Two simple practices to support your writing this year

Last week I talked a bit about how doing energy work has helped me find focus as a writer. This week, I have a few simple practices to share that can help you: Even if you aren’t trained in energy work, you can still do simple acts of redirecting your own attention as a way of focusing energy towards what you want.

Doing so helps you hold space for what matters to you: And imagining new ways of creating doesn’t just serve you. It serves your writing and the collective, as we all create new ways of working the more we realize our current systems are not working.

Focusing your attention towards the writing life you want

There are many ways you can focus attention on what you want, and tap into the energy of excitement for your creative work.

Two I focus on a lot are appreciating the process, and thinking expansively about wealth.

Appreciating the process of writing (not just checking things off my to do list) took me a lot of work, because I had very deeply engrained toxic productivity patterns.

Those patterns still sometimes show up (I talk more about how to break these patterns in Bloom), but the purpose of this practice is learning to love the process of creating.

And it is a practice: Because at first it will feel weird, uncomfortable, and maybe even barely possible at first. The more you do it, the easier it gets: And you’ll notice big shifts in your relationship to your writing after even just a month of this.

If the act of letting my creative work unfold doesn’t feel expansive and fun, or if I’m just focused on getting it done, I start by trying to find one single thing I’m enjoying about this process right now, and focus my attention there.

For me, it’s the fact that I’m able to write at home in a way I like that often helps start to move the needle. Find that one thing you are enjoying right now as a starting point, then let yourself feel gratitude for it. And see where else that gratitude could extend towards. Can you name another thing? Or a few?

Sometimes I’ll completely forget the product and just create (which is what I did for writing the notes for this newsletter issue, which I did on a whim while lying in bed): not worrying about outcome, just the process. Sometimes the mantra “I just have to think about this sentence, then the next one will come” can help if I’m feeling drained or stuck.

I also think expansively about wealth. Why? Because this exercise reminds me of all the things I already have, and doing that helps me tap into the energy of the first exercise more easily.

I’m wealthy in so many ways: I have my health, I’m loved by people and animals in my life, I have a roof over my head, I do work I find fulfilling, I live comfortably. There are many sources out there for classifying wealth beyond money, like this, which is a reminder that finances are only one small dimension of our overall wealth.

Thinking about how I’m wealthy in each category helps put me in an abundance mindset: and both separate me from the capitalist mindset that treats me and my creativity as a product rather than living, breathing, evolving being who is birthing new magic into the world.

Give it a try this week: think about or even list out the kinds of wealth you possess, and the things you love about process and let me know how it goes!