Access the power of incantation
Sometimes a phrase presents itself to you, insistently, like a chant. Follow it! Let that chant become an incantation. Incantations are prayerful, because they quieten the chatter of the rational mind—and that’s the goal of Imaginative Storm writing. When you quieten the rational mind, you free your imaginative intelligence.
That’s what Arlene Burns did here. “Follow the light” rings like a gong, creating a new echo each time as it resonates in a different pattern of thought. So many strong phrases resound!
Follow the light. We must somehow have that ingrained in us as we exit the womb, that first struggle out of safety, shelter, and nourishment. Imagine choosing to head through a tunnel too small to bear, not knowing what awaits. No idea that in an instant, all of the previous life support systems cease to function. Little lungs take their first gasps of air, eyes opening to bright light for the first time, the outside world waiting, all smiles and tears of joy.
Follow the light, a teacher, a friend, a parent, a mentor invigorates our minds, instilling curiosity in a direction that magnetizes. Art, music, math, athletics, debate? What emerges with immersion in the realms of the curious?
Follow the light, as the heaviness of life's burdens, our circumstances, stresses, financial or familial, confusion of direction bounded by obligation, real or perceived. A crumb of insight propels us forward, a path when directionless, a step out of the muck.
Follow the light in the faces of our offspring, and our offspring's offspring, fresh and soft, clean, and innocent, so full of light.
Following light, our only instruction from ones wiser than us, when lungs exhale the last breath and darkness clouds the periphery. The great unknown of what is next. But just like birth, the light shifts dimensions to somewhere else; to nowhere in particular; to everywhere.
Click here to purchase Write What You Don’t Know: 10 Steps to Writing with Confidence, Energy, and Flow by Allegra Huston and James Navé, founders of the Imaginative Storm method, or order it from your favorite online retailer. It’s also available on Kindle and all other e-book platforms.
Our self-paced online video course “Write What You Don’t Know: Imaginative Storm Writer Training” is now available on Teachable. Take advantage of the introductory price!