How can meditation benefit you as a writer?
As with everyone, my life is very busy. I’m a full-time teacher and ghostwriter/professional editor. I run a thriving ghostwriting agency and a tutoring business on top of teaching, and I would say that I feel overwhelmed most of the time.
Most people’s response to that would be, “Why did you put so much work on yourself? That seems a little unnecessary.” While I understand the sentiment behind that statement, the answer isn’t so simple. My survival depends on it. Prices continue to soar while my teaching salary remains stagnant. My decision to create two businesses was because I didn’t want to work for someone else just to make a few extra dollars. I wanted to create and build something that would eventually give me my freedom back. I also wanted to do something that combined the two things that I’m most passionate about - writing and teaching.
Lately, though, my mental health and ability to write has declined because I’m exhausted. Most days I have to force myself to write, but I find that the more tired I am, the less creative and more frustrated I become with myself.
The other day, things finally came to a head while I was at work. Overwhelmed in every possible way, I was experiencing
sensory overload, emotional overload, physical overload, technology overload, and creative overload. Everything was blurry. I was experiencing intense brain fog. I couldn’t think. I could barely speak, and I certainly couldn’t write. And I just shut down. My body literally forced me to. I remember sitting at my desk trying to fight it, but there was no use.
Because I was at work, I couldn’t fall asleep. That’s when I decided to meditate. For years, I’ve heard about the benefits of meditation, but I honestly thought it was just a tool of privileged people who have a bunch of time on their hands. And that may still be true, but I realized that if I was going to continue to be productive, I needed a break and a moment just to myself where I could just be.
At the time, I only had about 10 minutes before my next class came in, but I put on a guided meditation from youtube and just relaxed in my chair. I closed my eyes and listened to it, and I could feel my entire nervous system starting to relax. I felt peace for the first time in a long time. I wasn’t judging myself or making a list of all the things I needed to get done. For that moment at least, the work could wait. I was on pause.
Since then, I made it my practice to meditate for a few minutes each day. Sometimes I listen to a meditation on youtube, and other times I listen to the meditation that I created for myself as a writer.
And while the results are nothing earth shattering, I feel much lighter and the quality of my thinking has improved. I have more mental clarity. I’m more thoughtful in terms of creativity. I’m more present with myself and with others. I’m not constantly pushing myself to move on to the next thing. I enjoy what I do more.
Even though meditating came to me out of a pure necessity, I’m glad I gave it a chance.
– Knikki Hernandez
Ghostwriter
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