Writers Belong First to Themselves: A Guided Contemplative Practice for Writers, Journalers, and Creative Souls
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“Writers belong first to themselves. You belong to your authentic voice, your natural rhythms, your unique way of seeing the world. This self-belonging creates a foundation for all other connections. When you write, you belong more fully to who you are and who you’re becoming. Writing helps you be more of who you were made to be.”
-Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life
Pause.
Sit in silence while looking at the art below and taking three deep breaths. Use the phrases below for a breath prayer or breath meditation on each of the inhales.
Inhale: I belong to myself.
Exhale.
Inhale: I belong to my voice.
Exhale.
Inhale: I belong to my writing.
Exhale.
Repeat as many times as you like.
Elaine de Kooning Self-Portrait
Elaine de Kooning, 1946
Prompt.
Read these words form Spiritual Direction for Writers on how belonging to the self affects your writing life:
“This self-belonging through writing manifests in more concrete ways, too. It shows up when you choose words that precisely match your meaning, as you develop your distinctive voice and style, through exploring the topics and themes you return to again and again, in your preferred times and spaces for writing, and through the genres and forms that feel most natural to you. The more you write, the more you discover about yourself as a writer. You learn the contours of your values, questions, obsessions, and preferred ways of making meaning. Writing becomes a familiar home you can return to, regardless of what’s going on outside and around the home.”
-Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life
Practice.
Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal in response to the quotes above and/or the questions below:
How does writing help you belong to yourself?
How does writing help you be more of your full self?
What have you learned about yourself through writing?
What has writing shown you about your values?
What has writing shown you about your questions and obsessions?
What has writing shown you about how you prefer to make meaning?
Want More?
Read Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life.
Look through self portraits online using the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery website and find one or two that resonate with you.
Or draw or paint a self portrait. Or create a collage using images and words that represent aspects of you and your writing life.
*
Become an SDW Insider and reserve your copy of Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Ritualsfor Your Writing Life AND receive access to the All of Life Is the Writing Life Deep Dive online course—a preorder perk that explores how the mantra “All of life is the writing life” shows up in the Spiritual Direction for Writers book.
SDW Book Notes—A place for book preorder links, updates, resources, notes, and musings
Flourish Anyway with Rhythms, Rituals, & Retreats
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
*Please help us protect our intellectual property, our creative process, and the integrity of our work. Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment is covered under the Spiritual Direction for Writers® trademark. You are welcome to share this link with others, but any other use (written or spoken) is prohibited without written permission from Charlotte Donlon.