This is the first of several essays based on an interview with Dr. Susanna Williams of the University of Virginia Mindfulness Center.

To find your authentic self, put it in writing.

That’s a too-short summation of the work of Dr. Susanna Williams, whose eight-week workshop on writing and mindfulness helps students grapple with the question of how to access the more creative parts of the brain.

Mindful writing can “allow the person to really reach their authentic self,” Williams explained in a recent telephone interview. “A lot of people feel blocked by writing, they sit there with their pen above the paper and can’t quite get it out, can’t quite put it down.”

But in a concentrated study program with her six students, “I help people get around their own obstacles…I use different techniques for that, including mindfulness and meditation, which help navigate around people’s inner roadblocks and kind of gear the mind to do so.”

Williams’ course is titled Mindful Writing – Coming to Your Senses!, a helpful play-on-words that refers to Williams’ effort to involve a writer’s physical senses and overall mental awareness (a sense of oneself) in the process of hearing the “inner voice,” as she describes the experience.

The writing process taught in the course is “very effective. People are very surprised at how quickly it works.”

Williams, who holds a Ph.D. from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, is on the faculty of the Mindfulness Center at UVa and also does research with the Contemplative Sciences Center.  She has worked in the area of health care, most recently in global health where she has helped design and work out ways to focus on health practices that include social and emotional issues. Much of her approach is based neuroscience research that shows the effects of mindfulness practices on well-being.

Much of the success of the mindfulness-writing program stems from Williams’ understanding that people have deep within them a reservoir of thoughts and experiences that they need to express on paper.

“Once they reach that well, they’re very encouraged and motivated, and they learn with practice to get there more quickly and reliably.”

Williams’ current course, runs through March 25. She prefers to keep the number of enrolled writers to eight or fewer. That gives her plenty of time to help the students express themselves in their writing.

“Everybody has something to say,” Williams said, “and everybody wants to say that. Each person is here for a unique purpose. We all have a deep sense of that, some more than others.” People familiar with the process of writing quite naturally “want to write about that (deep sense), they want to access that and put it on paper.”

An instructor needs experience and a careful approach to help people reach the place where they are comfortable with writing down such deep thoughts.

“People kind of trust me. I create a safe space and allow them to express what is on their minds,” Williams said. “If people can trust me, then I can lead them. It’s really kind of amazing where people can come to. I worked with people who’ve done my classes for actually years in a row who have become amazing writers. It’s just awesome.”

More information about Dr. Williams’ work at the Mindfulness Center, along with the Center’s other programs, is available here.

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Relationships present the ultimate landscape for finding inner balance and spiritual advancement. To some, such a statement may sound odd. We tend of think of difficulties in our relationships. How could the person we hound about dirty dishes, the person who nags us about trivialities, the union that seems to breed so many twitches and glitches — how could this relationship actually be a conduit to find God, our Higher Awareness, or the loving embrace of the Universe?

The answer is very simple: Your significant other — the one you wake up next to every day, the one who greets you after a hard day of work — is the primary being in your life. Through this individual, through the physical proximity you share day in and day out and simply through visual or physical cues, the tools exist — as they do in no other place — to cement a serene and Light-filled mindset.

Unfortunately, many of us ramp up conflict in our relationships. Wound tight by our daily routines, bound by habit toward mental struggle and subsequent frustration, we often see our significant other as the easiest target for our unfortunate attacks. As I explore in my book, Break Your Addiction To Conflict, most of us fall back on the convenience of mental struggle (conflict) as our default mindset. Living in a frenetic world that is teeming with contradictions and challenges, we crank up our internal dialogues to match the perceived chaos of the outside environment. As a result, we often wallow needlessly in fear, anxiety, or rage, and we cling to these negative drivers as a form of readiness to face the “craziness” of the day.

View your home life as a sanctuary, a place to spiritually “bookend” your daily routine. Use the primary being in your life to balance yourself, emotionally and mentally. It is easier than you think. Eye contact, a massage of the shoulders, basic physical and visual cues — these work immediately to break patterns of negativity. Try doing so now. Notice, also, the distance you keep from your spouse in the morning; are you too often disappearing into a portable device or sticking your nose into a newspaper? Move closer to that individual. Move into the Light of intimacy and compassion by meeting your partner’s gaze, touching his or her arm, or stroking his or her hair. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be prolonged. But cement the possibility that God, the divinity of the Universe, or spiritual hope rests within the glow of that other human being. (Read the chapter ‘The Olympics of Spirituality’ in my book.)

Our addiction to conflict lies in our gravitation to convenience. Conflict exists in any mental struggle where our wishes fall out of synch with the demands of a situation. Focus on conflict being this: any mental struggle where our wishes run contrary to demands.

Review your day. Look at your patterns of mental resistance across your personal and professional spectrums. It is incredibly easy and convenient to stir up mental struggle. But in the spiritual quest to find lasting serenity, we must break these habitual patterns. You can do that right now, every day and any day, simply by connecting with the Light of your mate. Again, keep it simple: a smile, a touch, a caress. Then drink from the pool of hope and gratitude that is your home life.

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Nathan J. Snow is giving away a signed copy of his latest book, Break Your Addiction to Conflict. As Chestelle Samford, “The Book Nut” said,

This slim little book can literally change your life in the short time it takes to read and absorb…

Get your free copy signed by the author here at http://LibraryThing.com. If you miss the giveaway, don’t worry you can get either the print or ebook copy below.

get the ebook at Amazon here

get the paperback at Amazon here

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If you hurry, you can be one of the lucky few who get a free copy of Nathan J. Snow’s latest book, Break Your Addiction to Conflict! You will need to be a LibraryThing.com member. Library Thing is a wonderful site for book lovers everywhere, you will love it too. go to the giveaway now!

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Nathan J. Snow’s self-help book, Break Your Addiction to Conflict, will be reviewed in the issue of ForeWord Reviews available March 1 at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide.

ForeWord Reviews is both a print magazine and online review service for readers, booksellers, book buyers, publishing insiders, and librarians…

read the article

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