Music, poetry and creative writing can be helpful tools for wellness.
Writing for Wellness
In my first collection of poems “Out from the Shadows: Poetic Portraits of Faith”, published in 2007, I give expression to a faith journey through the dark valley of a midlife crisis.
In “Peach, Limestone, and Green”, published after my first wife Denise died, I share letters and poems I wrote on my journey through loss and grief. While I both embraced and pushed back from sources of comfort along the way, I was touched by grace time and again which empowered me to continue with hope, my creative writing helping to heal and harvest wisdom for growth and maturity.
With “Called to be Alive!” I have turned again to the practice of creative writing together with other contemplative arts like lectio divina, journaling, music, meditation, and forest bathing to help do the inner work necessary for me to navigate from midlife to elderhood. Deciding not to merely drift into my older years, I have embraced aging as a spiritual practice by which I gain enlightenment and am enlivened for purposeful living. As a conscious elder, I am open and responsive to the promptings of Spirit, meaningfully engaged in the completion of my life on earth.
Call to Write Poetry
Anything is subject for a poem. Any time is occasion for writing a poem. A wise person who wants to be enlivened and enlightened by the Spirit of Life will do well to cultivate the poet in themselves.
See excerpt from 365 Tao below:
Choose Words that Are Life-giving
Create Positive Change Through Your Words
Choose to be more conscious, putting to rest words and phrases that are outmoded, insensitive, or harmful. Choosing words that are life-giving.
All we have to do is choose to be more conscious, putting to rest words and phrases that are outmoded, insensitive, or harmful. We can also exercise our creativity by creating new phrases that carry positive and loving energy to replace the old ones.
You may already have some ideas about phrases you’d like to transition out of your language, and now that you’re thinking about it, you may come across many more. As you consciously decide not to use these phrases, you may feel lighter and more joyful, knowing that you have chosen to drop baggage that was handed down to you from a less conscious time. As you do so, you elevate the language for future generations who would no doubt thank you if they could.
See entire OM article: