There is a negative voice inside all of us. It’s the brain’s defense mechanism against danger.
Anxiety acts as a guardian angel. Its intentions are pure, but we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Anxiety protects us in life or death situations. But in day to day modern life, we rarely encounter a life or death situation that warrants such an extreme measure. Anxiety acts like a guardian, but it can cause us to not act.
The important thing to to is to reframe your anxiety, so it doesn’t get in the way of your writing. The inner critic isn’t objective.
If what you write today doesn’t turn into something you can use, it is an exercise toward good writing. Think of it as athletic practice before you get really good. Your inner narrator should keep you grounded, but moving forward.
Every time you hear yourself thinking that the writing is not good enoughr, you tell yourself that it’s not so.
Your inner critic is far from objective. Although its intentions are good, it won’t help you get to where you want to go.
If we try, we might fail. If we give it our all, we might fail.
So, what’s the trick?
Simple. If you’re a writer, you have to write. It’s compulsive. So you might as well follow your heart.
When it’s do or die, most people tend to do.
Sometimes it’s not massive action in order to reach a certain goal.
Our attitude always determines our altitude in life. When we think we can’t do something, there’s no reason to even try.
It’s better to try something than to give up without even attempting just because you believe that you must do it. Thomas Edison said he re-framed his failures into “finding ways that don’t
It’s always better to try, at least once or twice what can’t be done.
So remember to keep your inner critic in check.
We are the ones who decide what words we choose to write after “I am…”
I taught literature many years in college. I taught adult and children’s.
It is almost impossible to go a single day without reading. Whether a social media post, email, book, or even a cereal box, we are constantly reading words. What is classified as literature vs technical writing?
There are two main separations between writing and literature. The first is the intended audience, or rather, the intention of the audience when reading, and the second is the author’s intenti when writing.
Literature, and the reading of it, has saved many people in difficult situations. Literature can show people at their best. If you’re living through a difficult situation, say prison, this can be an important hope and message. Words can teach, illuminate and inspire us. Nelson Mandella cites the books he read in jail that gave him solace during his long incarceration. He devoured anything he could read on armed combat because he was trying to form a Liberation Army. As a young strategist, he read about boxing when he tried to defeat his opponents in the ring or books on chess when he was competing in chess tournaments. “I had no time to brood. I enjoyed reading and writing letters and that occupied my mind completely…” says Mandela.
Most prisons have a library and prisoners are encouraged to read books. According to most state statutes, prisoners are entitled to legal texts to research their own appeals. In addition to lawl books, almost all libraries have literature. Sometimes there are limits on content, like rape or gun construction, but overall there is much literature available to inmates. Some of the most popular in prisons are Stephen King and Harry Potter novels. Orange is theNew Black and Gone Girl are some of the most popular novels in prisons. Longer novels are also popular, like Ayn Rands The Fountainhead. Biographies of different famous Americans are also sought-after in prison.
I have been keeping a journal for years. I’m often not at my laptop when I have an idea, so I journal on my iPhone. I always have my IPhone near by, as most people do. A piece of writing begins with a germ of an idea, an inspiration, a thought. Some people use their journals to spark ideas.
In addition to being a good starting point for a writer, journaling has other benefits. According to LeslieAndrus-Hacia, a clinical psychiatrist says “writing is a brain-based porthole leading to a balanced and calm state of being … through writing, both right-and left-brain hemispheres communicate, synthesizing information that ultimately results in greater mental coherence.”* Other benefits of journaling include memory support and increasing communication skills.
I published a collection of poems on Alzheimer’s Disease and Dimentia. Many were from thoughts in my journal.
I’m in Hawaii, with some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. I enjoy the starkness of the lava fields and can write easily, in isolation here. Most writers and artists I know enjoy their own company. We value our solitude while we also want to congregate with others.
We also use the time readily for our own creations. I’ll be back home soon, and meeting with other writers in groups. I enjoy that too.
Either way a writer, and other artists as well, need to get used to the isolation, and sometimes relish it.
It’s really easy to get distracted when you write, especially now that we’re all largely home working and there are phone calls, emails and housework all conspiring to take away the writing time.
The human brain takes around 17 minutes to refocus on a task after a distraction. Losing focus while in the middle of writing, can seriously damage the quality of your content. If you want your writing to be the best quality content possible, you need to get rid of distractions.
Disable all notification on your computer and put your phone on silent so that you do not get disturbed in the middle of a writing session. Be disciplined enough to either do your housework before you write, or better yet, delay it until after your writing session.
I speak of a clinical depression that is the background of your entire life, a background of anguish and anxiety, a sense that nothing goes well, that pleasure is unavailable and all your strategies collapse. –Leonard Cohen
This quote from Leonard Cohen certainly mirrors my own feelings from time to time, especially about writing. The world often seems chaotic these days. So how do you write through it?
A writer can feel stuck when depressed. Being on a roll and suddenly having the creative juices dry up is something all creative people experience. Watching your process slowly break down until you are at a standstill. Staring at the blank page. You try to write your way out of it, but you hate every word. It connects to a larger phenomenon of lacking ideas or any endeavor that requires creativity.
Stephen King advises the “write yourself out of it” approach. Many writers believe the words we put down are indeed worthless and not worth the time. They fear ruining the piece. But the reality is sometimes we just need to write through the dry periods. Like athletes doing practice drills, we just have to keep at it until the good material comes back. If we don’t keep writing, we won’t be at our computers when the good stuff comes.
While much of writer’s block is steeped in depression, there are all sorts of other challenges that impact writing as well. Physical health, mental health, and emotional health can affect performance across. If you are struggling with depression, you might still be able to write like always, just as people with depression can joke with their friends or go through the motions at writing even though they are struggling inside.
Leonard Cohen, who suffered from depression, was certainly a model for “writing through it.” He was in the middle of composing a poem when he died. I like to think of that when I get discouraged with my writing.
The inner critic is always there for the writer. The negative voice tells lies to keep you safe. It’s your brain’s defense mechanism against danger.Anxiety acts as a guardian angel. Its intentions are pure, but we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
When it comes to life or death situations, your anxiety protects you. But in the trenches of day to day modern life, we rarely encounter a life or death situation that warrants such an extreme measure. Anxiety acts like a guardian, but it can cause us to not act.
Learning to reframe your anxiety is important, so it doesn’t get in the way of your writing.Because the inner critic isn’t objective, whenever you find yourself at conflict with it.
Try to imagine the good that could come out of your writing. Even if what you write today doesn’t turn into something you can use, it is an exercise toward good writing in the end. Think of yourself as an athlete who has to practice before he/she gets really good. Your inner narrator should keep you grounded without discouraging you from moving forward. Don’t silence your inner critic. Think of it as a way to go in the opposite direction of what it wants you to do.
Turn the negative self-talk into an empowering message. Every time you hear yourself thinking that you’re not good enough, that your negative traits are far too many, that it’s not worth it, that it’s not fair, you tell yourself that it’s not so.
After all, the inner critic is kind of dumb, far from objective, and even though its intentions are good, it won’t help you get to where you want to go.
Anxiety, negative self talk, self-doubt should act as triggers to turn them into something that empowers you.
Charles Bukowski almost didn’t become the writer he had always dreamt of being. He worked in a post-office until his fifties, even though he tried and often failed to earn enough from his writing so he could quit his job.
Abraham Lincoln failed time and time again. He lost his bid for State Legislature when he was 23 years old. Six years later, he lost his bid to become Speaker in the Illinois House of Representatives.
In 1848, at the age of 39, Lincoln failed to become Commissioner of the General Land Office in D.C. Ten years later, he failed to become a U.S. Senator.
Colonel Harland Sanders is another famous failure. It was not until he was 65 years old, with just $105 to his name, that he set out to sell his franchise. He was rejected by 1,009 restaurants before one agreed to his business model.
If we try, we might fail. If we give it our all, we might fail.
Sometimes I do believe the universe tests our commitment, and I often find that the people who try and fail, never, ever want to try again.
So, what’s the trick? Simple. The trick is to be. Follow your heart and intuition. There’s a dream hidden somewhere inside a drawer of your soul you rarely open.
“Do or do not, there is no try.” – Yoda
This is one of those clever quotes that get passed around quite often.When it’s do or die, most people tend to do.
Sometimes we don’t have to step outside our comfort zone. Sometimes we don’t have to take massive action in order to reach a certain goal. And sometimes we just can’t do it, and the Nike approach to life is only going to frustrate us into giving up or having a mental breakdown.
Have you ever chosen not to do something because you were absolutely certain you’d fail? You were so sure you couldn’t, so you didn’t even try. It felt impossible, and the thing with impossible is that:
a. You can’t do it.
b. It’s only two letters too long.
Doing the impossible will often lead to failure. But if we aim to do the bit that’s possible, if we just give it a try, then we might surprise ourselves by becoming good enough to do what we previously thought of as impossible.
The obvious paradox is that you never know if something’s impossible or not unless you try.Our attitude always determines our altitude in life. When we think we can’t do something, there’s no reason to even try.
It’s better to try something than to give up without even attempting just because you believe that you must do it.
Edison’s famous invention of the light bulb stands testimony to just how powerful such a mindset is. The trick that allowed him to persevere until successful was that he re-framed his failures as, “finding ways that don’t work.”
You, like Edison, must try to do it before you can decide if it can or can’t be done.
Always try. At least once or twice. It’s far better than doing nothing because it can’t be done.
The ego is simply the story you tell yourself about who you are, who you wish you could be, and who you’d never want to become. That’s it. The people who make their dreams come true tell themselves a story that goes like this: they are who they are, regardless of failure, setbacks, or opposition.
They are not defined by external factors. They are fueled from within, by the very definition they have chosen for themselves, and set out to find the circumstances that allow them to make that definition even more potent by making their dream come true.
The people who fail in life, however, try, again and again, to get the validation they think they need to finally be able to call themselves “writer” or “painter” or “entrepreneur.”
As we’ve discussed previously, it doesn’t work like that. First, you must be. Then, you must try.The world changes its opinion of you the day after you do.
You will change your limiting beliefs by first understanding that you are the one writing your inner narrative. You are the storyteller, the main character, the villain, and just like in a dream, everyone you meet is a reflection of who you are or wish to become.
Rather than clinging to your limiting beliefs, giving in to your inner critic, you try to test the very fabric of your soul. Venturing into the center of your fears, you will often discover that what you were most afraid of was fear itself.
You will realize that feeling unattractive doesn’t necessarily mean you are so. If you consciously decide to go beyond what your brain tells you is the most you are capable of, you will soon begin to do the impossible: you will start writing the story you’ve always wanted to write.
We often prefer the discomfort of being less than our ideal selves because the opposite brings with it the discomfort of uncertainty.
It’s not the decision to change that counts, but actively trying to change. We cannot remake ourselves without pain, and we must go through the discomfort of building a new self.
When we direct our gaze towards the stars, and we realize that we are capable of reaching for them, we must do everything in our power to internalize and act upon this belief.
It means you’ll need to look for confirmation that you are the exact opposite of what your inner critic is telling you, and repetition is essential. You have to do it over and over again until you become emotionally aware of this new reality of who you are.
I have the pleasure of reading with Eric Hyett, as well as Gail Thomas, and Christine Jonesat this workshop called “Now As Mother: In the Presence of Loved Ones With Alzheimer’s” at 11:30 am May 6 at the 2023 Massachusetts Poetry Festival.
According to the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and it’s estimated that over six million Americans struggle with dementia as a result. To be in the presence of someone with Alzheimer’s is a lesson in appreciating the very present moment because both the past and future are unattainable to those individuals inflicted. As caregivers, we try to hold this space. As poets, we turn to language to help undertand and accept. In this group reading, followed by a Q&A, we’ll read our poetry and discuss our own experiences caring for a loved with Alzheimer’s disease.
Eric is a wonderful poet and translator. Here is his profile: Eric Hyett is a poet and Japanese translator from Brookline, Massachusetts. His first book of poetry, “Aporia,” was published in 2022 (Lily Poetry Review Books). With Spencer Thurlow, Eric co-translated “Sonic Peace,” by contemporary Japanese female poet Kiriu Minashita, (Phoneme Media, 2017) which was shortlisted for the 2018 National Translation Award. Eric and Spencer’s award-winning translation of “Is It Poetry” by Toshiko Hirata is forthcoming from Deep Vellum Publishing in August, 2023. Eric’s poems, essays and translations are part of the dialogue in Granta, The Georgia Review, Lily Poetry Review, The Hudson Review, World Literature Today and Modern
I have the pleasure of reading with Eric Heatt, as well as Gail Thomas, and Christine Jonesat this workshop called “Now As Mother: In the Presence of Loved Ones With Alzheimer’s” at 11:30 am at the 2023 Massachusetts Poetry Festival.
According to the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and it’s estimated that over six million Americans struggle with dementia as a result. To be in the presence of someone with Alzheimer’s is a lesson in appreciating the very present moment because both the past and future are unattainable to those individuals inflicted. As caregivers, we try to hold this space. As poets, we turn to language to help undertand and accept. In this group reading, followed by a Q&A, we’ll read our poetry and discuss our own experiences caring for a loved with Alzheimer’s disease.
Eileen P. Kennedy Author 