Chapter 2: Awareness – Seeing Within
Introduction to the Technique
You’ll begin this course by spending 7 days with Free Writing—your first gentle entry point into yourself. No preparation, no right answers—just show up, and write.
Think of the page as a friend who listens without interrupting.
Free writing is a gentle way to meet yourself on the page. You let words come as they are—messy, honest, unfinished—without worrying about sounding clever or “right.” There’s no performance here, only contact with what’s real. You don’t need special skills or rules; just a notebook, a pen, and a willingness to show up. As you practice, the page becomes a mirror, reflecting feelings, questions, and truths that usually stay beneath the surface.
Why It Matters
Before you try it, notice the inner barriers it softens—and what they cost when left alone:
Bypasses the inner critic: Perfectionism doesn’t just slow you down; it teaches you to distrust your raw truth and hide from it. Free writing quiets that voice so you can meet yourself without judgment.
Surfaces the hidden: Avoided thoughts don’t vanish; they form an inner fog that steers moods and choices from the shadows. Free writing brings them into the light so they stop steering you in silence.
Reveals patterns: Recurring themes—fear, longing, resentment—become invisible scripts when unnoticed. Free writing lays them bare so you can recognize them and choose differently.
Builds momentum: Waiting for the “perfect moment” isn’t just a writing habit; it’s a life posture that misses the authentic one. Free writing trains gentle forward motion; clarity often follows action.
Creates emotional release: Unspoken feeling settles as tension, restlessness, or fatigue. Free writing provides a safe exit, transforming heaviness into words and restoring inner lightness.
How It Works
Now that you know the spirit, here’s a simple way to try it—step by step:
Find a small pocket of quiet and place your notebook and pen in front of you.
Decide how you’ll begin:
Open Free Writing: start from nothing and let the first words lead anywhere.
Seeded Free Writing: jot a single seed before you begin (a word or question like Now or What feels alive in me?). Once you start, you’re free to follow or abandon it.
Set a short timer (5–10 minutes) to hold a gentle container for your attention.
Begin writing immediately. Do not stop—no editing, no rereading, no correcting while you write. If you stall, write, “I don’t know what to say…” until something genuine emerges.
When the timer ends, put down the pen. If you like, skim once and circle three words or images that feel charged—these are signposts for future work.
Exercise
You can choose the option that supports you today. In all “free” versions, the flow stays unpoliced while you write.
A) Open Flow (pure free writing)
Write for five minutes without pause or editing. If you stall, repeat: “I don’t know what to say…” until words return.
B) Seeded Flow (still free)
Before you start, write one seed (a word or a starter line). Set five minutes and write freely—follow the seed if it helps, or ignore it the moment your flow moves elsewhere.
Starter seeds (pick one):
Single words: Now • Here • Today • Underneath • Enough • Home
Feeling/awareness: I notice… • I feel… • What feels alive in me is…
Truth/boundaries: If I were honest, I’d admit… • What I’m not saying is… • The truth is…
Avoidance/edge: What I’m avoiding is… • I’m tired of pretending that… • Under this, I…
Desire/direction: I want… • I wish… • If I let myself want…
Body/senses (present): Right now my body feels… • I see/hear/smell/taste/touch…
Memory/patterns: The memory that won’t leave me is… • I keep returning to…
Safety/activation: I feel safe when… • I feel alive when… • I feel small when…
C) Afterglow (optional reflection, post-writing)
After a five-minute free write, skim once. Circle three charged words or images. Under them, write one single Line of Truth: “What surprised me today was…” (one line only).
Free writing is not about producing pages—it’s about meeting yourself. The page becomes a mirror when you allow it to reflect what is here, now.