All "Writer's Blocks" are really "Chakra Blocks"
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It's said that with the right leverage you can move mountains, and by using the chakras we can align your inspiration, imagination, voice, heart and willpower in order to birth your book and grow your audience. That's a ton of leverage!
However, sometimes making progress triggers fear. This process works the best when you move from one chakra to the next. When you come up against any sort of block, it means that chakra is burned out from overuse or weakened by neglect.
We have all sorts of New Year’s festivities coming up in the Writer's Block Community, including the 7-Day Writing & Yoga Challenge to get your creativity flowing on January 12th - 18th.
People talk about aligning the chakras all the time and it sounds abstract. It’s not. When you align the chakras from the bottom up, i.e. the masculine path of liberation it leads to an intense connection to spirit, or what Alessandra Segrado calls a Soulgasm. But we’re not going to talk about that. Come on, stay focused or you’re never gonna get this book done.
Today I want to move all the way down the chakra system from top to bottom, using the feminine manifesting path. When you align this way you’re able to successfully create what you want to contribute to the world.
It’s simple to explain but not necessarily easy to accomplish. There are different kinds of frustrations and blocks that come up along the way. But I like to say, slaying the dragons is part of the adventure. No offence to dragons. Here we have seven metaphorical dragons and instruction on how you might go about slaying them.
If you’re stuck in the crown chakra…
You have a plethora of ideas and choosing any one of them feels like attending the funeral of all the others. The frustration of getting stuck at this stage is that your dreams remain dreams and don’t get any closer to reality.
Try This…
Live the question and take notes. When you don’t have answers, live the question with your pen. The seasons exercise from chapter eleven can give you a kickstart on this process, but more than anything, the goal is to give voice to your intuition in a way that’s neither impulsive nor overly conservative. That’s the sweet spot.
If you’re entertaining multiple ideas for multiple books, live the question and take notes. Julia Cameron’s morning pages are wonderful for this. Let the answers develop gradually over a series of sessions. Which one is coming together and which one shows signs of falling apart? Which haunts you with characters and dialogues even if it doesn’t seem practical? Which one repeats itself week after week?
If you’re stuck in the third-eye…
You know exactly what you want but you won’t admit it, even to yourself. You’re worried about what people will think and say, your family in particular. You’re imagining the worst. You’re living in the past and future, stressing over everything that might go wrong if you put yourself out there and remembering everything that’s ever gone wrong in your life before.
Try this…
Start by finding an ally, one person you can talk to or join a supportive community like The Writer’s Block. You’ve got to get out of your head and connect with the reality of what you want to create. The fact is you can use this tactic all the way through. You can launch to a small audience. Actually, that’s likely to happen whether or not it’s your preference. You can take advantage of this and build your chops. This doesn’t have to be scary. Nobody is going to shove you on stage in a stadium tour or slap you on the front of the New York Times against your will. You work up to those things, and by doing that work you get stronger and braver and the details fall into place. Allow yourself to do things on a small scale and build. Don’t be afraid.
If you’re stuck in the throat chakra…
You talk about the book, but have a hard time slowing down your energy, focusing and getting it done. If you find yourself talking about writing a novel more than sitting down and writing, you may be jumping the gun in your mind, which is both exciting and terrifying. Sometimes people get stuck in these upper chakras because they’re afraid that if they really went for it, they’d look foolish, or they’d find out they’re mediocre.
Try this…
Shower this block with love. Love yourself. Love your work. Be an amateur first. Anyone who speaks a romance language will recognize that the root of amateur is the Latin amare, to love. Loving the act of writing will slow that ephemeral chatty energy and nurture the manuscript into being.
If you’re stuck in the heart chakra…
Like I said at the beginning, this is the spiritual path to writing and publishing. No matter how far you get with the project, it’s sacred as it is. It’s worth it. It's why people say, if you write you’re a writer, and for good reason. Even when you’re a well-known, well-paid writer, hopefully you don’t sit around thinking about fame and money all day. You think about stories and you write them.
However, it can also be be hugely beneficial to your personal, spiritual, financial and every other kind of growth to take this to the next level. Your current career lacks any joy and fulfillment. There’s a community that would greatly benefit from what you’re doing.
Try this…
Once you start loving the process, love it more. And more and more. Go from fan to fanatic. Look into microgenres like intergalactic space politics or reincarnation romance mysteries and familiarize yourself with authors. See if there are interviews and learn about their career paths. Start to meet other fanatics, find out where they hang out. Offer to trade your own writing or ask them to take a look. Soon enough you’re a fanatic maturing into your own career.
If you’re stuck in the solar plexus…
You’ve become such a fanatic that you can’t stop tweaking your manuscript. You’re so familiar with the work and the careers of your favorite authors that you feel like you can’t compare or you’ll never catch-up. You decide you’re never going to publish.
Try This…
The gap between yourself and your favorite author won’t be bridged by endless tweaking. The gap is by taking a leap. Don’t worry about what others are doing. Follow through with your own swing. Put yourself out there and become a living breathing part of the conversation.
If you’re stuck in the sacral chakra…
You publish aaaaand nothing happens. You haven’t gotten the hang of networking and promoting, and the book fails to gain traction. When I first published The Meaning Method, it felt like I was operating my author career with a hand crank. When I cranked out the promotions there would be sales, and when I stopped the sales would stop. This is how it can feel before momentum builds and your work takes on a life and rhythm of its own.
Try This…
The unfortunate truth is that the moment you publish your book people far and wide are not automatically going to flock to it. There aren’t shortcuts, not even when you throw a lot of money at it. This really is more about your resourcefulness than your resources. You’ve got to experiment and find a way to spread your message, connect with others and build relationships that you enjoy. As you gain momentum this gets easier and feels more natural. My all-time favorite book on this topic is Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday.
If you’re stuck in the root chakra…
You’ve gained a certain amount of success in a given area and it feels safe. You refuse to jump off the cliff with a new idea because of all you don’t rock the boat. New Ideas start to sprout but you shoot them down. Even if you’re already beginning to feel burned out, you don’t want to start the cycle again from the beginning. It’s the end of the revolution.
Try This…
Remember, start this process in the upper chakras, entertain the idea in your dreams and then start to sketch it out on paper. You don’t have to know all the answers just yet. Live the questions.
That’s a pretty good chakra workout for today! Have a great weekend.