Writing As Meditation

I like to write. Writing gives me the time I need to organize my thoughts. Often when I speak spontaneously I get flustered and sometimes say things I don’t mean to say, or my tone may be off, or without intending to, I may misspeak about the topic.

When I write, my thoughts slow down. In that state, I can better present myself with clarity, conciseness as needed, and specificity, which gives me the feeling of integrity and congruence where my outsides match my insides.

When I slow my thinking down, my body also slows down. All my attention is directed to following my hand scratching across the page, the ink flowing from my pen, my fingers, and my brain attached to each other, communicating easily back and forth, one to the other. Of course, it is spontaneous but I sometimes have the experience where my hand is in the lead finishing the word or my brain is in the lead, thinking of the new word to come. There is a harmonious ebb and flow, hand to brain, brain to hand.

As this is happening, my breathing slows to a regular rhythm, an in and out and up and down of my chest which quite naturally slows my heart rate. Though my fingers and hand and arm are active, the rest of me is relaxed. If I pay closer attention, there are times when my heart
rate increases or my breathing increases, most often related to having found an exciting passage or I have a new idea or I’m getting ready to get up and stretch or move or doing an activity that is taking me away.

What I like most about writing is this is where the muse, as most call it, slips in and takes over. In my way of thinking it is Spirit that slips in and gives me the words, the language, the visuals, and sensations to scribble in my books and on napkins, notepads, and receipts.

In the reading from Science of Mind magazine dated 10/20/22, the author references Ernest Holmes. Holmes said that though we see the Universe as solid matter, “God sees it as liquid law.” The writer says, “Ernest reminds us again and again that mysticism is not some eccentric, antisocial pursuit. It is accessing a field of information that stands behind the march of day-to-day ideas across our minds.”

As a writer, once I quiet myself and go into that meditative state I am better able to access the information that “stands behind,” as Ernest says, the daily mind chatter. Once I am there I am better able to access the guidance, the flow of Spirit. A friend says when she is in that place where the muse comes to her she is in the G.A.P. God’s Area of Preparation. In that space, my breathing slows and my heart slows and my muscles relax. Once there I am much better able to receive the messages, impulses, and intuitive knowing of Spirit that ultimately and joyfully spill out through my pen onto the page.

So it is with every one of us. As we each prepare our spaces, quieting our busy inner minds, in whatever way works for us, we are better able to hear the yearnings of Spirit guiding us to be wholly and fully our true selves.

Carol Anne Perini, RScP