Looking Back to Look Forward (S21E5)

So, so actually, as a starting point with that, um, I am about to revive, uh, a practice that I used to share, uh, called A Piece of Quiet, and if you've been with me for a while then you might have heard me talking about it.

And essentially, um, it's this idea that we can find these sacred pauses, um, in our day, and really settle in, uh, come home to ourself, um, to use some mindfulness, some relaxation, meditation techniques.

And from there to use a prompt and, um, and do some flow journaling.

And I find that when we begin our journaling practice with, um, with some relaxation, with some centeredness, then it makes the words flow even more fluidly, which doesn't mean that that doesn't happen if we don't have time to take a pause to do a, a kind of a, a short m- meditation before we journal.

But I think there's something about the, the kind of both/and, um, that it can be wonderful.

You know, if you're, like, right up in your head, and you don't know what to do about a problem, and you use the prompt, "How can I bring more compassion here?" And you just sit and write to that, like, in your kind of activated, agitated state, it can be super interesting to see what might turn up on the paper.

And equally, if you're able to find just a little bit more time and do a short relaxation practice, something that really enables you to [exhales] settle into your body, and really come into the journaling as a somatic practice, then writing that prompt, "How can I bring more compassion here?" might reveal something very different.

Um, and I think they both have value, and I think it's also really interesting how we can use one prompt in these two approaches.

Uh, sometimes when I'm doing, um, group work, we'll do some, like, speed journaling.

You know, we'll literally write just for two or three minutes to a prompt.

We'll drop into it.

I'll share the prompt.

We write for two or three minutes.

We see what's emerged.

And, you know, th- so all of these different, uh, ways of approaching, uh, the practice of flow journaling or journaling in general, you know, they're all valid.

They're all really useful in their own way.

But the practice of A Piece of Quiet is really about this intentional pause.

Um, and so I'm very excited to say that I am reviving it, relaunching it, um, as a live practice.

So before, I used to record it, and shared it as a private podcast, um, for people who subscribed, and now I am launching it as a live free, um, practice.

So every Monday starting this coming Monday, the 5th, I think it is, of October, 6:30 PM UK time, you can come and join me for 25 minutes, no more, less if you want to, uh, sort of drop out earlier of course.

But, um, but we'll just be together for 25 minutes, and we'll have a few minutes to let everybody into the room.

We'll then go straight into a relaxation practice.

They'll be different each week.

And then out of that practice, I will see what flow journaling prompt emerges.

I will share it with you, and we'll write together, and then we'll close.