WORDLESSNESS, for a Writer?!

Is it even possible?!

My RECIPE for Happiness

In this POST, I gave you my Recipe for Happiness.

Today’s Post tackles Ingredients #3 to 7, and Adds a Dash of…WORDLESSNESS?

3 🧘🏻‍♀️ Immerse yourself in your physical senses.

4 🌹 Feel your feelings.

5 💨 Breathe through all of them.

6 🌻 Pay attention to your thoughts,

7 🧘🏻‍♀️ mindfully without judgment 🤗.

This Recipe allowed me to realize that part of my Creative Routine was not working.

You see, it’s my Goal to practice piano every day.

Does it happen?

Nope!

Well, sort of.

Every night, I do go through all 88 notes on the Treble & Bass Clefs because it’s part of my nighttime routine. It helps me to go to bed when I picture the notes in my head as I’m drifting off to sleep.

Now, since that’s a fully-entrained habit, I’ve decided to focus on sitting at the piano and actually practicing every day.

But, as any piano enthusiast will tell you, there’s a BIG difference between playing for fun at the piano; and practicing deliberately, to learn new pieces, troubleshoot problem spots, and gain a practical grasp of music theory.

My goal is (1) Deliberate Practice, followed by some fun (2) Playing.

My Recipe helped me to see myself clearly — mindfully & without judgment.

In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that Deliberate Practice requires me to SLOW down to focus and do what feels like tedious work.

Ironically, after a long day, this makes my verbally-minded Writer Mind SPEED UP.

All of a sudden, my mind will not stop its chatter.

Then comes the dreaded…

PROBLEM: Labeling.

When my experience of (1) Deliberate Practice is “bad,” (2) Playing doesn’t happen. As in, I don’t sit down at the piano at all.

Notice I used the word “bad.”

My mind automatically used these words, too:

• “Hard”

• “Laborious”

• “Boring”

Or, my personal favorite,

• “Ugh!!!”

SOLUTION: Tweaking my Recipe…again

Whenever I have something that’s not working in my life, I try to take an experimental mindset, like I’m a Scientist, troubleshooting an N=1.

Or, if you’d rather I not mix metaphors:

I will tweak my Recipe, like I’m Marisa, a Michelin Chef. 👩🏻‍🍳

Having prepped my Ingredient #6 (Pay Attention to Your Thoughts)…

I realized that the thoughts I am thinking about Deliberate Practice, as opposed to the Deliberate Practice itself, are spoiling my recipe!

It’s bitter. It’s sour. What I’m anticipating is so bad I won’t even step into the kitchen.

Now, I move onto #7 (Mindfully Without Judgment):

I remind myself that this doesn’t mean I “suck” as a Chef.

It doesn’t mean that I am a “bad” Musician.

As any piano player will tell you, there’s a lot to learn, practice, and master before you can truly express yourself at the piano, to “become one with” the music.

Like any skill, it requires time, determination, and grit.

Plus, you have to entrain your brain and body to be physically and mentally capable of identifying the correct notes, and controlling your fingers to play the correct keys, at the right tempo, with proper expressiveness.

In other words, it’s not easy.

Old Perfectionistic Marisa would have rushed to call myself “Bad.”

Recovering Perfectionist Marisa gives me an extra dollop (or, better yet, dumps the entire container) of #7: being Mindful — Without Judgment.

It doesn’t help me (or anyone around me, who has to hear my playing 😂) to label myself or the task of Deliberate Practice as “bad.”

If I label Myself “bad,” my playing will automatically be worse than if I used positive thinking or appropriate praise to motivate myself.

If I label Deliberate Practice “bad,” I just don’t sit at the piano at all.

The easiest way to improve? Go heavy on Ingredients #3, 4, & 5:

3 🧘🏻‍♀️ Immerse yourself in your physical senses.

4 🌹 Feel your feelings.

5 💨 Breathe through all of them.

After a long day, I realized that these 3 ingredients change exponentially, depending on the Words that my mind automatically uses to LABEL my experience.

And, interestingly, my mind has a tendency to PRE-LABEL my experience BEFORE I do it.

So, I started to experiment with how I might be able to damper my Wordy Writer’s Mind.

Using #3, I focused on the physical sensation of sound. I closed my eyes and listened more closely as I played.

Then, I focused on #4 & 5: I breathed through any discomfort I felt when I made mistakes; and, I felt the expansiveness of my breath when I allowed any positive emotions to grow as I entered a state of Flow.

When that still wasn’t enough, I realized how crucial Ingredient #3 (Immerse Yourself in Your Physical Senses) is for me.

At its max, it’s got to be so physical, it’s WORDLESSNESS.

Is that even possible, though — for a Writer’s Mind like mine?

Can I shut off my words?

YES!

I’ve discovered that I can!

It’s not easy (especially if I’m playing something like the score to a Pop Song).

But, it is possible. And the more practiced I’ve become at this, the easier

(1) Deliberate Practice and (2) Playing have become for me.

When it comes to Music, I’ve found that Focusing on

JUST THE MUSIC = The Secret Ingredient!

Suddenly, I am able to play without the Labeling, before I start or during!

It’s like the Notes hit my eardrums and, as soon as I perceive the sounds they produce, they calm & quiet my Wordy Writer’s Mind.

Yet again, experimentation to find a better way of Being is the path forward.

It’s still not easy.

It doesn’t work every time.

But, I think it will work better & better, the more I keep at it.

Now, take a Mindful Minute to reflect on your life:

⭐️ What’s YOUR Recipe for Happiness?

⭐️ Do you ever tweak your Recipe?

⭐️ Do you have something in your life, a Goal that’s thwarted by an annoyingly verbose mind?

⭐️ Do you tend to Label tasks you have to do, making it that much harder to get it done? Or does it make you avoid the task altogether?

⭐️ Do you ever drop into Wordlessness?

⭐️ If not, do you think you might give Wordlessness a try?

⭐️ How might Wordlessness help you?

The Deliberately WORDLESS Writer in me honors & respects the Deliberately WORDLESS Reader in each of you,

Marisa

⭐️ Do you have all the answers? No? Me neither. ⭐️

⭐️ No problem, because we don’t have to figure it out, all alone. ⭐️

We can find solutions, together!

Please join us in my

This is a special group for Writers, Artists, & Creatives like us, to have deep conversations about the Books that we choose, so we can implement what we learn, and unearth our truest, most Authentic Selves.

It’s the perfect way to

Share Our Recipes for Happiness:

• Have fun together;
• Share our triumphs;
• Vent from time to time — we’re human after all!
• Take a lighthearted approach to private journaling & Artist’s Dates; and,
• Grow the CREATIVE GENIUS inside all of us! 💐🌺🌷🌸🌹🌻🌼

Share Our Work (allow our True Self to be Seen):

With Notes Boost Challenges (NBC), we can share our favorite Notes of the week.

And, when we’d like, we can share our Works In Progress (WIP) and/or Final Posts, Music, & Art…whatever we’re proud of!

So we can Like, Comment, and/or Restack each others’ work to…

Share Our Joy (experience Connection with a kind & supportive Creative Community):

This is how we can come together, to grow through our own individual efforts, and feel the support of a kind & supportive Creative Community, too.

If that sounds good to you, then join us & say hello!

Join Marisa Victus’s subscriber chat

Available in the Substack app and on web

Here’s what we’ve been up to in the STUDY, SAVOR, & SUPPORT Each Other CHAT! ☕️🍵 !

It’s WEEK #3 of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron: Recovering a Sense of Power.

In Chapter 2, I loved how JC normalized all the negative outside obstacles we might encounter, to emphasize that they are not defects, but simply part of the design on our creative journeys.

In Chapter 3, JC normalizes the seemingly-negative inner experiences that we may have:

• Anger

• Skepticism about Synchronicities

• Shame

• Criticism

I find it helpful to remember I have a choice when facing all these challenges.

⭐️ Don’t you?

It makes me realize that my initial reactions — especially if they’re negative — might be showing me only one side of the coin.

Here are some journaling prompts to consider this week:

🔬 Can we pay closer attention to our initial — often emotionally painful — reactions?

🔬 Can we ask ourselves to examine the opposite (how might this serve us)?

🔬 Does considering the opposite make us feel resistance, or does it expand our perspective?

🔬 Does this practice empower us to make better choices?

🔬 Does this practice point me in a better direction?

⭐️ Please share your thoughts.

⭐️ Did anything from Chapter 3 resonate with you?

⭐️ Is there a different journaling prompt that’s helped you to grapple with these concepts?

Let’s support each other in the Chat!

We got this! 💪😉🙌

Pull up a seat & come to our comfy & cozy Creative CHAT! Here’s to the Creative CHAT for me & you! 🎉📚🥳📚🎉

If it’s not your cuppa tea/coffee/chai/matcha/whatevs,

Please Note:

For anyone who does not wish to participate in the Study, Savor, & Support each other CHAT, no problemo!

I will still publish my Newsletter, M&Ms, Sing-Along Storytime, Music, Videos, Science Fiction writing, & more!

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to send me a DM.

Have a fantastic weekend!

The Creative in me honors & respects the Creative in each of you,

Marisa

If you love to learn about the science of self-improvement, please Subscribe to my YouTube Channel and signup for my free Substack Newsletter.

Together, we’ll explore all the ways that we can 10x our life — mind, body, & soul.

We’ll learn the scientific, physiological, and psychological reasons why we are the way that we are, and combine that understanding with simple, active practices that will:

• Enliven our emotions & creativity;

• Enhance our efficiency & productivity;

• Foster a greater depth of Self;

• Build the Secure Attachment that we need to develop a Growth Mindset; and,

• Reprogram our minds to pivot from the Sympathetic Nervous System to the Parasympathetic Nervous System when we need it to, more often than not.

I’ve planned so many exciting & fun things to share with you (in addition to music!) and I can’t wait for you to get all the FREE goodies I’ve prepared for you.

We CAN do this, TOGETHER!

Are you serious about self-improvement & want to have unstoppable self-belief?

Then SUBSCRIBE TO MY FREE SUBSTACK and entrain your brain the quick & easy way, with my daily Mindset & Meditation (M&M) practice.

Every day, I write & share 1 handwritten M&M in my “Notes” if you want to grow with me.

To learn how, click this link.

In addition, new Chapters for my serialized science fiction series (THE OBSIDIAN CHRONICLES) are released every weekend, and Subscribers can read the 1st Book in the series for FREE! Just click here (or visit https://marisavictus.substack.com/account) to opt-in + receive my Fiction writing!

Marisa