With a long list of “to-dos” for basic life survival, finding time to write can be a miracle. The paradox is, when you find time to write miracles happen.
A client of mine recently told me how amazing it is to now be writing 15 minutes a day. She’s finding some strange magic happening in her life. Here’s what she said:
“I actually feel like I have more time because I’m writing. It somehow makes more room in the rest of my day, and I’m way more productive in the rest of my life when I’m doing it.”
That’s the magic of heeding the call to write. Instead of feeling like you have less time, like you’ve squeezed one more thing into your day, you actually find you have more time because you’ve made room for who you really are to come through into the world.
This is miraculous. And it’s the miracle we all seek in some form or another — to be more fully ourselves, to be expressed.
It takes a lot of energy to withhold yourself and to keep that nagging voice from deep within you quiet.
When you schedule time to write and actually show up and do it, you begin to off load the weight of your own repression.
Every time you say “tomorrow” or “someday” to that part of you that longs to write and exhale something of your soul into this world, you become heavier and your life becomes more narrow and crowded. There’s less room for everything.
In a recent article I shared 2 ways to prioritize your writing:
1). Schedule writing time on your calendar.
2). Connect to the deeper importance of your expression.
When you schedule time to write and actually show up and do it, you begin to off load the weight of your own repression.
You make room for who you really are and you hear your own voice and what it has to say in response to life. You connect to and hear the world around you more clearly.
When you write you become present to the natural expression of your life and a deeper sense of flow, spaciousness, and ease that comes with it. You stop withholding. You stop shushing and managing your inner voice, and your entire life opens up.
You don’t have to retire, quite your job, or find a writing residency, or a cabin in the woods. Those things can help, sure, but waiting for them to happen keeps you from writing now.
This can happen with as little as 15 minutes a day. You don’t have to have hours upon hours or days upon days to write. You don’t have to retire, quite your job, or find a writing residency, or a cabin in the woods. Those things can help, sure, but waiting for them to happen keeps you from writing now.
Assuming those things are the only solution to finally writing and letting out the pent up expression caged inside you makes doing them totally overwhelming. It can be hard to create that kind of time, and if you actually do, it’s can be like opening the floodgates to a dam and getting wiped out by what comes through.
This is why you carry on wanting, but never acting upon your desire to write. This is why you carry on holding it all at bay, holding the door shut so you don’t risk getting annihilated by opening it up.
My number one recommendation to clients, and anyone who is just starting out or just finding their way back to writing consistently, is to start small. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too much writing time.
Start with 15 minutes and use a timer. 15 minutes is much easier to show up to than 3 hours or 3 days. If you want to continue after the timer goes off you can, but all you have to show up to is 15 minutes. This is much more manageable and doable, and it allows you to turn on a nourishing faucet of flow you can easily drink from, not a flood that wipes you out.
Nurturing your creative spirit and your soul’s desire for expression is a day to day way of living. It’s not about constant productivity and perfection.
And as my client spoke to, 15 minutes of writing time done regularly actually creates more room and time in your day because you’ve set down some of the weight of your repression and you’ve unclogged your soul’s pipeline to the world. This creates more flow everywhere.
Nurturing your creative spirit and your soul’s desire for expression is a day to day way of living. It’s not about constant productivity and perfection. It’s not about waiting for your life to open and make room for it, it’s about making room for it and having your entire life open up as a result.
It’s about building your life from your full expression, not letting your life dictate when and how you can express.
Creating and maintaining a sustainable day to day writing practice that opens up more time and space in your entire life is what every writer longs for, and it simply requires that you show up and write.
What would it mean for you to have writing be a consistent part of your life and to have it actually make more time and space in your life?
You don’t have to wait for the miracle of unscheduled, uninterrupted time. The magic of heeding the call to write is that when you find time to do it, you receive the miracle of time opening up to you.
So go ahead, start now, all you need is 15 minutes…write now and open up your entire life in a new way…