes Nicole Bianchi at The Writing Cooperative. She shares the rituals of some famous authors, including Jack Kerouac and Neil Gaiaman, although by their descriptions they sound more like routines rather than rituals.

When designing your own writing ritual, consider what types of actions will put you in the proper frame of mind to write. What can you do to create the mental and emotional space to write?

Examples of writing rituals:
* You might play a certain piece of music that inspires you and puts you in the mood to write.
* You might enjoy a cup of coffee while staring out the window for 10 minutes, allowing your mind to flow freely.
* You might do some freewriting or journaling if you mind is troubled and prevents you from thinking and writing clearly.
* You might light a candle and sit still in meditation.
* You might do a 10-minute yoga session which can help bring mindfulness into your activities. Yoga can help unlock whatever is stuck within you.

Whether you follow one of these examples or you create one of your own, writing rituals can signal the transition into a more mindful state that prepares you to be your creative best.   Do you agree or disagree? Do have a special writing ritual? How has it helped you with your writing?

Using Meditation to Make Yourself a Better Writer

~ The Regal Writer ~ 1 Comment
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There are numerous ways to improve yourself as a writer—attending conferences and workshops, pursuing an advanced degree, writing every day, reading books about writing, among other things. But there’s one more way to become a better writer that is often overlooked.

Meditation.

Yes, meditation offers numerous benefits for writers. For example:

* Meditation can help calm the mind and slow down your thoughts, which can help you think more clearly. You might see solutions to your plotting problems that you didn’t notice before.

* Meditation can help you get in touch with your inner self, to access thoughts, ideas and emotions you might have buried.

* Meditation can help you feel less stressed when faced with writing deadlines, blank pages and a daunting writing process. It can help you deal with writing anxiety.

* Meditation can boost your confidence so you feel more comfortable tackling difficult tasks or working out of your comfort zone.

Granted, meditation take practice. But with a little time—no more than 10 minutes a day—your daily mediation practice can help you stay focused and calm, and help you access the most creative part of yourself. That can result in better writing and better stories.

What is the connection between meditation and writing?

With meditation, your mind calms. A calmer mind opens a gateway to creativity. It’s like unlocking a door and gaining access to a room who have always wanted to enter but was never available to you. Meditation also reveals aspects of yourself that you might have unintentionally kept hidden, aspects that come forth with your writing.

What writing won’t do….

Unfortunately, meditation can’t help you do a lot of things, like clear up a messy desk so you can write. It can’t improve your technical writing skills, such as grammar and punctuation. It can’t give you more space in your schedule so you have more time to write. These tasks are still up to you to do.

Meditation also can’t cut out the negative feedback you might receive about your creative talents, BUT it can help you deal with negative feedback with greater equanimity. You can still accept the comments but with a calmer mind, negative feedback won’t throw you off your game. It’s like having an invisible coat of armor around yourself; any negative comments will simply roll off your shoulders.

How to begin a meditation practice

As I mentioned, all you need is 10 minutes a day to quiet your mind. The easiest place to begin is in your own home. If it’s possible, find a place that is quiet and free of noise and distractions, such as your bedroom. Sit in a chair with your feet planted on the floor, or sit cross legged on the floor. Try not to sit on the bed as you might be tempted to lay down and nap!

Shut off your phone or leave it somewhere where you can’t get to it. Remember, with only 10 minutes for your practice, you don’t want to waste it worrying about your phone.

Once you are settled in place, close your eyes. Begin by breathing deeply. Focus on your breath. Each inhale and exhale will feel like a pendulum swinging back and forth. Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat.

Your breath becomes a mantra that your mind follows. Your thoughts might still race, but when you notice it, let them go. Don’t dwell on them. Let them roll past like an insect flying past a window. When you feel ready, open your eyes. Note how you feel. You may feel nothing the first day, or the first week. You may feel it didn’t make a difference at all. But your efforts will pay off eventually. If anything, because you slowed your breathing, you might feel calmer and clearer.

As you gain more experience, you can try more advanced meditation exercises or lengthen your sessions. You can also try some apps, but I usually find them more of a distraction. Still, you can find one that works for you.  

Here are a few things to keep in mind about meditation:
* Be patient. Don’t expect results overnight. In fact, you may not notice any significant changes in several days or weeks. But stick with the program. Quieting the mind has a cumulative effect. It will build over time.

*Be consistent. Practice your meditation a little bit every day. Because of its cumulative effect, it’s important to be consistent with your practice.

* Don’t compare yourself to others. Everyone is different. Each person will experience meditation in their own way. Find what works best for you.

With a little bit of effort, you can make meditation a part of your daily routine and it can be a valuable part of your writing practice.

Six Ways Yoga Can Unblock Your Creativity

~ The Regal Writer ~ Leave a comment

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I’ve practiced yoga for nearly 15 years. I’m certainly not advanced in my practice, but I certainly appreciate the nuances of a weekly vinyasa class. But I can tell you how yoga has helped me through some of the most difficult times of my life.

As I pursue my writing passion, I continue to include yoga in my regular self-care. That got me to thinking about possible connections between yoga and creativity. Is it possible that practicing yoga regularly can boost creativity? Many yoga practitioners, many of whom are writers and artists, say yes.

Here are six ways practicing yoga can help unlock your artistic side.

1. Yoga cultivates stillness to quiet the mind. We all lead active, busy lives. Between deadlines, social activities and social media, we are bombarded each day with information that can make us feel overwhelmed. Yoga gives us a chance to quiet the mind so we can hear our inner voice. Further, according to the Yoga International blog, when we work on our craft, the right word or color choices often come from deep within us. They’re intuitive choices. The best way to access this intuition is to quiet the mind. Yoga can help you achieve that.

2. Practice non-attachment to outcomes. As artists and writers, we can become so focused on the final product that we can become stressed about it. It’s important, say some yoga instructors, to detach yourself from the outcome. We need to bypass the internal critic whose negative commentary can stop us in our tracks. When we release those negative emotions, we open up a pathway to creativity without stressing about the result.

3. Increase energy. The energy body is the source of creativity, writes Anne Cushman, a yoga instructor and author on the Yoga International blog. A regular yoga practice not only increases physical energy, it releases internal energy blocks that we may be experiencing. With the increased energy flow, ideas can flow more freely and organically.

4. Reduce physical pain and suffering. Creative work can be very demanding, both physically and mentally. It’s hard to work when you’re in pain. It’s important to maintain our physical and mental health so we can produce our best work. But when we suffer, either physically or mentally, even emotionally, our creative process also suffers. Yoga helps release that pain, slowly and gradually. As we regain our strength, we gain stamina to endure the long, often intense creative process.

5. Break free of self-limiting thoughts. In the creative process, we can often become stuck in old self-defeating thought patterns. According to the Yoga Journal, yoga gives us the ability to see situations in a new light. It can help us break free of relentless, counterproductive thought loops. Once we release those patterns, we can approach the world with a more open and expansive mindset. That’s where the most innovative ideas thrive.

6. Learn to trust yourself. One of the toughest aspects of the creative life is accessing deep emotional feelings and releasing them through work. To do that, we have to conquer our fears, which can easily kill creativity. A regular yoga practice gradually releases self-doubt and fear and moves us to act and create without self-judgment and without the need to seek approval.

As creative workers, it’s easy to get lost in our own head. Yoga is a great way to get outside of ourselves. Yoga allows you to bring your problems to the mat. Yoga as part of a self-care program is critical to good health and improved creativity.

Fearful Fantasies vs. Authentic Intuition

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Ever find yourself thinking way ahead of yourself because your imagination has propelled you into the unknown future? It might provide a pleasant interlude for the moment, but in the long run, nothing realistic or concrete can come from that experience.

In fact, living in the future and engaging in fear-based thinking can be detrimental to our health and well-being, and our business success. Astrologer Rob Brezsny describes the differences between fearful fantasies and true, authentic intuition in a profound, thought-provoking essay. As Brezsny writes, knowing the difference between these two elements is “one of the greatest spiritual powers you can possibly have.”

Fearful fantasies are those scary, alienating pictures that sometimes pop into your imagination. They are ego-driven, and they are false prophecies of events to come. Yet many people confuse these fearful fantasies with their intuition. For example, they may imagine someone they love getting into an accident, or losing a job. But these scary futuristic images are not true intuition, writes Brezsny.

True, authentic intuition, on the other hand, is driven by the soul and is never ruled by fear. It comes from “the wise, loving core of our being. It blooms in us like a slow-motion fountain of warmth. It reveals the objective truth about a person or situation with lucid compassion. It shows us the big picture.”

Powerful, heady stuff.

How many times have you found yourself drifting in fearful fantasyland or made choices based on imaginative half-truths? How many poor decisions have any of us made, believing we were being guided by our intuition, when we actually made those choices out of fear? I think we are all guilty of doing that at some point in our lives.

I think the real difference between fearful fantasies and authentic intuition is the placement of time — the past, present and future. Where are you living — in the now or in some time or place in the future?

In our fearful fantasies, we tend to relive events of the past or create future circumstances that may never materialize the way we imagine, while authentic intuition is based on present circumstances, seeing things as they currently are and not as we wish they could be.

Further, by staying in the moment, our thinking slows down so we are able to process events and people in real time. When we stay in the moment, we are able to tap into our intuition, giving it freedom to guide us and show us the truth of our lives, even if it might be painful or difficult. Our authentic tuition also provides the emotional tools we need to resolve those difficulties, without succumbing to fear-based thinking.

As Brezsny further writes: “True intuition may show us a difficult truth, but it always does so with a suggestion of how to deal gracefully and courageously with that difficult truth. True intuition may reveal imminent changes that could compel us to adjust our behavior, but it always does so in a way that empowers us.”

So how do we flush away those fear-based fantasies fed by our imagination and make room for more truth-based intuition? For starters, shut off images from the TV, social media, and newspapers and spend more time with nature. Stay in silence and meditate often. For many of us, that may be the best way to form a stronger connection with ourselves and avoid the perils of fearful thinking.