To a potential participant in 'The Integrity of the Heart' : "I'm happy that you are ready to do this training. I want to find a way to support this long--term interest and longing that I experience in you. That's one reason I am offering this training--I want to bring it up a whole notch in terms of engagement and levels of available support--so that you all receive the benefits of this training in a very practical and immediate way. So I'm inviting all of the participants to commit to being there for every session, and some of them are realizing, all by themselves, that this is how they want to show up." love Shayla

Learning to Support the Movement of our Evolution

Writing can be a very powerful way of doing inquiry, for the purpose of awakening and transforming our lives. All that it requires is a basic ground of willingness and commitment. Willingness to look at things as they are, not as they should be or could be—to face directly into the way it actually is, right now.

We can use writing for this kind of inquiry, asking ourselves basic and powerful questions like these: “What do I really want? What is my major obstacle? What happens to me when I don’t get what I want? What do I care about more than anything else? What is my strongest resource? Do I know how to ask for and receive support?”

We may think we know the answers to these questions, but we are not looking for a mental response when we inquire like this. We are learning to drop the question into our heart, into our body, into a place of deep listening. In this place, we are ready for whatever comes forth in response to the question. And this kind of response is not something old, something we’ve heard hundreds of times before. It’s new and alive and we feel it; we feel the impact of what we have discovered. That’s what makes the difference.

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I think learning to express yourself with freedom and creativity helps in all areas of your life:  physical, energetic, emotional, mental..and the practical side of life is not separate from the rest of it. This is the basis sense that moves me to work with people in ‘The Alchemy of Writing’ workshops and courses.

For things such as job interviews and grant applications, the same thing applies:  very often, the job or the grant will go to the person with the most developed capacity to express in words, who they are, what they are about, what creative intentions and values they are wanting to manifest through their business or project.

That’s the interesting thing for me, about learning to use words and language in a good way--you may be very gifted and talented at what you do, but if you can’t express what your work is about, what the benefits are, and how they actually occur...then it will be much harder for you to find and connect with potential students, clients and anyone else who might appreciate and support you.

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Beyond living and dreaming
there is something more important:
waking up
(Antonio Machado)

A man I work with was telling me about how he spent the Christmas holidays with his family. He went back home to the big city to spend time with them. Before he arrived, he decided to try something new: he followed the impulses and desires of his heart, his authentic being, instead of going along with conventional expectations and traditions. While he was there, the connections he had with his family and friends were intimate, surprising, and deeply fulfilling. One morning he had a spontaneous and life-changing conversation with his mother.

I was feeling a lot of joy as I listened to him speak. Then he said this:

“It was wonderful, to be so present and open with these people I love. And there was a lot of anxiety. It wasn’t overwhelming, but I could feel my heart fluttering a lot. And it was not easy to sleep at night.”

The kind of anxiety that was arising for him is what I call sacred anxiety. I used to experience it when I was engaged in a lot of public speaking. I learned, after struggling with it for a while, to welcome that anxiety, to open to it and let it move through my body. During that time I discovered that the best talks I gave were when that anxiety was present at the beginning, not the talks where I was calm and sure of myself at the start.

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Writing is act of affirmation, of courage, of faith. Writing is good for the soul.

These words come from a posting on my upcoming ‘Alchemy of Writing’ workshop:

Birds sing, wind blows, human beings write. 

Many people long to write, sometimes for their whole lives, and never take the plunge. I encourage anyone who feels the urge to write to jump right into the water. Writing is powerful medicine. It connects us with parts of ourselves that have been lost, hidden, shut away. It can be a form of guidance, deep learning, inquiry, prayer and transformation.

There is nothing academic in this approach to writing. You are inviting the full participation of your heart, your body and your emotions. There is nothing you need to know, nothing you need to strive for. As you learn to let go of your judgments, agendas and expectations, your writing takes on a life of its own. Breath by breath, you learn to trust your authentic voice, and follow where it leads.