Melting the Ice Around Your Truth

My words are stuck. They are not stuck in my fingers. They are not stuck in my mind. They are stuck in my heart, frozen in an iceberg of indecision and doubt. I sense my Truth is in there, but it remains veiled, refusing to reveal itself. How do I move forward?

Have you ever felt that sensation? Like you know there is something you really need to write, but you aren’t even sure what it is? You don’t even know where to begin?

One of the best ways is to begin is with free writing. Begin by writing the phrase "I can't write about ..." at the top of a piece of scrap paper. Then list as many things as you can think of that you can't write about. Don't worry. You are going to destroy this list as soon as you make it.

Then pick one topic and use it as a free writing topic. Sit down with several sheets of scrap paper and a smoothly writing pen — a gel one is excellent, because it hardly drags on the paper — and start writing. When you are tempted to quit writing, pull rank. Exert mind over fingers and persist. No matter what, keep the fingers moving, and don’t stop. The results are likely to sound something like

I can’t write about the day I gave Samuel’s ring back. I can’t write about the reasons. I can’t write about them because my fingers stop moving when I try. I can’t just say to my fingers WRITE they won’t listen they just sit there lifelessly with a life of their own saying NO this is not something to write about you really can’t write about this and I say write about it anway just go ahead and say the words if I talk about giving the ring back I’ll admit I can’t write it that I never loved him in the first place and felt so guilty about ...

This doesn’t need to make sense. This isn’t about eloquence or even coherence. It’s about unblocking, about thawing that ice in your heart and letting the words gush forth again. It's about healing your soul, finding more about who you really are and what your deepest Truth is. You may set a timer for as little as ten minutes, or you may find words begin to gush and you write for an hour or more.

When you are finished, you have a choice. You’ve managed to write. You can reread the words. You can keep them. You can highlight thoughts and passage you want to work with later. Or you can destroy them in the fireplace or shredder. The important thing is that you wrote about something you dreaded writing about.

How does that feel? Brave and empowered? Relieved? Or maybe a little scared about defying your Inner Censor?

Don’t be surprised if you feel blocked again when you next try writing about this topic. It may take more than half a dozen sessions of free writing to chip away the ice surrounding your Truth, and it may not look anything like you thought it did when you finally liberate it, but it’s worth persisting for the insight you gain.

This is not a topic that can be intellectually explained. You’ve got to try it to “get it.”

Write now: find some scrap paper and set a time for ten minutes. Write bravely about a secret you are terrified to tell anyone. It may be old, it may be new, but everybody has at least one. Start with “I can’t write about ... ” When you are finished, burn or shred what you wrote.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal