Where to Begin
It's the end of a year and the beginning of another. For many of us, I imagine, this year was full of beginnings, middles, and ends more significant than some markings on the Gregorian calendar.
Stories, too, contain multiplicities of beginnings, middles, and ends, and because of this, when we sit down and write, we can often feel overwhelmed. Where do we even begin? So we jot down some words, skip and jump around on bouncy rhythms of phrases until we don't really know where we are, or where we began.
What if instead of trying to chase the magic, you could learn ways of conjuring it, letting it gather and come to you?
What if you were able to create a specific kind of awareness that accessed your deepest voice as a writer, where you could start to feel that place just beyond skin, where the separation between you and the world begins to dissolve, and flow begins? What if you could use this specific kind of awareness to not just know and sense where you are now, but know and sense and feel where you are in any landscape-- real or imagined. And express this in words.
How do you even start to do this?
I created Sense Writing for just this purpose.
Between Art and Science
The approach exists in the netherworld between art and science. Because the in-between places are where the real magic happens, and where I most love to dwell.
Sense Writing allows you to uncover the many similarities between the way the nervous system works and the creative process. What is a healthy nervous system? What does it mean to "optimize" the way the nervous system functions? How does this relate to accessing a state of flow that is sustainable and full of rich artistic discovery? How do you access the deeper parts of yourself to dissolve stubborn blocks and avoid extreme creative highs and lows?
The approach's unique combination of movement and writing sequences (parts of which I've been developing for over fifteen years) allow you to experience how the nervous system and creative process can actually support each other, and with this understanding, you can start to refine and optimize both.
Since there are three levels of Sense Writing-- and some writers have been taking Sense Writing III for almost four years-- I have been consistently developing new combinations and today there are over one hundred unique movement and writing sequences.
About a year ago, I started to record these sequences, making them available through Sense Writing One-on-One Trainings. Since it's the end of the year, I wanted to share a recorded exercise, a little taste of how you can start to get out of your own way. Though this is not an "official" Sense Writing sequence (no writing involved, but of course you're welcome to try some after), it is a step into bringing the practice home and into your bones.
So, sit on a comfortable chair, press play, close your eyes... and get out of your own way.
To read more about the effects of body mapping, see the article "The Floor is a Mirror" below (July 2, 2016).
Sense Writing's One-on-One Trainings is a ground-breaking approach to the process of writing that teaches you to how to bypass stubborn blocks and uncover richer processes of artistic discovery. Find out more here.
