A Writer’s 7 Steps to Positivity:
Step 3: Fill Your Cup

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    Fill Your Cup

       Step 3 to Positivity is: Fill Your Cup. Your cup is a precious vessel that holds your energy or life force. As a writer, you need energy, and lots of it, to brainstorm, plot, write and rewrite until you put the final touches on your manuscript. Most projects take months to complete, and others a year or more. The best way to sustain energy is to fill your cup and also prevent energy drains that can sap your strength.

    Energy Basics

       The Energy 101 basics are good food, exercise, and proper rest. While working, keep a pace that honors your physical means, take breaks when necessary and learn to say "No" to volunteer work, organizations and meetings when you can't manage more. Guarding your schedule so you can spend time writing isn't being selfish. It's honoring who you are, and what you want, and taking definite steps toward getting it.

    Take Some Time

       Indulging the senses can also restore depleted energy. Sip a full bodied Merlot; burn some lavender incense, listen to a moving piece of music. Laugher and fun, and being with people who love and support you can be energizing and also fuel your inspiration. Take a break from your normal routine, step out of your comfort zone and see what happens. Go on a nature walk and stand on a bluff overlooking a serene body of water as the setting sun paints liquid-orange ripples across the horizon. Or, take a trip to another country, meet the people, learn the language and immerse yourself in a new culture.

    The Power of the Human Spirit

       There is another aspect to energy-the innate power of the human spirit. The World's Fastest Indian is a movie about the true story of Burt Munro who has spent twenty years of his life developing a 1920 Indian motorcycle to be the fastest in Australia and New Zealand. Burt's dream is to travel to the USA to compete in Bonneville Speed Week. But he meets with obstacles and skepticism and big city people who don't believe a simpleton like him has got what it takes. In his abrupt, but friendly nature, Burt presses on, overcomes each hurdle, even having to repair his bike and gain recognition so he will finally be allowed to participate in the race. Eventually he is given the opportunity to compete in the timed run. He achieves his 200mph run then falls after the race. His leg is burned, but Burt has succeeded.

       What allowed an average guy like Burt to succeed against all the odds? The simple answer is the power of his human spirit. Burt didn't have any attachment to other people's negative energy; he had a secure sense of self and honor so his power (or energy) base was not eroded by false symbols of money, the so-called experts, and external authority. Burt Munro had personal power. He knew what he wanted (what he believed in) and kept going until he got it.

    The 4 Energy Drains

       In her book Anatomy of the Spirit, author and energy medicine expert Carolyn Myss talks about life energy and how it flows through the 7 major centers (or chakras) of our body. These energy centers represent major biological batteries of your emotional biography.

       Ask yourself these questions: Is your energy often sapped by your attachment to other people's negative energy or opinions? Do you have a strong sense of security, or is your personal power based on money, sex, or a certain person that you need approval from and who directs your life? How can you secure your sense of self and personal power?

       Becoming aware of energy drains is your first step to keeping your cup full. Myss describes them in 4 categories: 1) The People I can't forgive 2) The people whose approval I need 3) The people I need to control and 4) money.

       Attachments to people that we need to control or get approval from, or can't forgive for past transgressions, keeps us tethered to unhealthy emotional dynamics that continually sap our strength and health. Attachment to money can bind you to a writing project that you're not interested in or hold you in a job that kills your spirit. It can also force you to work too hard and at a pace too fast, to keep up with your wish list of material things. If your things, and servicing the payments on them, become the driving force to go to work each day it might be time to regroup and find a more satisfying and comfortable balance.

    Writing in Balance

       So, how do you find the energy to fuel your writing? Make choices to live your life in a way that supports your physical health, your emotional well being, and strengthens the power of your human spirit.

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Copyright © 2010, Constance Smith, and reprinted with permission from the June 2010 issue of the Mid-Michigan Mirror All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce without written permission of author.