I hate writing
I can’t write
I’m not a writer
I’m never gonna be as good as <fill-in-the-blank>.
People will think I suck.
These are common beliefs a lot of us have around writing and it’s why so many people would rather do ANYTHING else!
Doing the dishes, wiping down every surface in your kitchen or even cleaning up Fluffy’s kitty litterbox suddenly feels super compelling and irresistible compared to sitting down to write.
But no matter how much you distract yourself and how far you try to run, you KNOW you have to get it done and this only adds to your anxiety and makes you want to procrastinate even more!
So how in the world do you get around this? How do you stop from feeling like the worst writer in the world or the worst procrastinator that ever lived (or both!) so you can finally get your writing done and do it from a place of peace, fulfillment and even pleasure?
First thing to know…
If you can speak, you can write. If you can hold a conversation and have other people understand what you say, you can write for yourself, for your business, for your community… for the world.
Writing can be easy, it can be inspiring, it can be healing — and even fun — when you can connect to your TRUE self, when you start to write from your Energy of Expression and bring all of yourself to your writing.
And this brings me to something not a lot of people talk about… Shadow Writing.
You can write fully and fearlessly from your Energy of Expression and bring ALL of yourself to the page or screen when you’ve done the work of accepting your Shadow Self .
If you have blocks and negative beliefs around writing it’s because of ONE key reason…
You’re not writing as yourself. You’re writing based on what you THINK people want to hear and your words lose soul, spirit and energy and the act of writing starts to feel super uncomfortable, forced and inauthentic.
I realize that authentic is a word that’s thrown around so much that it’s pretty much lost all meaning but here’s what I mean…
Great writing is brave writing. It’s authentic writing. It does NOT come from playing a role, it does not come from you trying to force yourself to follow writing rules or copywriting rules or fit your words into formulas and templates…
It comes from a deep place inside you that you can access ONLY when you start to get familiar with not just your Light but your Shadow too.
Your Light is the part of you that you allow to dance out in the world.
Your Shadow is the part of you that you hide—sometimes even from yourself. It’s the part of you that holds the darker character and personality traits like anger, jealousy or greed.
But there’s a lot of untapped energy and power in the Shadow. It’s the central piece in accessing your Energy of Expression and your TRUE voice in writing and in every other part of your life.
Shadow Writing is well known in creative writing circles.
Stephen King is masterful at harnessing the power of the Shadow. One of his most celebrated novels – The Shining – was about writer Jack Torrance (King himself, perhaps?) who starts out a good husband and father (The Light) but quickly travels into depths of murderous rage and madness (The Shadow)
Then there’s the classic Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, which is about the good, upstanding Dr. Henry Jekyll and his evil alter ego Edward Hyde.
The Shadow also rises up in movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which is based on the book by Robert Bloch, Fight Club and more recently Shutter Island (if you haven’t watched these movies I highly recommend all of them!)
Your own Shadow Writing doesn’t have to be this literal. You don’t have to write from the space of jealousy or murderous rage. This is NOT about setting your Shadow free to run riot across the page and in your life!
This is about accepting your Shadow self which means accepting your whole self.
Start to observe your own thoughts. Note those little prickles of envy or anger, watch without censorship, watch until the feeling starts to shift and change (as all feelings and emotions do) and here’s the key…
DO nothing. Don’t act on or respond from that which shows up in your Shadow.
The power of the Shadow Writing comes from awareness…
Unblinking, unapologetic, non-judgmental awareness of who you are as a human being…
Who you are in your Light and in your Shadow.
It’s not about feeling like you MUST share your deepest, darkest secrets with the world. It’s deeper, more reflective and more intimate than that.
It’s about giving yourself permission to start being vulnerable and real with yourself and for yourself…in your own heart and mind… for now.
Focus on creating a safe sanctuary to just BE you without self-rejection in your own writing and don’t feel the need to share your true voice with the world just yet. Write in a blog that’s set to private or better yet, write in your journal, without censorship or editing.
This is how you begin to practice Shadow Writing and when you do, you’ll begin to experience the amazing healing power and ultimate liberation that come from writing as YOU, in your true voice…
As a unique, beautifully flawed, divinely creative human being.
