Resistance is Real (Strategies from Brave Space)

Resistance is real. Resistance keeps us from doing all the things we want to do (not just writing) unless we have a system. Brave Space works to give you a system. Every time you enter Brave Space with me, you are discovering some of the best ways for you to beat your own resistance while you actually beat the resistance!

1) Breathing - yes, you're doing it right now, but are you aware of it, can you feel the cool in-breath at your nostrils? Can you let your belly be soft? your chair or your bones or bed or furniture hold you so you don't have to do all the work? Let your jaw relax? Breathing can remind us of our essential mortality and spur us toward setting just a few minutes aside for a few lines of something. A note to self about the color of today’s sky. A memo on the pressure I feel to do x, and how I'm gonna push back against it. A line for a poem to be. (The line I saved today for a future poem is, "you appeared in 17 searches this week.")

2) Being a writer - walking the walk, list all the things you think that writers do or get to do, and then write so that you can do them! If I write for at least 5 minutes, I get a piece of writing chocolate. I try to do at least 1 thing every day that is related to writing, like read a great writer or check out a place where I might submit my work or actually submit something or reach out to a potential collaborator. If you are just starting out with writing, you might try to read more writing like the kind you want to do or identify part of the craft you want to master and look for examples of how other people have done it.

3) Make a plan to resist the resistance. Block a time every day to write and then write. Easier said than done, right? Block a time and write a plan on a sticky note about what you're going to do with that time and then do it. 5 minutes to write is a good start. If you can do 5 minutes every day for a week, you get a big gold star from me, and you get bragging rights! And you get what you wrote!

Showing up is hard, but you can make it easier. You will surprise yourself if you start to plan even if you're a seat-of-your-pants person. A little planning puts dinner on the table. A lot of planning will put a novel on your shelf with your name on the spine. Come to Brave Space for more strategies and a community of like-minded people doing what you’re dreaming of doing.