January Writer's Challenge - Week 4

Spirituality

Welcome Back

This is it, the final week!

Thank you all for participating and giving this challenge your very best. I absolutely love creating these for you.

If you have simply been reading along and haven’t found the time or courage yet to write your own poems, that’s okay. You still have time. I want to invite you to go through the exercises and just see what comes up. Don’t worry about it being like anyone else’s writing. What you put into it, you’ll get out of it. So invest the time in yourself and allow your own creativity to surprise you.

You got this.

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Week 4 - Spirituality

This week is my favourite topic as it is so difficult to use words for that which exists beyond the mind and language. God, Divine, Higher Power or Universe. However you refer to that which brings the magic and blessings into your life, I want you to know that I respect you and acknowledge your own journey and practice.

For our final week of this amazing writing challenge I was inspired to give you all a focal point that has been deeply meaningful to me, Spiritual Strength.

I will clarify this topic as best I can with examples and personal experiences so you can have the best writing session for this week. Then I will give you an exercise to cultivate all your own visions, feelings and vibrations to write your poem.

Sound good? Great, let’s get to it.

Photo by Yuheng Ouyang

Spiritual Strength

We have all had moments in our life that were challenging for us. The death of a loved one, an accident or illness. Bankruptcy or betrayal. For many people the last four years of COVID caused significant stress and loss. Yet I bet you can remember a challenge that you overcame that cultivated a new found inner strength, a spiritual strength.

• Think of a time where you overcame a difficult situation and are now stronger internally and spiritually because of it. There are no wrong answers.

Our focus for this week is going to be writing a poem that we can use to anchor us in this spiritual strength.

Strong Foundation

A quick backstory to expand the depth of this week’s topic for you.

I was reading a book by Helene Hadsell, “The Name It & Claim It Game” and I was presented with a question about future goals. It was the first time in my life I couldn’t fully articulate a goal of mine in a way that felt authentic. I wanted to focus on a goal for the exercise in the book but I was sensing something deeper was missing. It perplexed me as I could list of a number of goals and things I wanted to accomplish but in that moment none of them felt aligned. I felt like there was something much bigger that wanted my attention and focus but I wasn’t yet aware of it.

I decided to lie down for a nap with my book on my chest and allow myself to drift into the half sleep state. It was in this restful and yet still aware state I was given a gift of an insight.

I wanted all these goals and dreams in my life to come true but I was also secretly afraid of this expansion and growth. Would I be able to handle a new cruising altitude? Would I self sabotage or be unable to handle the next level of challenge?

It was in that moment I became aware of what I was truly seeking, Spiritual Strength. I wondered what it would be like to consciously choose to deepen my spiritual strength. How might I step into this directly so I could build more inner strength to take on these goals and dreams I wanted to create?

This week’s writing exercise is my offering of an answer to you.

Exercise

Grab your pen and paper and make sure you have at least 20 minutes of focused time to go through this process.

1. Write out the most significant life challenge that you’ve overcome so far.

For me it was leaving my previous relationship while also departing from the most successful acting job I had to date.

2. Choose a moment from this challenging time that truly reflects the difficulty and impact of this circumstance.

I was standing in front of the bathroom mirror after my shower and thought I was going to die from cancer in less than a year. I immediately knew I needed make a dramatic change in my life’s direction.

3. Now we are going to take 5 to 10 minutes with our eyes closed to revisit this past version of ourselves. My invitation to you is to begin by closing your eyes and envisioning yourself floating above this difficult moment. Allow yourself to feel a loving compassion for this past version of yourself while you just witness them for the first minute. Next, I invite you to feel whatever needs to be said, done or witnessed that would bring more support for your past self at that moment. Feel it come through you and experience it in your imagination. Use some music if it helps you!