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May 13, 2014

Spirituality & Writing. ~ Camilla Sanderson

writing, pen, paper

“For those who have an intense urge for Spirit and wisdom, it sits near them, waiting.” ~ Patanjali

In an interview between the late great cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien and Michael Lerner of The New School at Commonweal, Michael Lerner references a spiritual meme, which is that Spiritual life consists of:

  1. Showing up
  2. Paying attention
  3. Telling the truth
  4. Remaining detached from outcomes

And it struck me that this is the same with writing. I show up to my keyboard to write. I pay attention to what is moving through my soul. I’m as brutally honest with myself as I can be. And while I feel completely lit up when one of my articles is published, I practice staying detached from outcomes. And of course all of the above is done while I’m laughing at my own ego which wants to take myself very seriously, and is attached to outcomes.

The truth of my experience has been that the deeper I dive into my spiritual nature, the more easily my creativity and writing flows through me.

While my ego would love to take credit that this is Camilla’s writing, anyone who has known Flow, knows that it doesn’t belong to ‘me.’

It flows through me. 

It’s an energy.

It’s an energy some may like to call God, Life, the Universe, but whatever you call it, it’s basically the same loving energy that connects us all.

I’ve found that clearing my own blocks and obstacles has allowed this creative energy to flow through me more easily. Sometimes we end up with blocks and obstacles in our human lives from various conditioning, such as our parental conditioning, society conditioning, educational conditioning, cultural conditioning, et al.

I think that’s why I love to travel and live in other cultures. Living in Japan in my early twenties revealed my own cultural conditioning to me. What I thought was weird, Japanese people thought was normal. What I thought was normal, Japanese people thought was weird. This gave me a perspective I hadn’t known before. Until then, I hadn’t even realized that I had been conditioned by my own culture.

Another thing I’ve learned about writing is that ten different people can read the same piece of writing, and each of those people may have a completely different take-away from the same article. This is more evidence that it’s not about me.

I simply show up, pay attention, tell the truth, and remain detached from outcomes.

I also set my intention that sharing my words and the truth of my own experience, may help or serve another’s journey, in the same way that so many words from others have helped and served my own journey. The beautifully synchronous element here, is that this intention also adds meaning and purpose in my own life.

Through putting my gift on the table while practicing being detached from outcomes, I gain meaning and purpose in my own life. And I get lit up. Talk about a win-win.

Could this kind of service be part of the new definition of success that our planet so desperately needs?

Love elephant and want to go steady?

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Apprentice Editor: Jessica Sandhu / Editor: Renée Picard

Photos: Flickr

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Camilla Sanderson