Use Your Heartbeat to Write Naturally by Naomi Rose, Book Developer & Creative Midwife

Today we welcome a new guest writer to Writer’s Fun Zone, Naomi Rose who is stopping by to chat with us about “Use Your Heartbeat to Write Naturally.” Enjoy!

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As a Book Developer working with people wanting to write the book of their heart— many of them first-time authors, I began to see a pattern in my clients: they were trying to make themselves sit down and write.

And on a certain level, that self-pushing makes sense– “butt in chair daily,” and all those other maxims and ideas about how to “make yourself” get your writing done.

If that’s what you think is the only way to go about it, then of course you will tend to push—or to procrastinate to avoid doing it.

But what if there’s another way, entirely?

A process so close to home that it’s under the radar of all those “make it happen!” exhortations?

Listening to Yourself

What if it’s really a matter of being able to listen to yourself, so that your connection to the endless fountain of Inspiration gives you the treasures it seeks to give?

Really, truly, deeply listening to yourself— listening inside with engagement, interest, and trust– encourages an easing into the quieter, knowing place within yourself, your deeper self.

This place is always here, but often we have to remember and to make a shift in consciousness– e.g., away from the busy, doing mind– so that we can say, in delighted amazement, “Oh, here I am!”

Finding Your Focus

Whether we focus on the breath, open a portal into some healing imagery, listen to music that attunes us to our heartbeat, or some other way, simply having the intention to be with ourselves and see what wants to be written will open us to an enjoyment of the discovery-in-writing process.

It’s so very easy to get pushed away from yourself in our culture— there are so many pulls on our attention– that trying to write from within such a distracted, perhaps anxious state can’t reach the place inside where our natural wisdom and beauty reside.

That, I believe, is when people seeking to write their book fall into doubt, fear, the “slough of despond”– and tell themselves, “You just don’t have it in you.”

They do have it in them– you do– we all do.

Listening it Forth

The desire to listen to yourself– even just the intention– can in itself bring about a level of connection to what is real in you.

Then, listening to yourself becomes a relationship— an intimate, often inspiring relationship that you want to cultivate.

How do you listen to yourself? There are so many ways. But listening to your heartbeat is very close at hand.

Listening to Your  Heartbeat

The heartbeat itself is a way in—and of course, this is always with you. It has rhythm, and paying attention to this rhythm becomes a kind of internal tuning fork: the busy, distracted mind quiets down, and the heart opens up.

This expansiveness can be felt. 

And then there is nothing that is out of reach. Whatever is for you in that moment—whether part of a book that you already have begun writing, or a whole new inspiration that you find you want to follow—gives itself to you unfailingly.

Focus Your Attention

Your task is to pay attention to it– not to dismiss it– to follow its rhythms and music, and in the process find that you have brought something forth with your pen that you needed, and you value. And perhaps will want to share with a world that needs it, too.

Books written from this deeper place are alive in the writer, and so they also are alive for the reader.

There is a resonance, a presence, that is transmitted.

This is not to say that the fearful ego won’t ever crop up in the process of writing– but if you know how to return to the deeper place within, much like returning to your heartbeat during a meditation when the mind drags you somewhere else, then you’ll be able to tell the gold from the fool’s gold.

And you’ll be far richer for it.

I hope you will consider availing yourself of your heartbeat– that steady, omnipresent friend– the next time you find yourself pushing yourself to write or avoiding making time to write.

You have a built-in metronome that aligns you with the wisdom of the universe, the music of the spheres.

Once you listen to what it brings you, your fingers holding the pen or poised above your keyboard will be dancing on the page.

“It is a beautiful thing to listen to yourself. When you listen to yourself, you write your own book.” – Sherif Baba

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Copyright © 2022 by Naomi Rose. All rights reserved.

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About the Author

Naomi Rose is a Book Developer and Creative Midwife, and the creator of the “Writing from the Deeper Self” approach. A visual artist and musician as well as a writer, she brings an intimate, encouraging exploration and artistry to her books so that they reach readers in their deepest heart.

With over 30 years in the publishing industry as an editor, writer, consultant, and illustrator, she brings this sensibility and expertise to her work with book-writing clients as well as her own books. Her own books are often explorations into things she doesn’t know to start with; she learns through experience as the writing proceeds, and shares this approach with her clients and readers to bring them closer to their true selves. But just as important is her passion for bringing out the innate gifts in her clients and in her readers.

Naomi offers a weekly Co-Writing Sanctuary month by month, so that people who want to write the book of their heart can do so in an intimate (online) space of shared solitude. “That was probably the best writing group experience I have ever had, and the most surprising feeling of sanctuary and grace. Your beautiful voice, wise words, kindness, and encouragement … what an incredible feat you pulled off transcending technology, distance, and time to bring us together in such blessed energy.”—Jane Majkiewicz, writer, editor, former literary agency associate. The October Co-Writing Sanctuary is open for continuing and new participants. For details and registration: https://www.naomirose.net/co-writing-sanctuary

Her books include: Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Listening to What’s Inside You.

Naomi can be reached at: naomirosedeepwrite@yahoo.com, or through her website, https://www.naomirose.net