Writing Your Way to Freedom…

Writing soothes my soul and allows me to escape into my own created world where there are no boundaries.

It calms me, and takes me into an unknown world well worth the adventure. Much of my writing is the window to the heart, soul, and mind of Lisa.

While writing had been a hobby for many years, I opened that window for all the world to see when I did my first self-published booklet in 1997, The Relationship Guide to Fulfillment, Passion and Joy.

Poetry, on the other hand, was a hidden passion, peeking in on a deeper, more intimate side of me. When I’m writing poetry, there are no rules to follow—something I struggled with as a child.

As a young girl, I was placed in a “special” remedial class for students who needed additional help with their reading skills. Little did I know how monumentally limiting that moment would be for me. With that experience, I decided my writing wasn’t good enough for anyone to see.

Eventually, I found that there were rules about writing, ways you should write—even rules about life that I “must” follow to be good. I created my own hidden world of rules for writing, my own rules of life, and kept them in a safe place, hidden from everyone.

Publicly, I focused my energies on Mathematics and earned a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance. Although silent, the writer in me remained.

Finally in 2001, The Power, Passion and Purpose Group was born. (That's The P3 Group for short!) The P3 Group’s mission is: Every Woman Lives a Life of Power, Passion, and Dreams Come true. Funny, that I was teaching women to live passionately and to have powerful, fulfilled lives, yet my poetry was a hidden passion. I realized keeping it a secret was compromising my integrity. It was time to unleash, unlock and empower the extraordinary woman within.

So, I open the gates and allowed my poetry to flow in early 2002 during a poetry reading created by The P3 Group at a coffee shop. My husband encouraged me to read my poetry aloud as often as possible given my love and passion for it. At an open mic night while visiting California, the positive response finally convinced me to believe my friends, my husband, and most importantly, to believe in myself. I decided to let go of the past about not being a “good” writer and to let it rip. I assembled an electronic book, called A Passion for Poetry—A Collection on Love, Loss and Life, and five accompanying poetic prints.

I believe there is a writer in all of us. The process of opening up your creativity is not a simple formula; each woman has her own process, but the following steps worked for me:

1) Find the space for your creativity to emerge. You must be still to hear from your inner self, your spirit. Webster defines “be” as “to exist or live.” Being requires very little effort, very little thought, because you ARE simply by virtue of being alive. Further, Webster defines “still” as “noiseless; silent, stationary and tranquil; calm.” In being still, you want to calm and center yourself, focusing on being present to the moment. One way to do this is to find a place of solitude, a tranquil place when you can actively listen for what’s needed and wanted.

2) Open your heart to your passions. In the still moments you want to listen to your spirit and begin to give language to your inner voice. Ask yourself:
What is it that I most love?
What is life like when I lose track of time? What am I engaged in? What is the experience?
What are my most intimate thoughts?
When am I most alive?

3) Think of how you feel. Notice what emotions are bubbling up within you. Our emotions are the flags of our passions waving us down the path to our truest selves.

4) As your thoughts unfold, capture your experience on paper. Give it life by writing it as vividly and specifically as you can. Thank “the Editor” for sharing and send her away! Just “be still” and write until you are empty, describing every feeling, every thought and every emotion.

I’ll leave you with an excerpt from my poem “If My Passion Could Feel:”

If my passion could feel, it would spread its wings open, fly and soar
Wide open.
Oh, freely gliding.
Free. Free. Free to be
To create, concentrate, relate from a clean slate
And make visions of one’s own calling.
Embrace and face the world with a full succulent force and rejoice.
It would swoop up those who long and choose to be with me….finding peace and serenity within.
Ahhhh, yes, if my passion could feel….Free, oooohhhh free, Wild-like free, free, freeeeeeeee…