Last month, I blogged about 10 ways you can make writing your spiritual path. I’ve been asked to elaborate on some of those ways, and I’m going to start today with writing as meditation.
Freemeditation.com defines meditation as “thoughtless awareness”. It is a stepping away from the constant chattering of our minds. When we meditate, we aren’t planning, remembering, problem solving, imagining, dreaming, creating, or managing in our heads. We are just being. The term “in the moment” is so overused that I wish I had a new phrase, but the reason it’s used so often is that is describes the state of meditation perfectly. We spend most of our lives with our bodies in one place and time and our heads in another. In meditation, our bodies and minds come together. We are just here. It is just now.
Writing and meditation can be wedded to each other in various ways. We can use traditional meditation techniques to support our writing. We can use meditation and writing in tandem. Or writing itself can be a form of meditation. Here’s how:
Meditation to Support Writing
In Writing for Your Life, Deena Metzger writes: “About meditation it is said, when sitting, simply sit, simply breathe. Then, when writing, simply write, allow the word.” She offers this simple technique:
Meditate for a few minutes until you are calm.
Write for the same length of time.
Meditate again.
Write again.
Meditate again.
Write again.
“Let the silence refresh you,” Metzger writes. “Allow the silence to enter the piece. Discover what can emerge from this emptiness.”
Writing and Meditation in Tandem
Here is a 4-step technique I offer in Writing as a Sacred Path.
1. Sit in solitude. Center yourself and settle into the silence.
2. Listen. Don’t try to hear something. Simply listen. Listen to the sounds around you and listen to what is going on in your head.Receive what you hear without judgment or response.
3. Open to whatever comes to you. Whatever emotion. Whatever images. Whatever words. Allow them to be heard and seen. Welcome them, no matter what they are. This is what writer Janet Conner calls the Voice.
4. Write. Allow the Voice to speak through you. Put down what has come to you. It is gold.
Am I seriously talking about channeling here? Is this just another word for “inspiration”? It all depends on what you believe. I know writers who feel deeply that they are receiving messages from outside themselves. I know others who believe that’s nonsense, that they’re just tapping the subconscious. Go with what fits your own view of the Universe. (Which, after all, is the only thing you can go with.)
Writing as Meditation
For this, we’ll turn to the doyenne of meditative writing, Natalie Goldberg.
I have my students use her well-known technique in all my writing classes, and I use it myself regularly (but especially when my writing gets stuck or slow). Here are the basics:
Prepare to write in the way you usually do (Goldberg essentially says sit down with a pen and a notebook, but I write standing up at a computer, so my thinking here is, do whatever works for you).
Start without expectation. You’re not writing a story here. You’re not creating a poem. You’re just writing whatever comes up.
Keep your hand moving—don’t pause. I repeat this because my students virtually always pause to think at some point in the process, and I have to remind them not to: Don’t pause.
Don’t edit. Don’t cross out. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or any of that stuff.
Don’t think. Stop trying to be logical, organized, or perfect. Stop trying to make sense.
Write whatever comes up. Take that seriously: Whatever comes up.
There are no doubt scores of variations on these techniques, and maybe some entirely unique practices I’ve never heard of. If you have a meditational writing technique that works for you, share it here!