Extension of a blog post I shared last year:

In my experience, the key to avoiding writer’s block is deep listening.  It’s the same as opening yourself to another person to let them unburden.  In this case, the person you are opening to is yourself.  The trick is to set aside your expectations, your worries, and your business for a while, and to find yourself in your own body.  

When you sit down to create, first, tap in to what your intentions are.  Did you come with a goal?  Did you come with an expectation?  Let it go, and give yourself the space to just be there in whatever way you need.  If your body needs rest, meditation, dance, care, affection, or silence and you come in trying to extract some creative work out of it, you’re working against yourself.  Let ~being there with yourself~ be your priority.  And if you stay for a while, whatever needs to emerge and be shared from you will do so naturally.

Tune into your sensations, your perception of your own energy, your pure existence in space and time.  Set ‘yourself’ aside and make room for whatever is emerging around and within you. Notice your body in space, notice its connection to what you are creating with (pen, brush, instrument, clay, ground, air). Allow body and instrument to begin morphing into each other, to begin dancing, becoming a joint instrument to whatever inside of you or around you wants to be unearthed, created, felt, heard, witnessed, discovered.  (Does this instruction feel too abstract? Let me try again: If you notice thoughts in your head (goals, judgements, ideas, etc.), internally “look” at them and then change your focus to “look” at your body, at your instrument, and “allow” whatever feels like it’s about to come out without filtering. You’re used to filtering yourself, so it’s a practice of going back and forth between thought (wanting to filter) and allowing (bypassing the filter and letting a natural expression out).)

What makes the simple difficult is that being with ourselves can sometimes feel impossible.  If we’re unable to feel well in our bodies, everything in us pushes to get away.  Creating an internal experience of safety is relieving and magical. It strengthens our ability to exist deeply within our own bodies. It helps us get into the state of flow described in the previous paragraph. 

How do we create safety?  By relational modeling of safety, both with others (in community) and within our selves (imaginal healing work).

A wonderful tool for creating safety is using a guided “safe place visualization” practice. Here’s one that I like.  There are so many; you can search the internet (or my favorite free app, Insight Timer!!) to find one that sits well with you.

For supported safety creating practice, consider joining our workshop “inner oasis.”  You can also follow along for resources here on the inner oasis blog or on instagram.

Until next time, and with love,
hannah