I used to think mindfulness was about living in the moment and enjoying the beauty of nature – I do a lot of that and it’s wonderful! But mindfulness is so much more than just meditation and stillness… it’s also, observing and accepting our emotions, including the ones we wish we didn’t feel.
People sometimes ask me, what inspires me to write and I suppose the truth is, it’s become a form of therapy for me, the last few years. I’ve had a lot to process, with some major life-changing events to navigate – and I find it much easier to share my feelings in a poem than I ever do in a conversation.
So often we hide how we really feel about things, for fear of upsetting someone or saying the ‘wrong’ thing. That’s the beauty of poetry, because it allows us to be completely authentic. I’m learning to embrace that. I’ve been interested in mindfulness for quite a long time now, but I think it’s only the last year or so (having benefited from counselling with my local Cancer Psychology support team) that I’ve realised, mindfulness is as much about embracing our uncomfortable ‘negative’ emotions as it is about cherishing the warm ‘positive’ ones. We are beings of light and shadow and we can’t truly find balance, without acknowledging both aspects of ourselves.
It’s interesting when writing, how a poem may start out being about one particular experience and end up being quite general as the process triggers memories and feelings from other similar situations. Does it help release the emotions? Sometimes. It certainly helps me validate and defuse them and my hope is, by sharing my words that other people who feel the same way, might benefit too.
My latest offering Shield, is about the way we use anger, to protect ourselves not just from situations but from the more difficult emotions that often lie beneath it.
Most of my poetry including my haiku, is now uploaded directly to my Instagram.
Feel free to give me a follow, if you like my words.
