Bella Mahaya Carter Discusses Writing Your Feelings
Bella Mahaya Carter is the author of Where Do You Hang Your Hammock?: Finding Peace of Mind While You Write, Publish, and Promote Your Book. Click here to order your copy!
I recently had a session with a client who felt a strong urge to write about her feelings, but she didn’t know where to start. She gently placed her hand over her heart, and said, “It’s in here.”
I suggested that she simply show up and write. If she had any thinking along the lines of why that wouldn’t work, or messages inside her head aimed at derailing her efforts, she was to acknowledge them with sweetness, then move forward. Her task was to turn her attention and compassion toward the feeling
Here are three different ways I teach writers how to access and articulate their feelings.
Write about the feeling. Circle the feeling. You might be able to access it by describing it. Feel your way there. You may create a vortex around the feeling, which might bring it closer to you. The downside of this approach is that you can circle a feeling for a long time and never bring it close enough to get it on the page.
Write to the feeling. Address the feeling directly. Ask it questions, such as: Who are you? What are you? What would you like me to know or understand?
Write from the feeling. Listen to the feeling. Give it a voice. Let it answer the questions you’ve asked it directly. Let it tell you about itself. It may reveal a color or shape, a texture or temperature. It may remind you of a sound, or a visceral sensation.
It’s important with all of these approaches to be patient. In my client’s case, the feeling she spoke about seemed to be calling out to her; it was something that wanted to be known.
We may not know what we’re going to say when we sit down to write, it may be challenging to put our feelings into words, but it can also be fun—and healing.
Our bodies, psyches, and spirit carry wisdom that too often we ignore. The creative process is a means through which we’re able to receive information regarding what needs to be healed on multiple levels. When people engage in creative work, it’s often an expression of something coming forward for clarification or compassion. The word “compassion” means “with suffering.”
Some time ago, a friend and coaching colleague Del Adey-Jones said, “We are creation. Through creation we experience the essence of who we are, especially when we let go of the insecure thinking that’s judging it.”
Creation in and of itself is continually evolving, and in order to evolve, there has to be healing—it’s the nature of creation to heal and to evolve.
So trust your inklings, the feelings that want to express. You never know where they will lead, both personally and in your writing life!
Sometimes writers don’t know what to work on. I tell them, “Take the next step that makes sense in any given moment, and then let go, take flight, listen, and respond.” It doesn’t matter if you circle your muse or if she circles you; it’s all a dance. Can you feel it?
