As you practice mindful writing regularly, your authentic writer’s voice will begin to emerge. Most writers overlook the importance of focusing attention on the cultivation of a consistent writer’s voice and just start writing. But when you connect with your authentic voice, it’s like discovering a well of consistent creative flow, making all of your future writing flow with greater ease. If you missed my post on “How to Practice Writing as Meditation“, you may want to pause for a moment to visit that post.
Mindful Writing
Discover your authentic voice
Finding Your Authentic Writer’s Voice
It is in the still place of meditation that you will come to know your true nature. It is in this space that your authentic voice resides. It is the clear and consistent voice that expresses the heart and soul of who you are. Once you find it, you grow to rely on it to offer consistency and stability in your writing, your creative life, and your life as a whole. Yes, it can serve as a consistent voice in your writing, but it can also serve as a consistent source of clear, calm inner knowing that can help you to increase trust in yourself.
Your authentic voice emerges from a place of calm and clarity. It lies in wait underneath the incessant mental chatter, the creative anxiety, and the self-doubt. All of these hindrances can block you from connecting to your authentic voice, so if you struggle with these sorts of creative blocks, you may want to go back and read my previous posts on “Writing Meditation for Releasing Creative Blocks.”
In your next mindful writing practice, as begin with breathing and then turn your attention toward any sensations, feelings, or thoughts that arise and then write what you feel and hear, take a moment to listen to the quality of the inner voice. This is your authentic voice. It’s the center of your heart and mind that narrates your stories.
Opening to Creative Flow
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, describes her writing process as being a scribe for a divine voice that flows through her. Perhaps our minds or our souls are connected to a universal source of creativity and inspiration. Or perhaps when we listen to this voice and write down what we hear, we’re listening to our most authentic selves. Maybe it’s both—our authentic selves that are connected to some collective energy that is greater than us individually. I encourage you to put your own spiritual meaning behind it if that feels useful for you.
Once you get a sense of this inner authentic voice, imagine that voice as your creative well that is always available to provide an endless source of creative material. You’re most likely to access this voice when you are in an inner state of calm, which is why I recommend meditation and writing meditation to facilitate this process.
If you veer off track and lose touch with your voice, go back to the beginning, back to meditation to bring you back to center. And then simply practice writing meditation as a practice of deep listening. Your authentic voice is always there, accessible to you at any moment when you calm your body and quiet your mind to attend and listen.
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