Listening to your Muse
December 20, 2012 in inner muse, inner wisdom, Self-Love
The other day I was thinking about the power of letter writing and how it is becoming somewhat of a lost art due to the convenience of e-mail. I was reading over a wonderful book by Jo MacDonald called Note to Self, The Secret to becoming your own Best Friend (I contributed a letter to this fantastic resource). Suddenly as I was reading, my muse dictated to me a letter to myself from her:
Dear Petrea, I know that you have been pretty busy lately.
I have been waiting for things to change waiting for things to be less busy waiting for you to let me out so that I can do what it is I do more regularly. I know I know, you think that what I do is not a priority right now. You think that what I do is frivolous, and that you don’t have the time right now. And to that I say so what? What is life if we do not allow for laughter and play? . . . . .
And so the conversation began: she wrote to me and I wrote her back. This simple exchange or words, writen words, allowed me to dig deeper and discover what it was that I needed to do to engage my muse more in my life.
When I talk about your muse I am referring to that part of you who lives, breathes and moves creatively. The muse is the embodiment of your creative desire, your artist within. She inspires yes, but much more than this, she is the personification of all that is creative inside of you. The inspiration from your muse is really about accessing your muse. She is always there just sometimes behind locked doors.
What does your Muse want to tell you? Are you listening to her advice, her pleas for you to create?
Try this:
Write a letter to yourself from your muse. Have her outline with a gentle voice what it is you need to do to engage your muse more in your life. Use this link FutureMe to send it to yourself at the end of January as a reminder of what she needs.
If you were to write back to her what would you say? Take some time now to write a response. What are you willing to commit to in order for your muse to be heard? Avoid justifications or explanations of why you haven’t so far. It’s not about making excuses. It’s about taking action. Really take a look at what shifts you are willing to make to allow your muse the space she needs.
Let me know how it goes!
Years ago, I was in a workshop where we were challenged to really create we needed to dedicate a space to a studio. I have been trying to do this ever since. Of course things got in the way. In 2013 I will finally have a studio at home and in my art therapy practice. Having a studio at work has really cheered me up, can’t wait for the home studio, which will happen after we move. Change happens,sometimes slowly but it does hap8pen!
Yes indeed change happens Kathy, just not always as fast as we want. How wonderful that you are finally getting your studio!
I’ve been writing more myself lately…..and when I go back and read it, I think, wow, did I really write that? It’s like it comes through me, from such a deep place. I love FutureMe…..I’ve been using it for a few years now…..love it for having my muse write me future letters…….quite cool! thx Petrea!
It really is amazing when we begin to recognize the amount of inner wisdom within!
Thank you Petrea! I just pinned this on my Inspiration Board. It’s so important to give our muse a voice!
Thanks Michele Mary!
I love this, Petrea! And whenever I do an Intuitive Reading for someone by e-mail I always write it by hand first. It just flows better that way and I can go outside and do it. I love your muse’s voice : ). Big hugs, Karina
That’s neat to hear Karina, there really is something special about hand writing out our words, I think the slowness of this process allows us to connect more with our words maybe.
Wow Petrea, I did not know about FutureMe but now I do I will definitely be using it! I often suggest to workshop participants after we write ourselves a letter from our wise 80 year old self that they get a friend to post it to them in six months. It’s a really powerful process, thanks for sharing.
Yes letters to our selves can be so powerful especially when we take the opportunity to re-read them after some distance of time.
I am SO going to do this in the coming days, as I am taking a break from ze work and ze internetz! I need this time to reflect and go inside, and this exercise is just perfect. Thanks Petrea!
Yes it is a great time of year to go offline- I’ll be joining you in that!
I really loved this and shared it in a blog post of what I was reading today! I’m definitely going to do this.
What a wonderful and inspiring post Petrea – how cool is FutureMe, I hadn’t heard of it before! And thank you for mentioning my book xx