by Malene Kai Bell
As I sit to write this, I put my palm on my Heart and ask what it wants us to know. In response, I hear this: we are beautiful, lustrous, competent fire starters. Our two feet match our two ears and two eyes which match our two hearings, two sights, and two grounds (spiritual and earthly) and creative writing from the Heart is the connective artery between.
At first, I feel confused. Then my thoughts drift to something Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves, says in her newest audio collection, Mother Night: Learning to See in the Dark. Using the owl to symbolize our medial nature—that part of us which stands between two worlds—she says, “an owl is a person who can navigate the dark, a creature who knows where the obstacles are and can fly over them; a person completely aware observationally, intuitively, instinctually; one who can see into, around, and through.” This is the Heart’s message for both writing and living: to be intuitively and instinctually led; to create from the eyes which peek into the soul, to listen with ears that hear and know what one’s passion is, and to live from the Source within.
For us, the challenge comes not in comprehending the metaphor, but in living it. The teachers who taught us that perfect makes perfect, that mistakes were indicative of inferiority, that thoughts should fall out in a specific, linear, (logical) order, or the mothers who perused our journals and despised its insides or shamed us with rules of what should and should not be written or spoken about—these and more contributed to the Heart’s retraction in daily speech, inter-actions, and creative endeavors. In turn, we placed logic before Heart.
Yet, the Heart is the most powerful creative center. The heart generates the largest electromagnetic field in the body—60 times greater than that of brain. And its magnetic field is 5,000 times stronger than the brain. This is why there is truth to the statement “women are smarter than men”, because inherently women live from intuition, e-motive, and synergy, all of which are the reciprocated— intrinsic and extrinsic— rhythms of the heart.
So, how does one write from the Heart?
Here’s a quick and easy guide.
1. Begin with a quiet meditation. (Sometimes, music leads me directly to the Heart. Here are a few songs I like: “Moon-Silvered Clouds” by Deuter; “Sita’s Prayer” and “Mere Gurudeve” by Krishna Das Mere Gurudev “Say What You Need” to Say by John Mayer, and “River Rise” by India Arie. Pandora.com is also a great resource for free music.)
2. Place your hand on your heart and ask lovingly: What story shall I tell? What message do you have for me? What message do you have for the world?
3. Remain open to the answer. If the little censor in your head gets rowdy, imagine yourself shrinking him down to the size of an ant. Then, put him in your pocket and tell him to shush.
3. Let the writing unfold in its own way. Divine Dichotomy and Divine Contradiction will show itself. Once, I was working on an exercise from Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way”; I had to list, without thought or restriction, ten things I’d like to be. Next to horse trainer, oceanographer and photographer, I wrote Madame. Talk about shock! The point is the dichotomy will surprise you. But that is the point: to rediscover, to reveal to yourself what you never knew was there. Anything else and you might as well go back to sleep.
4. Share: Post a line, phrase, or snippet of dialogue on Facebook. Snuggle up to your honeybear at night and read a piece. Call a girlfriend. Email me. Read it to your dog. Just share it.
5. Give thanks with the fullness of your Heart.
This is simply one of many ways to write into the Heart—the very core of our being. My work as a transformational coach and Inspiritrese is to ignite women’s passion so that they wholly live from Beauty, Inspiration, and the Inner Wisdom, which is the DNA of their being. I invite you to learn more about writing into the Heart by participating in my free introduction to Reimagination: Healing Through Writing on July 23rd (9:15 to 11:15) at Women in Wellness or you can join us for an online session Monday, August 1 (7:15 to 8:15). Click here for more details
