On May 17/18,  I was joined by special guest Dr. Michele di Pietro for a lively discussion and workshop on "Writing the Chakras."

Michele is Professor of Mathematics and the Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Kennesaw State University. They are a co-author of How Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching (2nd ed.) and have a long-standing interest in yoga, meditation, and the chakras, a sequence of bodily focal points associated with various ancient meditation practices.

In the first hour of this free WriteSPACE Special Event, Michele and I discussed how the chakras constitute a framework that can help us find our ground, nurture our desires, build our power, find the love in our professional environment, grow our voice, evolve our vision, and build our legacy. Michele talked about the energy currents that the chakras describe — ascending and descending — and how they can support the academic writing process by helping us achieve a higher consciousness or manifest our intentions.

In the second hour, we conducted a hands-on workshop for WriteSPACE members based on the "writing the chakras" theme.  

Below is WriteSPACE Event Manager Amy Lewis’ first-person account of the live event.

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Hearing from our wonderful special guest Michele was a privilege. I came to the special event with little knowledge of the chakras and left with a deep appreciation for the depth of this field; if we spend time focusing on each chakra’s associations and correspondences, then we can understand ourselves and our work better.

A few standout quotes from this session: 

• “My passion has become to help, give a voice to, collect stories from, advocate for, and represent staff and faculty.”

• Yoga shows “possibilities and expansion, and it helped me build my strength physically and emotionally.”

• “Looking at Dali’s Port Lligat, Venus with drawers, imagine if you could open the drawer and see what’s in someone’s heart, what’s in their gut, what’s in their mind. In some ways, the chakras are like this.”

Both Michele and Helen, as well as other scholars such as Margy Thomas (who connects academia and tarot cards), are challenging the norms and boundaries of what might constitute academic writing. These standards can make some scholars feel that they are not ‘serious enough’, not ‘academic enough’. Whereas, in fact, quite the opposite is true—alternative approaches using different philosophical systems and metaphors can be incredibly intellectual and meaningful.

Michele explained that in yoga philosophy, we have several bodies; beginning with the outer physical body and ending with the innermost body—the bliss body. The chakras operate out of the subtle (energetic) body. They are part of a philosophical (or mythical) system; they are not a religion, nor are they magic, but they can reveal important aspects of ourselves. They run down the spine, and along this channel there are seven energy points (for those interested in the physiology of the chakras, they align with clusters of nerve endings along the spine where sensitivity and receptivity are highly concentrated). Each one has a different function and a ‘demon’ or ‘trickster’ emotion that can block the energy flow.

In the second hour, Michele guided us through a workshop with some freewriting experiments to explore each chakra. I invite you to spend a few minutes freewriting on Michele’s wonderful writing prompts!

1)    The ground chakra. The chakra of unity, of the physical plane, and survival. It is everything that makes up your foundation, including your physical needs, your family and home needs, your health needs. It is Saṃsāra, ‘the condition existence’, and it is plagued by the trickster of fear.
My writing stretches its roots all the way to…

2)    The desire chakra. The chakra of diversity, perspective, and otherness. Through it, we find ourselves in a gravitational pull towards or away from polarities, and it can provide pleasure and abundance. It gives us the right to feel, and the demon is guilt.
I encounter the Shadow in my writing…

3)    The power chakra. It is transformation and fire. The chakra of anger, will, energy, and accountability. The demon is shame, because it paralyses us from acting.
In my writing I am accountable to…

4)    The heart chakra. The chakra of love, compassion, and balance. The heart is the mid-point of the system; it reconciles the lower and upper chakras. The demon of this chakra is grief because it makes the heart heavy and limits peace and openness.
I find grace in my writing as/when/if/through…

5)    The throat chakra. It is the chakra of sound and the nexus of creative expression. When our thoughts and emotions are in alignment, we can speak our truth—the throat is the chakra of truth, connection, and rhythm. Through it we have the right to speak and be heard, it is threatened by the demon of lies.
The vibration of my writing feels like…

6)    The head chakra, located in the third eye. Through this chakra, we can express our vision to imagine, dream and deeply understand. Our archetypal identities live here, and it is controlled by the trickster of illusion.
Which archetype do I embody when I write? (Choose from the following: The Innocent, Everyman, Hero, Outlaw, Explorer, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Lover, Caregiver, Jester, and Sage.)

7)    The crown chakra, represented as the lotus flower on the top of the head. It embodies your transcendental identity, where your soul and spirit ascend. Through it, we become connected to something greater than ourselves. It is where we cultivate our legacy, and its demon is attachment.
The legacy I am building with my writing is…

Michele’s wisdom undoubtedly inspired many of us to help us reframe the way we approach our writing and understand where we are devoting our energy. A big thank you to Michele and Helen for this informative and inspirational special event and for sharing your passion and expertise so generously.

A recording of this two-part WriteSPACE Special Event — including Michele’s 7 writing prompts — is now available in the WriteSPACE Library.

Not a member? Register here to receive an email with the video link.

Better yet, join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources.

Subscribe here to Helen’s Word on Substack to access the full Substack archive and receive weekly subscriber-only newsletters (USD $5/month or $50/year).

WriteSPACE members enjoy a complimentary subscription to Helen’s Word as part of their membership plan (USD $15/month or $150/year).

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On April 19,  I was joined by writer and wellbeing expert Dr Sophie Nicholls for a lively discussion on Writing and Wellbeing.

Sophie is a poet, best-selling novelist, and Associate Professor of Learning and Teaching in Creative Writing at Teesside University in Yorkshire, UK. She has published two best-selling novels, The Dress (2011) and Miss Mary’s Book of Dreams (2017), as well as a poetry collection, Refugee (2011), partly inspired by her work with the organisation Freedom from Torture.

Click here to subscribe to Sophie's free newsletter on Substack. You'll love her focus on mindfulness and wellbeing and her beautiful spiral-infused writing!

In the first hour of this FREE WriteSPACE Special Event, I talked with Sophie about her background in psychodynamic therapies and mindfulness, and we discussed her research on how writing and other creative practices can help us to think, learn, understand ourselves and other people, collaborate, innovate, and grow.

In the second hour, Sophie and I conducted a hands-on workshop for WriteSPACE members.

Below is WriteSPACE Event Manager Amy Lewis’ first-person account of the live event.

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In this special seminar, we explored the notion of writing for wellbeing with our wonderful special guest Sophie Nicholls. A natural storyteller, Sophie took us through the journey of how she came to focus on writing driven by pleasure and motivated towards healing.

A few standout quotes from this session: 

• “It’s about being curious and self-compassionate.”

• “It’s important to remember that not every word you write needs to be publishable!”

• “Spirals have always fascinated me. There is something very fundamental about them; they are everywhere in nature.”

Listening to Sophie talk about her career, I was inspired by her pioneering spirit. Motivated by her dad during a period of intense adversity, she began to write a novel full of joy and color, The Dress, which became a massive online bestseller just as e-books were emerging in the market. She began teaching online courses in the early 2000s, long before the standard hybrid teaching mode we often encounter today. She also designed some of the first MA courses in creative writing for wellbeing, long before “writing and wellbeing” was seen as an established and critical field. Not afraid to break the mould, Sophie takes a psychodynamic approach that ensures safe, ethical, and holistic healing through writing.

You may be thinking, what does writing for wellbeing look like for academic writers? For Sophie, there is a key difference between writing as process and writing as product. Especially if you are an academic, you may have intense pressure to produce, produce, produce! Which, of course, does not recognise the value of the process at all. Ironically, the messy process is fundamental to achieving those very outputs. Relishing the process may not only help your writing but can also help you feel better as a person—the two are irrevocably intertwined.

Sophie also talked about the concept of the implied reader. For everything that we write, in a sense, we are writing to someone. They may be part of ourselves, or they may be a specific reader. It’s good to slow down and become conscious of whom you are writing for in your mind—often, without realising, we are writing for critical or unkind audiences. We must ask, ‘Is there a part of myself that is listening to what I am writing now?’ Then you can begin to cultivate a supportive, compassionate, constructive reader of yourself, inside your mind and on the page.

I loved Sophie’s exploding spiral ‘experiments’ (let’s leave the ‘exercises’ in the gym!). Letting yourself go into creativity involves what she calls a playful container—that is, a mode or parameter that helps you to focus your creative energy. It could be a specific notebook, a course or writing group, a visual aesthetic, a specific place, or perhaps a theme or idea. Any poetry teacher knows that the more structure you give your students, the more creative they become. Her work abounds with different therapeutic experiments involving playful containers, three of which she led us through in the second half of the session. Perhaps you may want to try these two in your own time!

• 5-minute spirals

  Start at the centre of your page with a word that springs to mind or begin with Sophie’s suggestion: ‘Thank you’. From there, begin free writing in a spiral formation, turning the page slowly as your write and focusing on your breath. Perhaps your spiral has an irregular shape or begins to unravel; every spiral is different. For visual inspiration, pop over to Sophie’s Instagram.

• 2-minute circles

  Draw an imperfect circle in your notebook. Think about your writing practice or your current project. Inside the circle, write everything that you want to say ‘Yes!’ to. And outside the circle, write everything that make you want to say, ‘No, I will let this go.’

Sophie also guided us through a creative visualisation experiment involving forests and free-writing. The workshop became a gentle reminder that no matter how rocky the path beneath our feet may appear, writing can always be a helpful tool to smooth the road ahead.

A big thank you to Sophie and Helen for taking us on this wellbeing journey and for your compassion, expertise, and warmth during this special session.

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A recording of this two-part WriteSPACE Special Event — including Sophie’s three writing experiments — is now available in the WriteSPACE Library.

Not a member? Register here to receive an email with the video link.

Better yet, join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources.

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Subscribe here to Helen’s Word on Substack to access the full Substack archive and receive weekly subscriber-only newsletters (USD $5/month or $50/year).

WriteSPACE members enjoy a complimentary subscription to Helen’s Word as part of their membership plan (USD $15/month or $150/year).

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Did you spot the birds and bunnies in this paper collage? How about Winston Churchill, glowering behind the rose-colored glasses? 

Sometimes we rush so quickly through our daily lives that we forget to pause, look, listen, and learn. In Steve Covey's memorable metaphor, we resemble woodcutters laboring to fell a tree with a dull-bladed saw, when what we really need to do is stop to refresh our gaze and sharpen our saw.

For this WriteSPACE special event held on March 22 , I invited three saw-sharpening experts to help you refocus on honing your writing skills by telling us about their recently published books on workplace writing, grant writing, and book proposal writing, respectively:

• Martha B. Coven introduced Writing on the Job, a compact guide to professional writing that covers workplace genres from emails and slide decks to proposals and cover letters. 

• Betty S. Lai talked about The Grant Writing Guide, a practical guide to effective grant writing for researchers at all stages of their academic careers.

• Laura Portwood-Stacer discussed The Book Proposal Book, a step-by-step guide to crafting a compelling scholarly book proposal and seeing your book through to successful publication.

We also heard from Matt Rohal, the acquisitions editor for Princeton University Press's Skills for Scholars series. Launched in 2021 and aimed at a new generation of scholars from diverse backgrounds, the series encourages "a fresh viewpoint, a honing of skills, a way of combining established principles with new practices, a burst of inspiration, and a thoughtful perspective on academic and professional pathways."

Below is WriteSPACE Event Manager Amy Lewis’ first-person account of the live event.

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Hearing from our wonderful special guests about cultivating diverse writing skills was extremely motivating. This session highlighted the impressive range of depth, flexibility, and agility of the books in the Skills for Scholars series. We talked about several touchstone texts to come back to again and again.

A few standout quotes from this session: 

• “Books are tools, companions, and resources that energise you in the rest of your work.”

• “Everybody has the chance to get support for important ideas. This now means we will hear better ideas and can think more clearly about problems that affect all of us.”

• “When giving feedback, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar!”

Matt Rohal introduced the series and talked about how to expand the boundaries of what might constitute ‘core’ skills for writers. These books are not just for academic scholars, he noted; they unearth new perspectives and uplift underrepresented voices to offer well-rounded advice for writers of all kinds.

The architecture of the series covers four main areas: communication (which includes writing), research, teaching and learning, and professional development. The books of our three guest authors each tackle different areas of professional writing and how to get your work supported from day one.

Martha Coven’s Writing on the Job really is a book for everyone—it traverses how to write professionally in wide-ranging private sector communications, from the basics to the nitty-gritty writing of presentations, speeches, press releases, resumes, and more. I loved Martha's rejection of the ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ to writing; her book abounds with diverse options and templates to suit all writers and writing cultures. Martha also shared her number one fundamental skill for writing: “Bottom line up front.” In other words, don’t wait until the final paragraph or the tenth slide to reveal the key message. You’re writing a business communication, not a mystery novel!

Laura Portwood-Stacer’s The Book Proposal Book aims to erase the anxiety from writing book proposals. I found her thoughts on giving motivating, constructive feedback very insightful. Laura’s book is not just for scholars but will help all non-fiction authors. She encouraged us to think about the presentation of our work (in a meta way!), not just the content of it. There is an art to making complex ideas translatable, so spend some time considering your project's marketing.

Betty Lai’s The Grant Writing Guide demystifies the grant-writing process and charts some of the ethics and politics of getting funding. Betty revealed some hard truths about the necessity of grant writing, and how her own experiences helped her gain access to this skill. In fact, accessibility has always been a key consideration for her. It’s no secret that funders worldwide have unconscious biases, including race, gender, and age. Increasing access for all writers to this skill has been very fulfilling for her, and it was inspiring hearing her speak with such passion.

In the second hour, Helen guided us through a workshop with some exercises suggested by the three guest authors. Feel free to try them yourself!

Martha suggests an exercise for staying true to the work and not overreaching when pitching your ideas:

• Consider your audience - answer these questions: (1) who are they; (2) what do they know; and (3) what do they care about?

• Use your voice - if you're feeling stuck, tell another person what it is you're trying to write about.

• Write an elevator pitch - to hone in on the essence of what you're trying to communicate, draft the 1-minute (120-150 word) speech you'd give if you were riding in an elevator with someone you wanted to inform or influence on this topic.

Betty recommends a writing exercise that she learned from Dr. Emily Lattie, a researcher at Northwestern University. Emily says start small and ask:

• What is the outcome of this work?

• And if everything goes well, what’s the biggest potential impact of that outcome?

• And if that outcome happened, what’s the biggest impact of that outcome?

Laura offers some fundamental free-writing (or free-thinking!) prompts:

• What made you interested in writing about this topic in the first place?

• What people, places, and things do you describe in the book?

• Why do your research findings matter?

• Who should read this book? How will they benefit from doing so?

• What’s the main thing you want readers to understand when they finish your book?

• How did you conduct the research for this book?

• What does this book add to current scholarly conversations or even conversations happening beyond the academy?

• What makes this book special?

• Why are you the right person to write this book?

• What’s the most interesting story from your research? Why is it interesting?

This guided workshop certainly gave us many writing challenges to feel inspired by and to shape the way we think about our potential and emerging projects.

A big thank you to Matt, Martha, Laura, Betty, and Helen for sharing their intellectual biographies, their passion and expertise, and their advice so openly during this special session.

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A recording of this two-part WriteSPACE Special Event is now available in the WriteSPACE Library.

Not a member? Register here to receive an email with the video link.

Better yet, join the WriteSPACE with a free 30 day trial, and access our full Library of videos and other writing resources.

---

Subscribe here to Helen’s Word on Substack to access the full Substack archive and receive weekly subscriber-only newsletters (USD $5/month or $50/year).

WriteSPACE members enjoy a complimentary subscription to Helen’s Word as part of their membership plan (USD $15/month or $150/year).

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