Reflections: Writing, Silence and The Wellspring Within
I started blogging about my work here at Emma Mills London back in 2009, and It’s hard to believe that’s almost fifteen years ago now! I was working in mental health services at the time and I’d just finished five years of formal psychology studies. To begin with I wrote mainly about psychology and personal development and later on, more often about mindfulness, poetry and the enlightening qualities of nature.
I always posted what interested me, along with the topics cropping up in my work at the time and the tips and ideas I’d found helpful and thought you might like to know about too. After all, happiness is better shared and I’d always enjoyed reading other peoples blogs.
Over the years my creative practice has evolved so much. Sometimes the topics that take my interest change; more poetry, less self help, for example. And other times it’s the creative impulse itself that ebbs and flows. At times I have lots to say and share and there is a big outwards movement creatively. Other times there isn’t so much to share and it’s more of a dwelling, percolation period. There is still a sense of creativity and richness but it’s being enjoyed silently on the inside, just for me.
This ‘moving then resting’ process is fascinating to be part of, so long as you’re willing to go with the flow. I’m not necessarily talking here about commercial writing, where for example you’re commissioned to contribute to a book or compose an article on a set topic. Or if you’re writing an instructional self help piece on wellness trends or sharing reviews here with you on Emma Mills London. That writing is a little different and the commission (someone asking for it, and it being part of my job) usually calls forth the ideas and words in a uniquely inspired way.
What I’m taking about here is creative writing that flows from my wellspring; what I feel moved and inspired to say for fun, for my own joy. And over the last few years I notice I have longer and longer periods of not feeling moved to say much at all – not using words anyway. For example, I’ve spent more time than usual exploring less wordy art forms such as visual art, photography, yoga and dance. As well as time spent in nature and working creatively with natural elements such as willow weaving and floral arts.
My approach to mediation has also evolved over the years and these days there’s not much I love more than sitting in silence, just being. And within that silence you find it – something that’s beyond words! Katherine Ingram had it right when she said:
‘In silence you can hear it. Eternity asleep in us’
In the silence there is ever so much. It’s silent but also full and rich. (Quite hard to explain in words!) In the silence there is so much to say and so much to share. But at the same time not much to say at all. Whatever is to be said is known in the moment, in silence, in not saying. What is found is without words, without organisation, without a concrete shape we can title or develop. It is what is, and it’s beyond beautiful. The feeling it leaves is satisfaction. Complete satisfaction, and that doesn’t leave much to talk about does it?
As for today, It’s 8am on a Sunday morning. The birds are singing, the tree tops are rich with the colour only a Sunday morning on a bright day in May can supply. Unnameable shades of sunlight tips the ferns in the woodlands nearby, and no one but me and the woodland animals are here to look on at it in wonder.
It is loud with bird song, so loud and so wonderful you don’t know what to do with it (why do anything?) And there is a warmth, a sweetness in the air, the smell of damp evaporating, the smell of cow parsley and sweet chestnut blossom in hedgerows. The faintest whiff of manure from the field across the way. The song of a tractor bumbling down the lane. The world turns over and this is the scene we are in, right here right now. Shadows move. Sounds evolve. Nothing can stop the scene from unfolding.
I wonder what’s best to write here, what kind of words to offer? But there’s just this brilliant silence. There is so much to say and yet nothing at all. So much can remain unsaid, and that’s ok with me. And when words do come they flow freely and seem to have a life of their own. For a moment or so I am just Loves surrogate (a pen in the universes hand.) I open the computer and type.
Note Taking
I’ve been collecting writing for my new books over the last several years, but no single form occurs to me as to how to present them for now. I write mainly about meditation, poetry, art, beauty and the enlightening qualities of nature. I’m also interested in the creative spirit and how creativity can be an avenue to improved wellbeing, self discovery and more joyful living in general. I’ve written on that topic often and I share snippets with you here on the blog as I go along.
And on that topic, just recently a friend was telling me how they had taken up a new artistic hobby. But, was it going to come to anything? She wondered. It reminded me of some lines I’d written in one of my books and I thought I’d share them here with you.
I hope you enjoy my latest ideas for living well, and you enjoyed this diary entry too.
If it resonates do leave a comment or pop me a message. I always love hearing what you have to say.
Wishing you a wonderful day and thank you for being here reading with me over the years,
Emma
New Post: The Creative Spirit Is A Wind That Blows
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