Staying calm in your heart and mind when everything around you seems to be falling apart isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible to do. We are more alive when we’re at peace with ourselves, when we have a mind that’s resting. A resting mind is a mind without imperative — one in which we don’t need anything to be different.
With practice, we can relax and enjoy things around us without the urge to change them, get rid of them, or stay busy to avoid them. We can respond with thoughtfulness instead of thoughtlessness. A kind word diffuses a sour attitude. Calm in the face of hysteria has a soothing effect. Compliments reverse aspersions. Resting minds and calm hearts allow us to act instead of react in stressful situations.
With repeated success, heart speak can heal the body from the wear and tear of everyday writing stressors. Today’s Takeaway: Stay calm in the face of turmoil, accept what’s happening around you, and make the best of every moment that you have.
Stalk Inspiration with a Club
To become good writers, we need intentional inspiration — the tender listening to our inner wisdom. If we’re impatiently rushing to the finish line, we can’t hear our inner wisdom because it comes slowly and in its own time. And it appears when we least expect it, usually when we’re doing something other than writing or thinking about writing. Some world-famous writers go after inspiration with a club by putting themselves under intentional, unforced conditions that nurture it. Virginia Woolf, Alice Munro, and Ian McEwan are just a few of the legion of writers who found inspiration by simply walking. It made them feel alive and helped their inspirational juices flow.
D. H. Lawrence found inspiration writing outside in nature— facing the sea, distant mountains, in the snow or the English countryside under a shade tree—which made him feel safe and soothed his restless spirit. What about you? What calms you down or excites your soul to soar? What makes your blood boil? What makes your heart leap?
Today’s Takeaway
Go after inspiration with a vengeance by placing yourself under circumstances that allow you to wait for it and welcome and seduce it to the surface.
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