One way to bypass the inner judge is to focus in on an object in a place, time your writing, or otherwise constrain your writing situation. Much of my "40 days of ordinary rapture" journal writing in 2006 took place in my backyard at either dawn or twilight--between the earl grey scent of citrusy bergamot, the camellia blooming pink, the migratory birds, the snail's itinerary, the texture of passing clouds.... there was plenty to pay attention to yet it was also so-called ordinary enough it would be grandiose to worry about whether it was "good enough."
The following two snippets speak to constraining your attention to an object (and try to see it for its own sake) or constraining your time to a set limit.
"Look at a cup, for example. Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast and so on? Are not your aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? How else would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop it? What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past? You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning. Do you, then, really see it?" - A Course in Miracles, Lesson 7
"In Ray Bradbury’s Zen and the Art of Writing, he tells the story about how he wrote Fahrenheit 451. He’d been unable to get any writing done at his home, because he had a few young children who wouldn’t stop screaming. So, he went to the library to write. The library had typewriters that let you write for 10 minutes when you put in a dime. Ray was struggling with the money at the time, and had to feed his family, so he didn’t have many dimes. He’d pop in the dime and then frantically type for 10 minutes. In-between, he’d walk around the library.
When you write incredibly quickly, it induces a flow state, which taps into your unconscious mind.
. . . . You cannot edit yourself and be in a state of flow simultaneously. Flow first, then edit. Then press publish." - Ev Bogue
ART CREDITS: My own photo of rose petals on Seattle sidewalk. These are the types of photos I was taking in summer 2006. Simple. Seemingly mundane. Everyday beauty.
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