Join our newsletter!
Inspired? Would you like to see your name on this website and your book up on those bookshop shelves? This is where we bring you a round up of writing tips, ideas and hints. | Creative Living |
| Thoughts from Fiona Robyn of www.fionarobyn.co.uk 1.5.06 Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I started dabbling with meditation at the beginning of the year. I often live my life at a bit of a pace, writing lists here and ticking things off there, and I thought it might be good for me to force myself to STOP once a day for twenty minutes. It's been quite a challenge. Twenty minutes of doing nothing but being conscious of your breath going in and out, in and out, can last FOREVER. I often reach a point when I simply can't bear to wait any longer for my mobile phone to buzz and am desperate to open my eyes and see if I'm nearly 'there'. I become a child on a long car journey and it's utterly unbearable to not be 'there' yet - wherever 'there' might be. As I've continued to practise meditation (although I'm still a complete beginner) I've started to notice little shifts. Sometimes after ten minutes or so a new bodily sensation will make itself known - an ache in my neck or a gurgling in my stomach - as if it needed some peace and quiet to gather the courage to speak up. New thoughts or feelings bloom from nowhere to be examined in detail later. Most deliciously of all, sometimes for a moment or two all my thoughts and feelings blow away, and I'm left in a clear silent space full of light. I don't think I'd reach this place if I hadn't stayed with the discomfort - if I hadn't heard the 'are we there yet?' and gone back to my breathing. And been distracted by my cat coming into the room. And going back to my breathing. And thinking I must add 'toothpaste' to my shopping list. And going back to my breathing. You get the general idea. So what happens when we spend all our time thinking about 'there'? I suppose we miss out on being 'here'. Things you might be curious about When are you particularly impatient to get 'somewhere else'? What might happen if you let go of this impatience and paid attention to 'now' instead? How could you strengthen your ability to persist in the 'now', however uncomfortable it feels? 24.2.06 When you'd rather fly kites or clean behind the oven and how to coax yourself back into the saddle instead Earlier in the week I got some feedback about my writing when I wasn't expecting it. It somehow managed to slip straight in past the usual defences, and knocked me sideways. For all of Sunday I felt utterly hopeless. I'm never going to get a publisher... why am I putting all this energy into my writing? Why am I putting myself forward for all this rejection? Why don't I swap the time I spend writing for something less painful, like flying kites or cleaning behind the oven? By the evening, after walking myself round town for a few hours and giving myself something nice to eat, I felt a little space clearing. I did what I've done before when I've been knocked into that hopeless place - I got out my 'writing process' journal and my favourite and well-thumbed 'how to survive as an artist' books. I wrote about how I felt and why I might be feeling it in the front of my journal, and re-read some of my previous entries when I'd also felt like throwing the whole thing in. I foraged through my writing books for wisdom, and found or re-found plenty, copying out the best pearls into the back of the journal. By the next day I was well on the way to healing, and ready to book myself a date in a cafe with my notebook. Things you might be curious about: What do you do when you suffer setbacks? How do you coax yourself back onto the saddle? What could you try that you haven't tried before? What do you easily forget when you're in that place, and how could you help yourself to remember it? A few suggestions of things that might help: talking to a buddy, walking, saving all the good things people have said about your work in a big book, copying out quotes that resonate and sticking them up on the wall by your desk, looking more closely at how and why you got set-back, giving yourself some time before you act rashly... |
| Posted: 01/05/2006 19:51:45 Last Updated: 01/05/2006 19:57:49 |
Chick Lit > Writing Tips :: Creative Living