By Andrea Hylen, Founder and Executive Director of Heal My Voice
Writing for healing and self-discovery; here are some ways to open your senses and connect to the richness of a story.
1) Artist Date: In The Artist’s Way, author Julia Cameron talks about taking yourself on an artist date. It awakens your senses and helps to release your thinking brain.
Go to an art museum, a craft store, sit down with a pad of paper and crayons or pastel crayons and draw something or just scribble. See what creative medium is calling to you. Write down words with gel pens, colored pencils or markers. Crayons can awaken the inner child memories. Go to a fabric store and feel the fabric. Take a walk through a farmer’s market and pause to see the colors, smell the foods, listen to the conversations, touch the fruits and vegetables and flowers and feel the sensations in your body.
2. Listen to a variety of music. What were some of your favorite songs during your childhood, as a teen, in your early adulthood? What memories does the music stir and awaken? What are the feelings? Listen to different genres: folk, pop, jazz, rock, classical, country, hip hop and blues. Listen to different cultures: African, Asian, Caribbean, Brazilian, and Avant Garde. Immerse yourself and see what
3) In a journal, choose a scene and practice writing about feelings and emotions and what the scene looks like. How would you describe this to a person who is blind, who is hearing impaired, or cannot smell or taste?
4) Get a different perspective. If you are writing about something that happened with another person, spend time thinking about the story from their perspective. Write a short story from two or three or four perspectives.
5) Sit in a coffee shop or a park bench and make up stories about the conversations that are happening with the people around you.
6) Look at the story you are writing with a microscope and look at it with a telescope. Go in to describe the little details closely and then zoom out for the big picture details. Play with the story from the minute to the broad details.
7) Take walks. Connect with the rhythm of nature. Look for clues along the way. What are you drawn to? Colors, shapes, textures. Do any woodland creatures cross your path? Google the “Animal Speak” message if you see a squirrel, a dog, a giraffe or another animal. Animal speak wisdom for a dog crossing your path is to reflect on the meaning of loyalty in your life. Google the Animal totem for birds, animals and insects.
8) Connect with body-mind-spirit with physical activity to stimulate ideas for your story. Yoga, jogging, swimming. Ask yourself a question or set an intention before exercising. In yoga, I always set an intention to learn or shift something during the session.
9) Read someone’s story in a book or article and see what feelings it stirs up for you.
Wake up all of your senses!
To connect with Andrea and learn about current projects go to: www.andreahylen.com
Andrea Hylen believes in the power of a woman’s voice to usher in a new world. She is the founder of Heal My Voice, a Writing and Transition Coach, Orgasmic Meditation Teacher and co- author of Conscious Choices: An Evolutionary Woman’s Guide to Life. Andrea has discovered her unique gifts while parenting three daughters and learning to celebrate life after the deaths of her brother, son and husband. She currently lives in Los Angeles following the inspiration to collaborate with women in organizations and to travel around the world speaking and leading workshops. Her passion is connecting women to support each other in the full expression of who they are.
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