What I love about deep writing is it requires you to be still. It requires you to cultivate stillness in your life, so you have access to your stories, even the ones you’ve forgotten long ago.
We all have stories to tell, and they are there, within us, stored in our bodies waiting to be expressed.
My best writing comes when I am in “flow.” For me, flow comes from practicing stillness.
Deep writing comes easily for me when my phone is firmly parked in another room, my desk is clear of clutter, no one is home, and the only noise is ambient — like the humming of the dishwasher or the distant sound of birds chirping.
I’m at my best as a writer when I am confident, and my confidence comes more readily when I’m grounded in stillness.
Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.
As writers, mindfulness may be our most substantial gift to call on.
When we are mindful, we carefully observe our thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad.
The very act of being aware — observant of our surroundings, aware of what is going on with a present mind — allows for us to later call upon these observations to deepen our work and to express our stories more fully.
Writing.
For the last couple of weeks, I have been writing a lot and publishing here on Medium. To keep myself accountable, I made a public declaration to do so. It was a personal challenge to see if I could write and publish every day for 30 consecutive days.
The other day when I received an email from Grammarly with the subject line, “Someone’s been a busy bee!” it was a small victory and a positive nudge to keep going.
It gave me the confidence to keep writing as much as I have been, or more, after these 30 days are complete.
Keep writing. Keep getting better. Keep challenging myself to grow.
In a very short time, I have learned more about myself as a writer than I thought I would.
It takes vulnerability and courage and confidence to write and share your work. Vulnerability requires great courage, and you can’t do anything brave without it.
I learned my writing flows when I’m quiet, and my ego is calm, when I’m not holding on but letting go, and when I’m able to manage my mind with stillness and leave worry and fear behind. This presence of mind allows me to access the part of me where my stories reside and gives me the confidence to tell them.
I’m so emotional all the time.
After the first week of publishing on Medium, I was emotional and raw.
I assumed the roller-coaster of emotion was due to dropping my daughter off at camp, located in another state.
Yes, I missed her.
Then it occurred to me; the real reason was far less apparent, my emotional tenderness was because I had been writing regularly and accessing memories I had long suppressed, diving into them while remaining present and solid in places that normally would scare me.
But I stayed with them anyway and wrote on.
Our stories.
We all have stories to tell, and they will remain with us until we choose to express them onto the page.
Through writing, we discover our thoughts and our values.
Our bodies hold all of our experiences until we release them.
Expressing them through writing is the best way to understand our experiences and let them go. Telling my story was the reason for my recent emotional tenderness; emotionally triggered and exhausted from the expression of my stored experiences.
“Part of what can be frightening about deep writing is that it forces us to dive into those areas of our beings that we have consciously or unconsciously shut ourselves off from. It demands of us to move deeper inside and face what we have not wanted to look at.” — Laraine Herring
This level of conscious awareness that is required to be still and process your thoughts onto a page is the very definition of mindfulness.
When we have those days when our writing pours out of us, those days when you can’t stop the process, and an hour of writing flies by which felt like ten minutes, that’s when you are practicing in a state of flow: you and your writing merge. You are in a deeply present state, where all your good stuff resides with the ability to access it.
An hour of deep writing gives you the same feeling a meditation class will, a sense of calm, and peace of mind.
Every writer has a specific toolbox that works for them, but whether you realize it or not, if you are a writer, you are practicing mindfulness.
Hey there! This is my first visit to your blog!
We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche.
Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a wonderful
job!
Fine way of telling, and fastidious piece of writing to get data about my
presentation focus, which i am going to convey in academy.
It’s truly very difficult in this active life to listen news on TV, thus I simply use internet for that purpose, and obtain the hottest news.
Great information. Lucky me I recently found your blog by accident (stumbleupon).
I’ve saved as a favorite for later!
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog and was wondering what
all is needed to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very web smart so I’m not 100% positive. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog.
Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like this one
today.
Beautiful watch, excellent craftsmanship, more than meets expectations.
AAAA+++++++
I could not refrain from commenting. Well written!
Beautiful watch…
What’s up, I wish for to subscribe for this web site to get hottest updates, so
where can i do it please help.
I every time used to read article in news papers but now as I am a
user of web thus from now I am using net for articles, thanks
to web.
a handsome replica watch and fast shipping… thank you!
Awesome blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of any user discussion forums
that cover the same topics talked about in this article? I’d really like to be a part of group where I can get feedback
from other knowledgeable people that share the
same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me
know. Bless you!
my web-site Jaimie
Very good article! We will be linking to this particularly great content on our site.
Keep up the great writing.
I’ve been exploring for a little for any high-quality articles
or weblog posts in this kind of house . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this website.
Reading this information So i’m glad to show that I have an incredibly just right uncanny feeling I came upon exactly what
I needed. I such a lot for sure will make sure
to do not fail to remember this site and give it a glance on a continuing basis.
Hiya very nice web site!! Man .. Beautiful ..
Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your site and take the feeds also?
I’m satisfied to seek out a lot of useful information here in the submit, we need work out
extra strategies on this regard, thanks for sharing.
. . . . .
Hi there Dear, are you truly visiting this web page regularly, if so afterward you
will definitely take nice knowledge.
I like the helpful information you provide in your articles.
I will bookmark your blog and check again here frequently.
I am quite sure I’ll learn lots of new stuff right here!
Best of luck for the next!
I’d like to find out more? I’d love to find out
some additional information.
I’ll immediately clutch your rss feed as I can not in finding your e-mail
subscription hyperlink or newsletter service. Do you have any?
Please allow me know in order that I may just subscribe.
Thanks.
Hello there! This post couldn’t be written any better!
Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this.
I will forward this page to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read.
Thank you for sharing!
You’re so awesome! I do not believe I’ve truly read through
a single thing like that before. So wonderful to find another person with a few
original thoughts on this topic. Seriously.. thanks for starting this
up. This website is something that is required on the internet, someone
with some originality!
Hello! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading your articles.
Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that go
over the same topics? Thank you!
This article is genuinely a fastidious one it assists new internet users, who are wishing for blogging.
I am genuinely glad to read this weblog posts which includes tons of valuable facts, thanks for
providing such information.
Asking questions are genuinely nice thing if you
are not understanding something fully, except this post
presents fastidious understanding yet.
I needed to thank you for this wonderful read!! I definitely loved every
little bit of it. I have got you book marked to look at new stuff you post…
At this moment I am going to do my breakfast, afterward having
my breakfast coming yet again to read more news.
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Exceptionally well written!
I enjoy reading a post that will make people think.
Also, thanks for permitting me to comment!
I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here.
The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish.
nonetheless, you command get bought an edginess over that you wish be
delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come further formerly again as exactly the same nearly a
lot often inside case you shield this increase.
Howdy! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile
friendly? My blog looks weird when viewing from my iphone4.
I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be able
to resolve this problem. If you have any suggestions, please share.
Cheers!
Hi to every single one, it’s genuinely a nice for me
to go to see this website, it includes helpful Information.
Nice response in return of this issue with solid arguments and telling the
whole thing on the topic of that.
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like
you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics
to drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is excellent
blog. A fantastic read. I’ll certainly be back.
Hi, its pleasant paragraph about media print, we all understand media is a impressive source of information.
Hi, all is going well here and ofcourse every one is sharing data, that’s truly good,
keep up writing.
I am really inspired together with your writing abilities and also with the structure in your weblog.
Is this a paid subject matter or did you modify it
yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is
rare to see a great blog like this one nowadays..
I am sure this post has touched all the internet visitors, its
really really nice paragraph on building up new weblog.
It’s an amazing article in support of all the web viewers; they will get
benefit from it I am sure.
A fascinating discussion is definitely worth comment.
I do believe that you should write more about this subject, it
may not be a taboo subject but generally people do not speak about
such issues. To the next! Cheers!!
you’re in reality a good webmaster. The website
loading speed is amazing. It sort of feels that you’re doing any distinctive trick.
Moreover, The contents are masterwork. you have done a magnificent job in this subject!
This text is worth everyone’s attention. When can I find out more?
Very good article. I absolutely appreciate this site.
Keep it up!
What’s up it’s me, I am also visiting this site daily,
this website is in fact nice and the people are
actually sharing pleasant thoughts.
Can you tell us more about this? I’d love to find out
more details.
I’m not sure why but this weblog is loading extremely slow
for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end?
I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.
Superb, what a website it is! This website gives useful information to us, keep it up.
It’s enormous that you are getting thoughts from this post as well as from our argument made at this time.
Ahaa, its nice discussion about this paragraph here at this webpage,
I have read all that, so at this time me also commenting here.
Hi! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a
captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and
I’m having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!
Hello would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using?
I’m going to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a tough time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your layout seems different
then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique.
P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
Saved as a favorite, I like your website!
Marvelous, what a website it is! This website presents useful facts to
us, keep it up.
This is a really good tip especially to those new to the blogosphere.
Short but very precise info… Many thanks for sharing this one.
A must read article!
After checking out a number of the blog posts on your
website, I seriously appreciate your technique of blogging.
I added it to my bookmark website list and will
be checking back soon. Please visit my web site too and
let me know what you think.
What’s up to every , because I am really keen of reading
this website’s post to be updated regularly. It carries pleasant data.
I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put
in penning this website. I really hope to view the same high-grade content by you later on as well.
In truth, your creative writing abilities has inspired me
to get my own, personal website now 😉
Hi there to every single one, it’s really a good
for me to visit this web site, it contains helpful Information.
Here is my web-site … Royal CBD