When the World Feels Like It’s Spinning, Robin Finn Has an Easy Practice to Help You Find Solid Ground
In 2023, I led a healing workshop funded by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. In the workshop, women gathered to write their COVID stories, sharing details about the loneliness, fear, and isolation they experienced during the pandemic and their insights on the strange silver linings of having more time with children, releasing the need for constant activities, and getting to know neighbors through sidewalk dining. The workshop experience was transformative. It demonstrated how storytelling fosters resilience and connection. Participants told me they came away feeling that “Every person's story is valuable, including mine” and how “writing is freeing,” and “pure nourishment for the soul.”
As an author and educator with a background in public health and spiritual psychology, I’ve seen how writing can be a powerful tool for self-care, offering a way to process stress, grief, and uncertainty.
Studies show that writing can boost our physical and mental wellbeing, decrease anxiety, and increase a sense of optimism, all much-needed benefits during times of great upheaval. The thing I love most about writing is that it is quick, easy, and accessible to everyone. No special attire, equipment, or location is required—just paper and pen and a little guidance. The hardest part of writing is often knowing how to get started.
So, what can we do now when our time, resources, and personal energy feel so stretched? How do we begin to take care of ourselves when our lives feel in turmoil and the outside world demands so much?
We can turn to writing to heal. This beautiful practice does not have to be arduous or time-consuming. Here, I offer three steps to help you launch a regular writing practice. The steps are designed to be simple, completed in short bursts, and easily incorporated into any lifestyle to help you connect to yourself, unleash your words, and allow writing to become part of your healing journey.
Step 1: Anchor to a quality
Sometimes people avoid writing because they believe they ‘are not a writer,’ or were told at some point their writing wasn’t ‘good,’ or they were once a journal writer but do not know how to return to it. A great way to support your goal to express yourself through writing is to first anchor to a quality. Your quality can be anything that enhances your sense of safety, security, and wellbeing. Common qualities students anchor to in support of their writing are: Energy, Focus, Self-love, Gratitude, Release, Freedom, Healing, Joy, and Acceptance.
Choose a quality that speaks to you, place your hand over your heart, repeat your quality out loud or in your head, and simply breathe in and out for one minute. Think of this time as your creative ‘palate cleanser’—the space between the noisy life you are navigating and the time you are giving yourself to unleash your thoughts and feelings onto the page.
Step 2: Write to a timer
Set a timer for five minutes and write quickly, without stopping, until the timer goes off. Give yourself permission to allow your writing to go wherever it wants by using simple open-ended prompts such as, ‘I feel…’ or ‘What’s on my mind…’ or ‘The truth is…’. Writing to a timer as quickly as you can without stopping helps bypass the thinking mind. It keeps us from directing or criticizing or censoring what wants to come out. Your writing is for your self-expression and healing. It does not need to be neat or pleasant or even make sense. This type of stream of consciousness writing is meant to allow you to release your innermost thoughts and feelings. When the timer goes off, you have completed your writing session. You are always welcome to write longer if you are in ‘the flow,’ but do not pressure yourself.
Step 3: Begin with “3 times 5”
An easy way to start a regular writing practice is to begin writing three times a week for five minutes each session. For many people, this feels easy and manageable and avoids triggering feelings of overwhelm. You can build upon your practice by writing more frequently or for longer periods as time goes by—or both. The point is to avoid using writing as another to-do on your list of tasks that need to be accomplished. We are harnessing writing as an act of self-care. Remember to be gentle with yourself, start small, and build as time goes on.
After writing, take the time to thank yourself for paying attention to your needs. Acknowledge yourself for your courage to show up on the page and offer yourself a moment of gratitude. This is not selfish; it is self-honoring. Remember that the space you give yourself on a regular basis to write and release your self-expression—even just three times a week for five minutes— is a small commitment with a large payoff. Your physical and emotional wellbeing are worth it.
Robin Finn is the author of Heart. Soul. Pen.: Find Your Voice on the Page and in Your Life and the founder of Heart. Soul. Pen. women’s writing workshops. She teaches at UCLA Writer’s Program and her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and more. Robin has master’s degrees in public health from Columbia University and in spiritual psychology from the University of Santa Monica. Learn more at robinfinn.com.
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