Hearing voices

When you open your mouth to speak or pick up your pen to write, whose voice is coming out--yours or the voices of the people who’ve told you who to be?

One of our first writing exercises in Maybe You’re A Writer (MYAW!) packs a potent punch of “Wait, what?! I didn’t see *that* coming” balanced with a heaping dose of “This makes perfect sense” and tbh this is my sweet spot, so prepare yourself for eleventeen revelations and ten tons of self-compassion.

We do this together in MYAW because it’s important to have support before, during, and after this exercise; we utilize individual & collective grounding practices and we take care to stay in and hold the space as long as we all need to feel connected, present, and resourced.

The exercise is simple, unsexy, takes 10 minutes, and--best of all--can be repeated as many times as you need throughout the course & throughout your life.

• Whip out any piece of paper or anything you can write on.

• Set a timer for 10 minutes. Too long? Try five. Still too long? Try three.

• Now write down every single adjective, label, and identifier that you’ve been told is true about you. Ex: Loud, bossy, arrogant, self-centered, reliable, smart, etc.

• Note: what you’ve been told is true. 

• If you remember who told you/made you believe this, note it next to the label and keep it pushing.

• Once the timer goes off, put your pen down or take your hands away from your phone and look. 
  

Look at who has been deciding what you’re allowed to believe, allowed to have for yourself.

Look at the decades worth of other people’s opinions and  how you just set them down, maybe for the first time.

What you’re doing is actively looking at all the expectations and perceptions of you that *you* have been carrying. 

Here’s the thing: we can’t make conscious decisions about who we want to be if we don’t spend time looking at who we’ve been told we are.

Yes, It’s heavy and it can be scary--and that’s why we don’t do it alone. 

While I’m dancing to Sugar Ray’s “Fly”, check out MYAW!, and drop any questions in the comments!