In an episode of “Mozart in the Jungle” a young girl describes what it’s like to play her flute to the free-spirited Maestro of the New York Symphony Orchestra (paraphrasing): “When my teacher is watching me I am worried about what mistakes I am going to make but when I am on my own and no one is watching I just feel the music and it takes over and when I am done it’s like waking from a dream.”
Do you ever have glimpses of this when you are writing?
Would you like to?
This is the most beautiful description of flow (link) that I have heard. It is allowing the flow of your most creative self to emerge without the filter of doubt, questions or confusion.
Without the watcher she can more easily go there. In research writing, there is an automatic invitation to criticism and watchful eyes from the reviewers, supervisors, or committee members and the potential criticism that my clients may receive.
Researchers may not feeling like they are free to write because they have the awareness that eventually what they are writing is going to be criticized. There is, of course, a part of us that wants to avoid being criticized and the thoughts and feelings that come up as result of the criticism. We can also have our own inner critic that can sometimes be disguised as these other watchers or someone from our past.
Feeling as though someone is watching and ready to criticize, can really hold us back or get in the way of creating our communications and sharing our gifts with the world.
As we learn how to receive feedback without it being interpreted as there being something wrong with us, we find ways to see feedback differently. It’s possible to receive feedback and allow it to just be feedback and choose how or whether to respond. Yes, we may realize this intellectually but all sorts of knee-jerk responses or patterns may come up with receiving feedback. With practise we may also begin to embody and understand this in a meaningful, sustainable way. We can also learn to process our feelings that come up when we are criticized so that we may have compassion for ourselves in these moments and learn how to stay in process with our writing.
In this way, it’s possible to release ourselves of the watcher and write freely and with flow and create more ease, clarity and confidence when we are writing.
If you, or anyone you know is struggling with anticipating, managing or receiving criticism from reviewers, a supervisor, or committee members and this is blocking their abilities to write, pls support them by connecting them with me for a complimentary Discovery Call at support@melissaeanders.com.
Sincerely,
Melissa
Melissa E Anders 