“So it is time to
begin. Just open and let the words
flow. Listen for the inner direction,
feel the sensation and write.”—Jamila Davies
This is the
practice—writing from the heart—using the written word to open yourself to deep
healing, something you can put on paper in your own words but linked to your
soul.
The power of
journaling is that it allows me to express and release powerful emotions on the
page and once on paper, to gain a perspective, something that isn’t always
possible while the chaos rages around inside.
In her book Writing Down the Bones,
Natalie Goldberg, says, “This book is about writing. It is also about using writing… as a way to
help you penetrate your life and become sane.”
Writing Down the Bones was
first published in 1986 and revolutionized the way writing is taught in this
country. Nearly thirty years later it is
still one of the top writing books sold.
Writing for me
has always been about writing to know what I am feeling, writing to get in
touch with the deepest sense of my own being and deepest wisdom. Judith Guest, author of Ordinary People wrote, “Writers do not write to impart knowledge;
rather, they write to inform themselves.”
I have 40 years
of journals in two trunks in my living. Often writing is a chance to wail on the page
to find my way to the truth, often a scorching, careening dive into the secrets of my soul. Other times it is a “things
to do” list, a prescription for getting my life together: diet, exercise, cut
my hair, color my hair, fall in love, fall out of love, forget everything—do nothing!
However, there are times when journaling is a transcendent connection to the energy of the
universe. I connect with something
that is both me and beyond me and for those few moments, feel a
connection to the very fabric of life, consciousness itself. But these moments are few and far between,
like a runner’s high, something that happens spontaneously and unbidden after
years of running but only now and then.
Now it seems I
have found a way to tap into this transcendental connection more easily, beyond
my idea of who and what I think I am, to the essence of who I am. And that way is through spiritual writing or
writing from the heart.
What
is spiritual writing? It begins
with a practice called “Remembrance,” a Sufi practice of repeating the name of
God in the silence of my own heart and opening to what is deepest in me in
that moment and then beginning to write, using the principles Goldberg outlined
in her book called “writing without stopping.”
The combination
of “Remembrance” and “writing without stopping” produces insights and
breakthroughs not usually experienced without years of writing practice. Even those who have been writing for years
say the process allows for more insight and epiphanies. Writing from the heart breaks down the
barriers and allows me to connect to my most intimate self and to reveal that
wisdom or insight on the page as if God is revealing Himself to me in my own words.
This shift in
my consciousness, of opening my heart to directly perceive that deep voice of
wisdom within me, allows me to more easily let go of my idea of how things
should be and open fully to the almost magical experience of how things
are. Spiritual writing is a tool that helps me make this transition.
My sister once
said, after birding for hours on Sauvie Island, a beautiful wildlife refuge on
the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon, that something shifted inside her and
she became aware of a sensation that she described as “nuzzling the cheek of Power.” In that open exchange between herself and the
beauty she witnessed, she came face to face with that Divine essence. The same is true of spiritual writing. Through an open exchange with my own deepest
self, I come face to face—I open the door and God steps in.
