Writing as a Path to Awakening: Writing as a Path to Awakening: A Year to Becoming an Excellent Writer and Living an Awakened Life by Albert DeSilver

208 Pages
Publisher: Sounds True Publishing, Sounds True
Release Date: August 31, 2017

Nonfiction, Self-Help, Empowerment, Confidence Building, Writing, Meditation

The book is divided into the following chapters.

Preface: (Premise, Promise, and Precepts)
Winter
Chapter 1: January (Rebirth)
Chapter 2: February (Becoming) – Reading on the Path to Awakening
Spring
Chapter 3: March (Emergence) – Practice and Process
Chapter 4: April (Blossoming) – Poetry: The Language of Possibility
Chapter 5: May (Imagination) – The Art of the Image
Summer
Chapter 6: June (Amusement) – Surprise, Humor, Taking the Vow, and Calling Forth the Muse
Chapter 7: July (Audacity) – Absolute Daring … Telling/Writing the Truth
Chapter 8: August (Devotion) – Permission to Flow
Autumn
Chapter 9: September (Revelation) – The Essence of Story: Journey to the Center of Self
Chapter 10: October (Abundance) – The Five Senses and The Embodied Self
Chapter 11: November (Reflection) – Editing and The Art of Revision
Winter
Chapter 12: December (Sanctuary) – Writing, Living, Dying, and Becoming
Full Circle

Each chapter has a summary of the topic followed by a writing assignment and meditation. As you travel through each month, the writing becomes more structured and complex. He encourages the reader to spend time listening and reading more to become a better writer. He states that you do not have to be published to be considered a writer; you just need to write. If you have wanted to begin a writing schedule or aspire to be published, this book will give you motivation.

Being a fan of Julia Cameron, I'm a great believer that writing is spiritual work. I've experienced that in my life. This is why this book's premise appealed to me enormously.

This is one of those books that is meant to be read, and worked on through the course of one year. So there are themes and exercises for each month of the year. I admit I didn't follow the book through the year, but I selected some exercises and reflections to undertake to experience the book better.

The book encourages you to move out of your comfort zone as a writer and explore the soul of your writing.

By looking deep within ourselves, we are able to express our emotions in a more real way and connect much better with our readers. <

If you are committed to your own development as a human being and a writer, I'd recommend this book.

I hope to get myself a hard copy of the book and follow it the way it's meant to be read.

This book reminds us that as writers/authors we need to fully engage our minds cognitive powers. The author describes the practice of writing as a exploration of consciousness.

I've never read a writing book before, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. I was pleasantly surprised when I first skimmed through it, that I decided to read it all before applying the suggestions of writing each day. I love how it encourages you to look within and really get to know yourself. This isn't a book about just learning how to write - it's a spiritual practice!

At the moment I will only give a rating to the book and I hope it is possible for me to write down my reviews on Amazon. Barnes and Noble and Goodreads. I am very grateful to you because your publications are great, especially in the topics that interest me most. Thanks and blessings.

***This book was reviewed for San Francisco Book Review and Sounds True Publishing Via Netgalley

DeSilver’s Writing as a Path to Awakening elicits a beautiful dialogue with the soul. Writing can help you find who you truly are. Combined with techniques of mindfulness and meditation, it can be a powerful catalyst. This book will teach you how to combine those things to spark your own internal growth and transformation.

The book is divided by month, though it is more important to follow one chapter after another, than it is to match to the literal month. Each builds upon the previous chapters. The choice of month as chapter title follows the magickal dormancy of winter, through spring’s burgeoning, summer’s bounty, and fall’s reflection back to winter’s slumber to process the lessons learned. The chapters have meditation tasks and writing tasks to put the lessons to practical use.

I was slow reading this book because, of course, I had to do the tasks. Many were familiar to me, in terms of meditation. The writing tasks were helpful in getting me to let go of some of the resistance I've been feeling in my own writing life.

April is my birth month, and this was one of my favourite chapters. April’s Blossoming dealt with poetry. I have a much greater appreciation for the power of poetry in my greater age than I did in college. I ended up adding several more poetry books to my Kindle thanks to this chapter! I loved the poem DeSilver shared by nine year old Caroline Calhoun. The creative power of children is never to be underestimated, and always to be learned from.

May’s Imagination builds on April’s tasks, and several of the May tasks were quite similar to those I would give my own students, when I still taught. June’s Amusement recalled me to the lessons for my Patron, Loki. Oft reviled as a deity of lies and deceit, one of Loki’s earliest, and most appropriate, epitaphs is Lord of Laughter, and His lessons include how to laugh with life, and find amusement no matter the circumstances, for laughter is healing. July’s Audacity is another Loki oriented month!

These spring and summer chapters were my favourites, but each of them have pertinent and useful lessons. A healthy and full writing path is by default a spirit-laden one. Any true spiritual path exudes creativity for it is our birthright as humans. Sometimes we just need a jumpstart to jog us out of our stupor. Writing as a Path to Awakening offers just such a jolt.

📚📚📚📚📚 A definite must for any writingcraft collection!

Book: “Writing as a Path to Awakening: A Year to Become an Excellent Writer and Living an Awakened Life,” by Albert Flynn DeSilver

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

Creating can be a chore that can and should be done through inspirational lows and disillusionment. No matter what your genre is, writing and meditating should be done religiously as one would with any craft they are trying to develop. Even if you are sore or tired or angry, successful people hit the trail, the ice and the pathway to hone their craft. It is important to keep at it no matter what obstacles come your way. There isn't anything particularly magical about it.

Most people have had a spiritual experience. For some it is a memorable electrifying experience. It is one that one remembers forever. By combining meditation before writing, one can increase one's ability to create. Likewise, by writing, one can develop one's ability to experience a new level of spirituality.

The Buddhists call it Buddha Nature of Shunyata and New Age people speak of the Source Energy. Whatever you call it, it is important to connect with the energy to create - “ushering you along the path of awakening to your true creativity.”

The moment for action is now to find that spark of creativity. It takes devotion to your craft to get your motivation going. Meditation is following your breath in and out not considering anything else in your mind. It is grounding yourself with your feet on the ground and your seat in your chair sitting erect and tall to the cosmos. Take the time to write about what you are devoted to – what your purpose in life is. That is the key to knowing what you are all about.

Writing is one of the most powerful points of focus. Writing down something makes it clear and more likely to happen as in affirmations. “Through writing, we generate the power to manifest our dreams.” Write out six goals for the next year – Spirituality, Creativity, Health/Fitness and Wellness, Relationships, Financial/Job/Business, and Community.

Setting situations and initiating incident, plot, characters, scenes, conflict and opposition, climax, final resolution and ending are all parts of your story. Together you can create your hero's journey. It can start anywhere from the last 3 weeks of somebody's life to three decades of life. It is your story.

By meditating, you can create an awesome story and by risking writing, you will accomplish your goals. By using our over-stimulated senses, in a directional way, you can write about the senses more delicately and intimately. It is as if there is a heightened way of dealing with the senses. Your stories will become all that much more brilliant. That is the way with this author. He writes eloquently using many sensory attributes. It makes the reading of the book nice to read.

I would recommend this book for those who would like to improve their writing. I did about half of the writing exercises and I did many of the meditations which brought me to a recognized level of understanding about writing. This is one of the best ways to write in combination with meditation. Finally remember writing is a process and journey, not a product or destination.

Tags: inspiration, meditation, writing, genre, spiritual experience, source energy, setting situation, initiating incident, plot, characters, scenes, conflicts, opposition, climax, final resolution, ending, process, journey, product, destination

Writing as a Path to Awakening

A Year to Becoming an Excellent Writer and Living an Awakened Life



by Albert Flynn DeSilver

Sounds True Publishing



Self-Help

Pub Date 01 Sep 2017

I am reviewing Writing as a Path to Awakening through Sounds True Publishing and Netgalley:

This book reminds us that as writers/authors we need to fully engage our minds cognitive powers. The author describes the practice of writing as a exploration of consciousness. The book is broken up into separate chapters for each month of the year including writing excercises.

The author reminds us too of keeping our imaginations active.

This book would work great for a creative resource for writers and authors, and could be used in a Creative Writing classroom.

I give Writing As A Path to Awakening five out of five stars.

Happy Reading!

A writing assignment for each month of the year. This makes writing manageable and achievable for busy people. The author shares quite a lot of personal information to root the writing exercises. The meditation is a nice idea and I can see why this would be good. I feel I would need to listen to the meditation. Reading the instructions for the meditation didn't take me to the calm meditative state I needed. Lots of great writing ideas. Ideal for writers wanting to write. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

As a person who uses their imagination to create stories with words and pictures, I rely on my mind a lot. However, after many years of experience, I also know that this important tool of mine can also be a major hindrance in getting work done.

The mind, though useful, sometimes seems to have plans on its own. It chatters and wanders and gives you 500 reasons why you should be somewhere else rather than where you are at the moment. During times when life troubles are getting the best of you - your child is ill or the weather is making you uncomfortable, or you are in pain - this is one of the time when the mind completely ceases to be a helpful tool. Unfortunately, this phenomenon gets in the way of consistency. I have come to realise that, to become a skilled writer and illustrator, the mind is one of the frontiers I have to tame.

I believe this is why the stream of consciousness technique works for creatives. Stream of consciousness (or freewriting) is a technique where, as a writer, you write whatever comes to mind without filtering it through your thoughts or inner monologue. This kind of writing tends to be disjointed and nonsensical on paper, however, it helps in temporarily tuning-off the talkative part of the mind so that words can be written freely.

There are benefits to this practice, Albert F. DeSilver, writer of the book, Writing As A Path To Awakening, testifies in his work. He writes:
"I have noticed that the more I practice truly letting go and getting out of my own way, the more raw, honest, insightful, and revealing my writing becomes. Our minds are so quick to judge and condemn, to interfere and sabotage, that much of the time we don't even know it's happening."

Writing As A Path To Awakening contains many similar insights and techniques in approaching writing. The book shows that writing can be used to explore our consciousness in a way that makes us understand ourselves much more, making us more happier and at peace.

Writing As A Path To Awakening is published by Sounds True Publishing. Many thanks to them for the review copy.

While I love the concept of this book and the thoughts represented with the portion I did read, I could not get past the writing style. It doesn't seem to flow as well as it could. However, if you're looking for a book with some writing exercises to help you dig deeper into yourself then I would say it is still worth a try because the exercises themselves are good.

Writing As A Path To Awakening is not your typical writing book, but just as important as your classic instructional books about writing.

While I would not classify it directly as a self-help book, and still as a writing book, I find it more of a transformational book than anything else, that is, if you are willing to let it transform you.

Meant to be read, and worked on throughout the course of one year, it challenges the reader to connect with their inner wisdom and allow themselves to connect with the flow of creativity that makes any artist, and not just writers, become the creative vessel they are meant to be.

It also expects the reader to have an open mind – and maybe reach a little further into a type spirituality that is not a usual part of their daily faith experience – but it is not meant to convince you of a wisdom you don’t already know is the truth.

I felt right at home reading this book. Writing As A Path of Awakening challenges any reader to create your own living, and writing guidelines, but showcases the Authors own set of established “writing” rules. From being committed to truth to exploring the compassion for all things (even for the antagonists of our own creative expressions, and stories) it sets high examples of how to integrate one's values and non-negotiables into one's writing.

If you are serious about writing, not only as a craft but making the act of writing your job – no matter what form this written content may take – you should take the time to commit to spending a year with this book and this Author.

This review will also be featured on my book blog, closer to the release date (end of August)

This book is bursting with ideas, creativity and inspiration. I loved the down to earth no nonsense style. I loved the lack of rules and the invitations to be yourself and do it your own way. I would definitely read it again and recommend it. It was a breath of fresh air. Thank you

As an individual on the path of mindfulness, I often have trouble translating my mental and emotional state to paper. With Writing as a Path to Awakening, DeSilver delivers a helpful self-study with brilliant tips guides and exercises. No matter where your spiritual path takes you, DeSilver's text can help guide you there.

Excellent!