Fierce Writing - A Tool for Addressing Your Pandemic Fears

Hey good-looking!

I’m SO excited to share another tool with you today, and this one is not only super relevant thanks to the worldwide pandemic, but I learned it from two of my all-time favorite teachers.

For the last two months or so, Marie Forleo has held a “Self-Care Saturday" every day on Instagram live, usually consisting of a work out, meditation, or guest speaker/teacher, giving us tools to thrive during this challenging and stressful time.

Today, Marie had one of my favorite speakers on, Dr. Tererai Trent, and if you haven’t heard about this incredible woman, Marie interviews her over on MarieTV here.

The super-short-cliff-notes version of Tererai's story (which doesn't do it justice at all) is that she grew up in rural Zimbabwe, where many women and girls are highly under educated and lack the opportunity to change their circumstances.

Through sheer determination and a “figureoutable” attitude, Dr. Trent not only spent several years getting her GED, went to college through her doctorate, and wrote a book about her experience — but she also returned to Zimbabwe and is paying it forward by educating the girls in her community so they can make a future for themselves too.

For today’s Self-Care Saturday, Dr. Trent shared this incredible writing exercise called “Fierce Writing.”

Actually, it's possible that it's called “Fears Writing," but when I wrote this all down "Fierce Writing" really stuck out to me, and fierce is the energy I tapped into as I wrote out my fears in the exercise below. So let’s just go with it.

Now if you know anything about me, you know that not only do I love any and all kinds of journaling or writing exercises, but I'm also moderately obsessed with meditation and mindfulness. I love it so much that I teach other people how to meditate!

So when Dr. Trent said that she was going to teach us about "Fierce Writing" and a meditation, I buckled down to take notes. Not just for me, for you too! All you need to do this exercise is a few pieces of paper, something to write with, and somewhere quiet to sit and write.

Here’s a step-by-step of how to do Fierce Writing, according to Dr. Tererai Trent (with a few inspired notes from me too). If you’d like me to do an audio recording to walk you through this exercise so you can plug in your headphones and follow along, let me know in the comments below!

First — Get Grounded

If you can, wake up early in the morning before the sun, and find a space to sit on the ground. This is when you’re most tapped into your intuition and the bigger energy of the world.
Close your eyes as you begin to feel into your body, into every muscle and tissue, bone and ligament.
Take a few deep breaths - in through your nose and out through your mouth as you feel the energy that exists in your body all the way down through your legs, your thighs, knees, ankles, feet and toes.
Feel the energy expand through your arms, your shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, hands and fingers. Feel it expand both ways in your spine as you sit a little taller, root down through your pelvis to the yoga mat, floor, pillow or ground beneath you.
Feel the energy move up through your neck, your head, your ears, mouth, nose, eyes and the top of your head.
Trust that you are being taken care of by the Universe and something much bigger than you.

Next — Think about these 2 questions with your eyes still closed:

Emotionally, how is the pandemic affecting me right now?
In what ways are these emotions silencing me?

Lean into how you feel about the pandemic and see if there’s a specific place in your body where you really feel it. It might feel like pain, or it might feel tight, stiff, sore, or simply uncomfortable.

What fears are coming up? What uncertainties are you worried about? What’s the scariest way this whole situation could play out for you? What’s making you toss and turn, or day drink, or shut down emotionally?

Find where the fear is sitting in your body, and feel into it a little more.

Then, open your eyes and start writing.

As Tererai says, "This writing becomes a vehicle for finding our voice & confronting our pain."

Write down everything that comes up, all the fears, and worries, and stressors you were just thinking about. Write down your emotions and don’t filter. It doesn’t even have to be full sentences, or legible.

Just. Write.

After 20 minutes, or for as long as you feel you need to until you have purged every emotion within you about this situation, fold up your piece(s) of paper and put them into a jar or canister in front of you.

Or, you can do like Tererai and put it on your head!

As I did this exercise, I put my papers into a jar that I held in my hands and did the meditation.

Finally — The Meditation

With the jar in front of you (or on your head), focus on it. Concentrate on the jar and take three deep breaths. Tererai says, “These will aid in the circulation and relax your nervous system while increasing oxygen to your lungs.”

Breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth. As you exhale, let it all out. Make noise. Feel the energetic shift that comes from a deep, deep exhale.

Stay with your jar for 10 minutes, concentrating on the contents and envision your body, your life, as an ocean.

Like the ocean you can see the waves crashing on top, but deep within, at the dark, cool depths of the ocean it's calm.

These waves are your fears, at the surface and disruptive, but they cannot touch the peace, certainty and calmness you have within you at your core.

After 10 minutes, repeat the following affirmations:

I [your name], am coming home to myself.

I am coming home to myself and no fear or pain will take away my joy.

I am replacing the contents of this jar with hope, laughter, and an abundance of joy and healing.

I’m coming home.

If repeating this mantra feels uncomfortable to you, you can listen to peaceful music while you visualize the contents in the jar being replaced with seeds of hope, laughter and joy.

Come home to yourself.

Marie and Tererai went on to talk about the power in sitting with our fears and difficult emotions. Instead of getting the fears “out," we invite them in.

Dr. Trent says, “It’s important to confront the pain & fear and bring it close because if we throw it out there without holding it close to us, we allow it to control us."

She says that “fear is a gift," because it both forces and allows us to see a different path for ourselves and the wonderful thing about writing out your fears is that you give yourself a voice by putting your fears on a page.

Tererai finished the Self-Care Saturday session in her usual, wise and loving self with this advice for all of us, not just during this pandemic, but always:

"Never allow these uncertain times to silence you. You are the wisdom healer, you are the librarian of your memories, go back to yourself and be who you are, define your goals in life and better yourself."

Let’s be real friend, I know that there is a LOT of scary shit going on in the world right now.

💜 Maybe you’re dealing with a job or income loss, or you’re about to lose your business.

💜 Maybe someone close to you is sick, immunocompromised, has the virus, or has passed away.

💜 Maybe you’re home with a partner or roommate who is an unhealthy partner and now you’ve got to get real honest about how you want your life to look post-pandemic.

💜 Maybe you’re dealing with mental health issues - whether it be anxiety, depression, PTSD or anything else - and being isolated is the worst case scenario for you.

💜 Maybe you’re thriving in one area of your life right now, but feel the struggle in another area.

I see you. I hear you.

Do YOU hear and see you? Have you taken time to sit down with your feelings around this whole topsy-turvy world we’re living in?

I’d love to know... How are YOU dealing right now? Would an audio recording of this exercise be helpful for you?

Keep shining bright my friend, and thanks for reading.

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