DIVING DEEPER: Notes Along the Way #1

The desire to express ourselves, to tell our stories, is inside all of us. The desire may be loud and raging, or it may be a "still, small voice".  When we listen to this voice, when we give that voice expression, it brings something so much more than the stories, it brings strength, energy and a deep sense of fulfillment to all areas of our lives.

Most of us are looking for what is often called our authentic voice, or our authentic 'self'. We are, I believe, looking for a felt experience of authenticity. I believe the path to this experience requires great courage, blind-faith even. It requires us to face our inner demons, to look at ourselves with child-eyes, over and over again. It requires us to let go of our ideas of who we are; it requires us to let go of our ideas of  what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'; it requires us to begin again, and again -- and again.

Writing can be your guide along this path. If you are willing to trust your voice -  for you do have one, and it is quite unique -  if you are willing to follow it rather than control or manipulate it according to how you think it should be, you will  "feel yourself being quietly drawn by the deeper pull of what you really love" (Rumi). And who knows what you will find along the thread? It may not be an easy journey.

"[I]t seems to me, the act of writing with serious intent involves enormous personal risk.  It entails the ongoing courage for self-discovery.  It means one will walk forever on the tightrope, with each new step presenting the possibility of learning a truth about oneself that is too terrible to bear."
~ Harlan Ellison

The blank page as been called the greatest challenge to man/womankind.

Each time we sit down to write, we are called forth to dive into the unknown. I encourage you to experiment with not planning or thinking about what you are going to write about. Thinking is not the same thing as writing.

Prepare your writing space, do whatever you need to help you begin to "dream the dream" (Stephen King): a few stretches, a walk in the garden. A cup of hot Darjeeling tea, perhaps. Sit down, breathe deeply put your fingers to the keyboard, or the pen to paper, and begin to write.

"Whosoever desires to explore The Way -

Let them set out - for what more is there to say?"

~Farid ud-Din Attar

Go forward, without pausing to reconsider or edit as you go along. This is not automatic writing, but writing with the power of presence.

Stay open and alive. Invite the 'witness' state, invite a larger awareness to enter your personal consciousness.

Be curious: What do you see, feel, hear, think? What are the sensations in your body? Thoughts are sensations. Include everything, and if the critic's voice is loud, include that too, as you write. You don't have to do what the critic tells you to do, but you can honour that its voice is part of your experience. Whose voice is it? Your mother's? Your teacher's?

Keep writing, with gentle pauses. Are you breathing?

"Do not try to see the words when you stop, just see the pictures better,” said Jack Kerouac. I would add: feel more. Listen deeper - with your whole body.


Resistance will come up, but see if you can keep going. 



Louise Bogan's poem, The Daemon, is about

 "... the angel that each person on earth is believed to be born with, the one who guides the life and destiny of the child on earth. In the piece she questions this greater soulful force about going forward in life. The daemon answers he quintessential question with the ancient answer:

It said, 'Why Not'
It said, 'Once More.' "

(from Clarrissa Pinkola Estés Introduction to the 2004 Commemorative Edition of Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces)

The Daemon

Like Estés, I believe the soul wants stories. The truth "too terrible to bear" will only cease to paralyse us if we give it expression. Perhaps the truth is a jewel, a diamond in core of our being. You will not find out unless you dive in and write.

We have deep inside ourselves a listening self as well as a voice. Let the voice speak, in whatever shape it wishes: fantasies, poems, dreams, nightmares, the many stories of our own lives. Let yourself listen, be listened to. Tell everything.


Let your whole being be an 'instrument for experiencing'. Writing is a way of playing this instrument. What is your song today?


Share your journey with us. We need to hear your stories.

Tikkun Olan is ancient Hebrew for "repairing the world" or "repair of the world soul". It is similar to the concept of soul-yoga - a commitment to awareness, a commitment to bring attention to repair the world that is right before you, in whatever way your soul calls you.

"..by reaching out to the world, as a more and more individuated soul, one also repairs the ravel of oneself - for whatever of the world has gone awry and can be aided, is sometimes in similar needful condition in the personal psyche as well... the inner life strengthens the outer life, and vice versa. And it is stories that can unite these two precious worlds - one mundane, the other mythic"
~ Clarrissa Pinkola Estés

So, begin: Dive in, toe or head first. Don't wait for inspiration. Face the empty page. Feel your body, and start to write.

And keep going: keep breathing, keep writing. Even if the voices of your writing Ogres are deafening, let yourself be drawn along the thread, no matter how tangled or circuitous or pointless it might seem. Do not second guess yourself. 

As William Stafford says so beautifully in  “A way of writing, Writing the Australian Crawl”:


© 2007 by Sandra Jensen