Awakening The "Whole" Writer: What It Means To Have A Holistic Writing Life

Introduction

Who you are affects your writing more than you know. 

You are what you do, what you eat, how you act, and how you think and feel about yourself. All of these factors work together to determine your success in the future.

If there’s something wrong in your writing life, it's because there's something wrong in your personal life. And if something's wrong in your personal life, you'll never become the successful writer you always wanted to be. 

If you're stuck in negative patterns or unhealthy habits, this might be bad news for you - but there's a solution, and I'm more than happy to share it.

This blog post will teach you how cultivating a holistic life will help you to become a whole writer, which will maximise your potential in writing and life.

The Whole Writer

Whole writer: A writer who protects and nurtures their creative spirit through regular and sustained acts of self-care.

When you were born, you were without doubts, fears, and worries. You were whole.

Along the way, however, people and events took you off course. These people and events chipped away at you, causing you to feel drained, stressed, insecure, and otherwise “lesser” than you truly are.

We all need to take time out for ourselves. We need times where we can do the things we love,  completely free of fear and judgement, so that we can return to the wholeness we were born with.

In the same way we have to sleep to recharge our energy, we need self-care time to recharge. Self-care recharges our passion, confidence, and faith in our own abilities. It allows us to rebuild layers around our creative spirit, and to protect it from the harshness of all who wish to harm it. Most important of all, we need to treat it with respect, so that people around us do the same.

The Holistic Writing Life

Holistic: The idea that everything you do is “intimately interconnected” and “explicable only in reference to the whole”.  

The holistic lifestyle is a method of self-care that ensures your wellbeing is being taken care of in three key areas:

MIND, BODY & SPIRIT.

By making it a lifestyle, instead of just practicing it when you are in dire need, you can dramatically improve the quality of your life overall.

When you're feeling lost, stuck or insecure about your writing, focusing on these three aspects of your life can help you regain your wholeness.

To be the best you can be at any point in your life, all of these areas need to be fulfilled. You can work on each of them individually, or try activities that work on all three at once. Here are some great examples of what you can do to get started:

• Personal Development (mind, body, spirit): Sometimes the greatest battles you have to fight are within yourself - and winning makes you a much better person. Personal development is all about bettering yourself. What are you doing to fight perfectionism, procrastination, "writers block", and the limited beliefs that are holding you back?

• Spirituality (mind, spirit): Are the things you're doing in your life at the moment working towards your greater purpose in life? Are you doing things that are in alignment with your values? Do you know what your versions of success and happiness look like, so you can work towards achieving them?

• Support Systems: (mind, body, spirit): Introvert or extrovert, it doesn't matter. Everyone needs to have friends and/or family that they can be truly themselves with. People that you support, and who support you. Have you spent enough time with your loved ones lately?

• Exercise (mind, body, spirit): Exercise is crucial to your wellbeing. You don't have to be at olympic athlete standards, but you do have to keep yourself moving for the sake of your creativity, health and sanity.

• Healthy Eating (mind, body): This is a no-brainer. In The Authorship Program® I talk about the fact that if you put quality into your body, you get quality out - not just physically, but mentally as well. To be the best writer you can be, you need to be providing your body with all the nutrients it deserves.

Conclusion

If you haven't already, I'd love you to join my whole writer community by signing up to my newsletter. I can help you become the writer you were destined to be!


What's your favourite self-care activity? Let me know in the comments below!