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Writing Our Hearts
Out
Spring 2009
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by Nessa McCasey |
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We are very pleased
to welcome Nessa McCasey back to SoulfulLiving.com! With each new issue, Nessa will offer
a poem or short writing based on our magazine's
theme and will provide techniques for creative
expression that you can use to explore the topic
yourself.
Oneness is for Everyone
… The heart creates oneness,
And oneness is another name
For spontaneous joy.
—Sri Chinmoy
The Divine Hero, Published by Watkins
Try closing your eyes for a few restful moments, breathing in and out slowly, calming your entire body. Then read through the quote above again, perhaps even twice. When you are done, close your eyes again and imagine a time
of joy that you have experienced in the past. Make a short note about one or more of these joyful experiences that come into your mind.
In writing this column, I googled “oneness” and read through a couple of articles on the Internet. One in particular was very hopeful to me. The author, Steve Pavlina, offers an exercise of imagining a world where everyone
practices goodwill to each other. There are no guns, no conflicts, in this imaginary world. I believe that we can bring into our own immediate environments a calming sense of well-being and goodwill by our conscious thoughts and actions. Writing these down is a way to bring
ideas into our consciousness, so I’m going to give you some writing prompts to work on this, so that you will be able to bring more of a sense of calm and hope into your life. I believe that we can give to ourselves this kind of peaceful, hopeful benefit. So, for example,
just what will you bring into your world in this way? How will you seek the benefit of “oneness” for yourself?
Using your joyful descriptions from the above exercise, write out 1-5 ways that you can “set up” those experiences to happen today. Write these as affirmations or positive statements, such as Today, I will smile at people I
see on my journey out into the community. Or, Today, I will hold myself open to laughter with my husband. When I keep focusing on bringing joy and love into my heart, I feel that I am bringing more of these qualities into our stressed out, fearful world, as well as
into my own body, my own life.
Through scientific research studies, we are proving that writing in a healing, hopeful manner is beneficial to our immune systems. We can help ourselves in this way. If we put our focus on bringing joy and connection
into our lives, then that will become more of how we feel and that will benefit our immune systems, and may reduce our heart rate! It seems that we need a regular “prescription” of this sort to offset what we see on our nightly news (or rather, the 24-hour cable news
programs).
Here are some prompts to write a poem or prayer to bring more of a sense of Oneness or Wholeness to humankind. Try something like this as a format:
____________ (to whom you are addressing the prayer or poem)
Who is ____________
Please _____________
May ______________
Help ____________
Let _____________
Show ___________
Hide _____________
I will ______________
Repeat any of the lines above to add on or add your own lines, too.
Oneness is really the way we live within our earthly environment. We are all here together on one planet; that’s just a fact. Acting with a spirit of Oneness is a way that we can change the world. There was recently a very
visible exhibit of the power of this: Earth Hour, happened on March 28 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., when participants simply shut out the lights in an act of unity to “vote” for the Earth. Many cities and homes around the globe shut off their lights in support of Earth Hour.
Oneness is powerful. I hope you will regularly bring this power into your own life, for your own well-being.
With Creative Care,
Nessa
© Copyright 2009 Nessa McCasey. All Rights
Reserved.
Read Nessa McCasey's Past Columns:
Winter 2007 - The Meaning of Life
Winter 2006 - Being Still and Still Moving the Pencil July-Sept 2005 -
Balance -- Creating a Map to Take You There
Oct - Dec 2004
- Letting Go and Moving Forward: Writing as a Map of
Progress
Aug
- Sept 2004 - Writer’s Block and Then… Moving Forward Again
April
- May 2004 - Identifying Our Crossroads
January
- February 2004 - Daring to Dream Out Loud
December
2003 - Joining Together with Our Words of Grace
November
2003 - Midlife Questioning: One Writer's Path to
Learning
October
2003 - Can We Write (or Read) Our Way to Serenity?
Nessa McCasey is a Certified Poetry Therapist who leads expressive writing groups in Michigan and online. Contact her at
poetnessa@writersofwrongs.com for more information.
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Email Nessa at:
poetnessa@writersofwrongs.com |
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