Ah, writing. It’s one of the skills that I’ve consistently been praised for throughout my life. I’m pretty good at it, and I think that’s because I enjoy it. It led me to getting an academic degree in English Literature and Culture, simply because I was following the things I was naturally good at.
However, just like any other skill, you can only become better at it through consistent practice. This morning I read a wonderful little blog post on writing regularly, and I was touched by his words:
Similarly, some people believe that the art of writing is a skill that can be summoned on a whim, like a genie emerging from a lamp with a flourish of creative brilliance. In my experience, however, writing is more akin to the labour of a blacksmith, hamming words into shape through the heat and sweat of regular practise.
Daily Practice
One way to gain more experience is to start keeping a daily journal. I’ve always kept some notebook or other, jotting down thoughts and ideas as they came along sporadically. But it was only in July 2020 that I started to keep a daily journal and writing regularly. I started out writing by hand. I was in at an interesting place in life: I was spending two years in a Buddhist monastery, and after settling down for a couple of months, the intensive meditation practice was releasing all sorts of things in the mind and body, and I started to write them all down. I’m still convinced that starting this habit has been one of the most important and beneficial decisions of my life.
It is so simple, but extremely effective. And you don’t have to be doing anything special, or be in a special place. Just keeping a daily journal where you note down the things you did that day in a small pocket book is enough to get the habit going. Soon you will find that you will get the urge to write more. After several years of daily journaling, sometimes all I write is “It’s been a pretty good day”. And that’s it for that day. Sometimes I write several pages worth of thoughts, ideas and these longer writings often have powerful effects.
The Power Of Writing
Sometimes I’ll be struggling with something, and I’ll be at a loss of what to do. The thoughts just keep whirling about aimlessly and no solution to the particular problem at hand seems to emerge from the chaos. Whenever I am in such a situation, I sit down, close my eyes, observe what is going on, and I start to write. I write it all down. The thoughts, the associations that these thoughts generate, and the effects they are having. I write down exactly how I feel. Attaching words to the feelings that I’m experiencing mentally and physically. “I feel a contraction in my lower abdomen”. “I’m angry, and it manifests as a hot feeling on my forehead”. And that’s when the magic happens: something that I’ve come to identify as “The Power Of Writing”.
Somehow the act of writing everything down will create structure in the chaos, and the solution to my problem wil emerge, often from very unexpected angles. Is it the fact that it is structured on paper? Or the fact that the visual representation of the contents of my mind enables me to apply structure to them? Is it the fact that I am moving my hands, adding bodily movement to my cognitive efforts?
I don’t have the exact answer, but all I know is that it works for me. Almost every time. And often when I don’t expect it at all. I’ll just be sitting and writing in my journal, writing down a particular challenge that I’m facing that day. And somehow some solution appears out of the blue. Whenever this happens, I always smile and write down: “The Power of Writing”.
Mindfulness
Even though I might not know the exact answer, I’m certain that it is very closely related to mindfulness. Becoming more mindful through meditation and present moment awareness is the key to happiness in my opnion. I developed a mindfulness practice out of writing by creating this ritual where I sit down and identify what is going on and writing it down. In essence, I’m forcing myself to be mindful, and to attach words to my mental and bodily experience. I’m getting out of my own way and letting my mind solve the challenge all by itself.
You know what? It’s happening right now! The Power of Writing. I hadn’t been able to clearly capture in words what the mechanism behind the Power of Writing was, but as I was writing this article, it became obvious to me that it must be mindfulness underlying it all. So I’m just going to leave it as it is. This is a perfect example of what you will find in my private zettelkasten. I wrote all of this in one sitting, with minimal editing. Just stream of conciousness, writing it down. And I finished with a wonderful realization.
I feel grateful, satsified and happy. There is also a pleasant tingling at the top of my neck, and an energy rising up through my feet. I hope that this might help someone else one day, and inspire someone to pick up the habit of writing.
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