What Meditation Does For My Writing...

TweetSome of you might remember a couple posts back when I mentioned that I was working on letting go and learning to meditate. At the time I said that I wasn't very good at it. (I actually said, "I sucked at it.") Well, I still have a long way to go but I have learned not to be so judgemental. In the meantime meditating is having a profound effect on my journey into the writing life. 

Can sitting with my eyes closed concentrating on my breathing improve my writing? Amazingly there are things that happen in my brain...

1- Harmful assumptions about what a writer is can be examined and released.

                               A real writer writes everyday. If I don't have an agent or 

                                       publisher I'm not a real writer. My writing sucks...  

2-The brain can increase its capacity to imagine and create. 

         Up until the last few years it was believed that the brain didn't grow, now we know that new neural pathways can be created. (Additional Info Here)

3- Dry spells and challenges are easier to ride out when viewed as the natural rhythm of the writing life.

           Writers "block", difficult revisions, painful critique, rejections, bad reviews.

       

         

4-End the wasted energy spent on controlling things that are uncontrollable.

              Interruptions, life, subjective opinions of agents and publishers, reviews, timetables.

5- Acceptance and understanding that change is inevitable and possible.

   Changes in the market, media technology and even in your own writing can and will happen.

6- Increased concentration and the ability to be aware and present in the world.

        Writers must be keen observers and to do that we have to be in the now. We can't live in our heads, past or future.

Here are some additional links you may find interesting...

http://www.sharonsalzberg.com/realhappiness

http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6oL_sSGb4k

http://life.gaiam.com/article/why-meditate-science-finds-clues

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/4-reasons-you-should-meditate-and-how-to-get-started/

OK, so I'm excited about the possibilities but I'm easily impressed.  What do you think?

Am I Really a Writer?

Source: yuribaranovsky.com

Tweet     Of all the questions we ask ourselves, there is one question that does more to gum up a writers muse than all others:   Am I Really A Writer?

   By itself it seems harmless enough and self reflection is good for us. Right? So why does this question carry such dire consequences? 

    Sometimes the very act of discovering the perfect descriptors, a basic exercise for any writer, for what it is we do creates an insurgent inadequacy powerful enough to knock the pen from our hands.  

    For we idealize the artist as we do the movie star. Each of us carrying  a vision of what a true writer looks like. 

    Perhaps yours is of the lone writer struggling tirelessly against the curse of vagueness.  Or a Stephen King-like voraciousness that continues to spew forth published works or the Emily Dickenson-like surreptitious strength of brevity bubbling quietly from within.  

     An impossible measure that can leave us barren.

     A writer, not unlike an artist,  is someone who views the world in a way that demands the act of expression and wields the pen like a brush upon a canvas.  

      Roland Barthes  said  "... I cannot but ascribe to some super-humanity the existence of beings vast enough to wear blue pajamas at the very moment when they manifest themselves as universal conscience."

Source: kaboodle.com

So as I don my pink footie pajamas armed with nothing but my keyboard and a cup of joe I plunge again because I don't know any other way to live.

What's your vision of a writer and how do you remind yourself that you are indeed a writer? 

My Favorite B Words

      I love words as does any writer. However, I have some words that are my absolute favorites, either because of how they sound when I say them, the feeling or picture they produce, or what they intuitively mean to me. 

     Today I thought I would share my three most favorite B words. These three words pretty much govern my philosophy of life. They provide a paradigm that I live by. Interestingly, I think they also apply to the writing life.

      Believe  A belief in yourself, a belief in the benevolence of others, and a belief that there is something larger than all of us. I'm not sure the specifics of what that is is as important as the belief that we are part of something greater, part of a power that governs the universe in which all living things play a vital role.

      Balance  Living and growing is a chaotic process. When we are in balance we see things clearer and make better choices. Our daily choices of how we spend our time are rarely between good and bad. They are about balancing our precious time between our families, our work and ourselves.

     Be     This is the hardest of the three. This is the word that tells us to slow down, stop and listen. To be is about learning to accept ourselves. Being allows us to stop the treadmill in order to hear our better self and appreciate who we are. It is about enjoying the moment. Being present in our lives.  

What are your favorite words?

Why Wednesday: Seeing the World Like A Four-Year-Old

     When I look back on raising my children I can pick out ages that I especially liked and some that were not so enjoyable.  I would say some of the hardest were the ages of 12 and 13. Interesting enough when I think of my own childhood, those were some of my most difficult years. (More on that in another post)  One of my favorite ages was when my children were four. Everyday, almost every hour an innocent little face would turn to me and ask why. 

Let me tell you about my four year old grandson, Luke. Like most children his age he is interested in the why, what and how of everything around him. He can't learn and experience everything fast enough. One day when he was playing with some children the familiar question of size came up. "I'm bigger than you," said the big kid. Luke looked hurt but then quickly quipped, "Well, I'm smarter." *stifled laughter* It was then that we realized we had a live one and he was ready to hit the world head-on.

Four-year-olds don't miss a thing. Every nuance, every detail is absorbed and stored, only to come out later, hopefully not in an embarrassing way. (You know, the cuss word yelled at the top of their lungs or a detailed description of last nights argument to a complete stranger) If they don't get something they question it.

Somewhere along the way, we lose that intrinsic curiosity and confidence. We become complacent observers.  As writers we need to tap back into this mindset. We need to ask why our character wants what they want. What is it that makes this character so mean? How come he's afraid when he sees a spider? The real challenge is how do we train ourselves to see the world as if we are seeing it for the first time?

What tools do we have to get us to that paradigm?

Motivating Your Monday: Mental Writing

For a writer, staring at a flashing cursor is the worst next to a rejection. I have found a way around that brain numbing practice. At that moment it's so easy for me to get lost in the Blogger world or Facebook. Not to mention "researching" on cyberspace. I can easily blow an entire morning under the guise of research. What do I do? The bottom line is, if I don't have something to write-- I don't sit in front of the computer. 
     I often completely leave the room. There are lots of options;  pen and ink in hand I go to the cafe, sit at the kitchen table, out on my deck, anywhere I can still write. The key to remember is this is not a break from writing. You still have a job to do but you are using different muscles than when you sit in front of the computer.
     This A flashing curser often means I don't have a plan. When I sit in front of the computer I have an idea of what I'm going to write before I even sit down. Planning can be as vague as working on chapter 2, rewriting a scene, or as specific as describing a character. A writer always has something to work on. Don't go to the computer until you know what your writing about. Seems obvious but the pressure of a blank page and no plan is horrible.
     OK, you have a plan and still the nagging cursor is flashing or now you're staring at a blank piece of paper. This usually means I haven't done enough mental writing. When I am in the midst of a project, I am always writing in my mind. Most writers do, that is why we carry notebooks with us.(Heaven forbid we miss a flash of inspiration or a great idea). But I am talking even more basic then that. For me mental writing happens everyday, even when I'd rather it didn't.
     I have often been accused of spacing out or daydreaming. Usually, I am lost in a description, a visual image or even a dialogue with a character. Crazy? Maybe. I call it a writer's frame of reference. An artist is always storing visual images, a writer does too. However, we also collect words, feelings, descriptions...We take in the world around us in literary terms, we write it in our brain. Do we create perfect sentences? Of course not. When a non-writer looks at a chair, he sees a chair. When I look at a chair I see its rich wood grain, its worn seat and the high strong back. Get the idea? There is always something to write.

What is your cure for the flashing cursor?