A Write Mind

Looking forward to teaching a FREE Narrative Therapy Session and Q&A online for Heartland Yoga. If you've ever been curious about the work, join us for an easy beginner session on Friday morning from the comfort of your home!

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-- The Story You Are Living: Re-Imagining What Is Possible --
Free One- Hour Session: August 9th @ 12 pm

In times of challenge, it often seems like the world around us must change for us to feel better. And yet, it is often the stories within us–the internal– that holds us the most captive.
Join narrative therapist and Heartland healing & writing teacher, Andrea Wilson, as she offers a free one-hour session on exploring our frameworks and living into new stories. Discover the reasons why the story you are living has grounded in your consciousness and embrace the power in re-imagining the stories of your past and present, while writing into a new future.

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Andrea Wilson is a narrative therapist who guides women and girls to find their paths, discover meaning in their lives, and to live into new stories. She has a Masters of Narrative Therapy from the Dulwich Center at University of Melbourne, Australia, as well as a Masters of Creative Writing from Cornell College. She is the Founder of the Iowa Writers’ House, and the editor and Publisher of the series, We the Interwoven: An Anthology of Bicultural Iowa.
Her doctoral research at the University of Iowa explores the connections of writing and therapy. She works privately with clients on one, and offers group experiential workshops.
As a TendHer instructor for the past three years, her work has become a special part of Heartland Yoga.

REGISTER:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwscu6qrTgsG9W0UeMSaWyzynPJPVFPw7Lg #/registration

I wish I could do whatever I liked behind the curtain of “madness”. Then: I’d arrange flowers, all day long, I’d paint; pain, love and tenderness, I would laugh as much as I feel like at the stupidity of others, and they would all say: “Poor thing, she’s crazy!” (Above all I would laugh at my own stupidity.) I would build my world which while I lived, would be in agreement with all the worlds. The day, or the hour, or the minute that I lived would be mine and everyone else’s - my madness would not be an escape from “reality.”

—Frida Kahlo

To be remembered:

Nobody can fall so low unless he has a great depth. If such a thing can happen to a man, it challenges his best and highest on the other side; that is to say, this depth corresponds to a potential height, and the blackest darkness to a hidden light.

— C. G. Jung

As much hoopla is associated with Christmas, its deeper meaning doesn’t lie in the external world. The presence of Jesus - a universal factor in the lives of many, including not only those who consider themselves Christian - is a point of Light in the consciousness of humanity. It is indeed a star high up in a night sky, with the power to cast out all the darkness of the world.

Today billions of people all over the planet acknowledge the possibility of an infinite Love. And that one idea changes the world. Whether or not you embrace the reality of this Love as it is embodied in the life of Jesus, simply reflecting on the idea of an infinitely powerful Love transforms our world by transforming our perception of it. For within the space of that Love, when we allow ourselves to actually feel it, miracles occur naturally. The mind is open to possibilities to which we are otherwise blind. The universe corrects itself. What has died is given new life.

I spent last Christmas Eve at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, closed this year due to the tragedy of current events in Israel and Palestine. That of itself is a metaphor for the darkness of the world. But we needn’t be in an outer structure anywhere to experience the meaning of this day. Sitting in my apartment in Washington DC, I was thinking about Christmas trees. The most grounded piece of nature is embellished with lights and ornamentation; what a symbol for the intersection of nature and the divine. I was thinking about what it would mean for me, in my own life, to forgive everyone and everything and have faith beyond what reason can bestow. Questions raged within me like storms that only the hand of God could calm. As I sat there quietly, I felt the presence of an indwelling One. And as I looked at a tree outside my window, something began to happen.

Given that it’s December the trees outside my apartment have lost most of their leaves, the ones now left sort of golden brown. At that moment, as I was looking outside, suddenly sunlight hit the leaves in such a way that they began to sparkle brilliantly. The tree was transformed into a tree all lit up for Christmas, complete with a star shaped leaf on top. The sun turned the entire tree into a burst of light. I did not have to be in Bethlehem to see it. The spiritual Bethlehem is in the heart and it partners with the brain. The mystery clearly uses both.

Had I not considered just moments before that I have to forgive everyone and everything, I don’t think I would have seen the light-filled vision of the tree. Yes, the physical phenomenon would have occurred - but I wouldn’t have necessarily noticed it. It lasted perhaps a minute and I might have been walking into the kitchen right then. Had I not just reflected on the power of faith and what it means for me, the physical phenomenon would have occurred but I wouldn’t have received its message. The spiritual isn’t something different than the world; it is a difference in how we see the world. It opens our eyes to things we wouldn’t otherwise perceive.

May Christmas be real for you and yours today. May every dried up leaf turn into new life for you. May an opening within your mind and heart flood you with love and peace. May forgiveness wash you clean and set you free of inner turmoil. Today’s world is indeed a darkened sky, but the star of Bethlehem signals new hope. I know it’s there, because I felt it in my heart today and I saw it outside my window.

Coming back down from the temporary high of spiritual illumination, I was cast into the lows of sadness as I thought about what is happening in Gaza today. Immediately I was reminded of a line from A Course in Miracles: “The holiest spot on earth is where an ancient hatred becomes a present love.” A heartbreaking scenario is upon us now and it has truly darkened the world.

But I am bolstered in my faith today. May the Light appear. May the Light appear.

(The above is from MarianneWilliamson.Substack.com)

For some years now I have been studying the depths of what happens to us during transformation, and also how we arrive at the point when our soul decides it is finally ready…how when we hit rock bottom or run out of options, or our psyche simply cannot handle any more of the workarounds for the great truth we have avoided.

This passage from Jung speaks to that dead end / beginning…of the great equalizer in being lost as the beginning of being found…

“Jung said that to be in a situation where there is no way out or to be in a conflict where there is no solution is the classical beginning of the process of individuation. It is meant to be a situation without solution: the unconscious wants the hopeless conflict in order to put ego consciousness up against the wall, so that the man has to realize that whatever he does is wrong, whichever way he decides will be wrong. This is meant to knock out the superiority of the ego, which always acts from the illusion that it has the responsibility of decision. Naturally, if a man says, “Oh well, then I shall just let everything go and make no decision, but just protract and wriggle out everywhere,” the whole thing is equally wrong, for then naturally nothing happens. But if he is ethical enough to suffer to the core of his personality, then generally, because of the insolubility of the conscious situation, the Self manifests. In religious language you could say that the situation without issue is meant to force the man to rely on an act of God. In psychological language the situation without issue, which the anima arranges with great skill in a man’s life, is meant to drive him into a condition in which he is capable of experiencing the Self, in which he will be inwardly open to an interference by the tertium quod non datur (the third, which is not given, that is, the unknown thing). In this way, as Jung said, the anima is the guide toward the realization of the Self, but sometimes in a very painful manner. When thinking of the anima as the soul guide, we are apt to think of Beatrice leading Dante up to Paradise, but we should not forget that he experienced that only after he had gone through Hell. Normally, the anima does not take a man by the hand and lead him right up to Paradise; she puts him first into a hot cauldron where he is nicely roasted for a while.”

Marie-Louise von Franz, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales

Art: Dante’s Inferno illustration by Gustave Doré

Do not love half lovers
Do not entertain half friends
Do not live half a life
and do not die a half death

If you choose silence, then be silent
When you speak, do so until you are finished
Do not silence yourself to say something
And do not speak to be silent

If you accept, then express it bluntly
Do not mask it
If you refuse then be clear about it
for an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance

Do not accept half a solution
Do not believe half truths
Do not dream half a dream
Do not fantasize about half hopes

Half the way will get you no where
Half an idea will bear you no results

Half a life is a life you didn't live,
A word you have not said
A smile you postponed
A love you have not had
A friendship you did not know

The half is a mere moment of inability
but you are able for you are not half a being
You are a whole that exists to live a life
not half a life.

~ Khalil Gibran
The Prophet

Mood:

🌟 Exciting News, Loft Community!

We’re thrilled to share that The Loft Literary Center was recently featured in The New York Times! 📰

Discover the incredible journey of Nate Johnson, from attending a workshop at our center to changing the lives of inmates with the art of writing.

This is the impact of community, creativity, and compassion🖋️❤️

Read the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/us/jail-free-writing.html

Want to take a class or workshop like Nate did? Go to loft.org/classes ✏️

PSA:

Fun fact: I love to zone out to reality shows, and a few nights ago a girl was explaining how she wanted to marry her boyfriend. She had been planning her wedding almost her entire life. She spent hours on Pinterest.

When he purposed, she threw herself into wedding planning.

And I couldn’t help but think: why do we leave people so excited about the proposal and planning. Without an education or awareness of relationship skills.

Why don’t we talk more about emotional regulation, active listening, and how to repair (or navigate) conflict.

It’s no wonder so many people feel disappointed, let down, or alone in their marriage. We don’t know how to actually connect. We don’t know how to create emotional intimacy. We don’t speak about maintaining a marriage— we speak about the fantasy of it all.

We do a massive disservice to our collective when we don’t have the cultural conversation and give the education needed to actually build relationships.

What do you all think?

The foundation of my work is the movement of energy through the body, both onto the page and into the therapy room.

We are just beginning to understand the impact of trauma and stress and the ways it affects our minds and our bodies.

Motion of almost any form can begin to dislodge stuck energy in our tissues and help us begin to release and movement as a mode of healing rather than image is a more holistic perspective for a culture obsessed with youth-based beauty.

A gentle walk, a shower, or a change of scenery can all help to get your energy in motion and ready to write your subconscious healing into reality!

Since at least the time of peripatetic Greek philosophers, many writers have discovered a deep, intuitive connection between walking, thinking, and writing. “Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow,” Henry David Thoreau penned in his journal. What is it about walking, in particular, that makes it so amenable to thinking and writing? The answer begins with changes to our chemistry. Read about the curious link between mind and feet: http://nyer.cm/xavdZSo

How perfect is this lovely drawing on integrating grief?
Thank you Sauniar Maybe for sharing !

“All the eggs a woman will ever carry form in her ovaries while she is a four-month-old fetus in the womb of her mother.

This means our cellular life as an egg begins in the womb of our grandmother.

Each of us spent five months in our grandmother's womb, and she in turn formed in the womb of her grandmother.

We vibrate to the rhythm of our mother's blood before she herself is born, and this pulse is the thread of blood that runs all the way back through the grandmothers to the first mother.

~ Layne Redmond, When the Drummers Were Women
https://layneredmond.com/Home.html?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Art: Mamicha
Mamichamaternidad on Instagram
https://www.mamichamaternidad.com/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Tina Turner found the path inside herself…

In 2020, Turner said that that despite having serious health problems, the last 10 years of her life had embodied her ideal vision of happiness.

”I found happiness because I desire nothing. It's a happiness I never knew existed. In the past, happiness was, 'Oh I bought a dress!' 'Oh have this car!' It was all material things. Now I get up in the morning and meditate. Inside, a feeling of wellness where you're sitting there, just where you want to be. There's nothing you want.

People think when you're on stage, that they are your glory days. The lights, the clothes...

They were not my glory days. These, now, are my glory days."

“True and lasting happiness comes from an unshakeable spirit that can shine, no matter what.”

Your sunny Sunday morning reminder: all is as it should be.

Rest.

Our bodies need it. Our minds need it. Our heart and our souls need it.

When did rest become a guilt inducing treat instead of a required part of being human?
When did it become shameful to take care of ourselves?

Whenever the change happened (post-industrial humans-as-machines complex aside) the tides are turning.

How are you taking better care of yourself through rest?

And if you ever need a therapist’s note: I’ve got you covered.

Are you one who thinks deeply and slowly?

Your thoughts and ideas are just as valuable.

And the universe needs to hear them.

“It only needs to make sense to you.”