In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.
-Abraham Maslow (https://www.pinterest.ca/explore/move-forward-quotes/?lp=true)

I thought I could make the previous entry sound less whiny than the original but nope...still sounds pretty pathetic lol.  Oh well...I whine from time to time.  That's the truth of it!   I have learned, however, not to stay there in the drama.  I don't like being stuck mentally in those perceptions of  lack, loss and limitation. So I always eventually try to take a step and move in at least some direction away from them. I move toward healing, toward growth. I want you to move toward your growth as well.

An example: Being stuck as a writer

Whether you are a writer or not there may be some learning to gain from this example.

 In June I took a step towards becoming unstuck by writing seven articles in a two-three week period for the purpose of submission. I knew I was stuck. I had not submitted short non-fiction in a very long time and knew that to get unstuck I had to focus on submission.  Luckily for me, five  of those articles have been or will be published as of next month. Five out of seven is not bad for any writer.  You would think that getting myself unstuck once would spur me on and motivate me to continue with the process of writing more articles.

But no...I somehow got stuck in the "submission and publication process" and neglected to write new stuff other than what is on this blog. I settled into a comfort zone of waiting for all seven articles to be published before I wrote more non-fiction articles.  The ideas keep coming but I push them aside. I was taking a step back into safety.

In fact, I have been taking a lot of steps back in my writing.  I have not been writing fresh stuff of any kind other than on this blog.  I was not even trying to create new stuff for "potential" publication...just recycling the old from publisher to publisher. One rejection would lead me to sending the work elsewhere. I was also  telling myself, "When my books get published and all the stuff I have previously written gets accepted I will be all set! My feeling of being stuck financially, professionally, and personally will be resolved. I will make money, be able to slip the writer title on the back of my name to replace the RN and I will have found something I can do with a body that is perceiving limitation. " I wrote three books since 2014 and I find myself "stuck" waiting for them to rescue me by getting validated. Now that's stuck!

While I was waiting, I have not been writing the way I want to write. Ideas and new stories keep popping into my head but I put them aside until after I am fully validated.  I am not writing the way I want to write, the way I can write.

When I am on a roll...I am usually writing fiction and non-fiction at the same time.    Fiction uses the right brain more than the left; non-fiction uses the left brain. When I write both concurrently an amazing thing happens...things open up.  If I want to write good non-fiction I need to keep writing fiction and if I want to write good fiction I need to write non-fiction. In my stuckness, I focused on the nonfiction because that is much more publishable and neglected the fiction. Fiction leads to a lot more rejection and disappointment and I wanted to avoid that.  Avoidance leads to staying stuck!

So I had a choice: to stay stuck or to take a step in any direction even if it meant rejection.    I sat down the day before yesterday and said, "Enough of feeling  stuck! Write!"  So I did.  Yesterday I finished the rough draft of a 2500 word short story. I made myself write over 1000 words the first day and the  remainder the second day until I had a story with a beginning, middle and end to it.  The creating part is done.  I will spruce it up, get one person to read it and regardless of their opinion I will send it out there somewhere.  I will have then completed my little writing cycle...Whether or not I get published is not the point...the point is I am writing fiction, risking rejection and sending it out.  That is where the growth comes in...in the movement forward!

I find myself feeling very relieved.  I am not saying the story is good or bad...it just is.  I opened up and I got it down.  I took a step in a direction, even if it is the wrong direction. I am unstuck. 

Moral of this story

Writing is not about waiting for publication...it is about using the now to create whatever is asking to be created.  It is not asking for validation but validating self as a channel for things to come through.  It isn't about submission of perfect work but about expression of the true self in whatever form it presents itself.

Living is not about waiting for something outside you to happen, to push you or take you by the hand.  It is about you taking a step in the direction you are being called.  Even if it seems like you are finding yourself on the wrong path...it will eventually take you to the right one.  Take a step towards your life. It is waiting so you do not have to!

All is well in my world!


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