Blog Your Heart Out: Finding Pleasure in the Writing Process

Published: Mon, 02/16/15

Let's move on to pleasure, .

Yum.

How often do you find pleasure in the writing process?  Is it something that happens now and again?  An unattainable goal?  Are pleasure and creativity something you've longed to connect but are still looking for tools and resources?

For me, finding ways to do make writing pleasurable is absolutely necessary in becoming devoted and dedicated to a writing practice.  That's one of the reasons I work with the idea of the writing sanctuary (Remember that?  We began talking about it the moment you signed up for the Blog Your Heart Out Challenge.  If you need it again, you can find it here.)

The exercise below
is one of my favorites to do with clients.  The good news is, the more you do it, the easier, more natural, and more powerful it becomes. You can use it any time -- and every time -- you sit down to write.  

Blog Your Heart Out: Cultivating How You Want to Feel When You Write

  • Choose something to write about (did you miss a prompt from last week or
    are you wanting to delve more deeply into one you already did?  Here's your chance!)
  • Take 3-5 long breaths to center yourself and tap into your inner landscape.
  • Ask yourself, "How do I want to feel today while I'm writing?"  Then listen, because it can change a lot.  Sometimes we want to feel fast, passionate,
    and driven.  Sometimes we want to feel introspective and peaceful.  
    Some people want to scribble furiously onto paper or let their fingers fly
    on the keyboard.  Other folks want to sip wine and let the ink flow languidly onto the page.
  • Now bring up visual images of yourself in the zone into your mind's eye,
    and the sensations and emotions you desire to experience as you write 
    into your heart. The power of your imagination allows you to do this,
    even if it isn't something you've done before. If there are physical places 
    in your body where you would like to experience these sensations (heart,
    fingers, tummy) touch or stroke them gently.

  • Next, using either your breath, or imagining that you have a "volume dial"
    of these sensations somewhere on your body, intensify these feelings and images inside of you.  Again, you can touch your body and physically 
    "turn it up" to have this be even more powerful -- don't worry, no one is watching.  Allow the sensations to be strong, vivid, and potent within you.
  • Now start writing.  If you feel yourself getting frustrated, stuck, or feeling
    yucky in any way, you can use this tool again and again to bring yourself back
    to how you want to feel as you write, and begin again from that place.