I Am

As some of you may or may not know, I teach a writing class that I call The Writer's Mind. It's a cool fusion of writing workshop and group hypnotherapy/therapeutic imagery journey. I help writers not only become better writers but also have more confidence, motivation and joy in the process of creation. It was surprising to me how many of them had been writing for years but still had fear and hesitation about calling themselves writers. Some are published, and even have the job title of writer. Last week, I was talking about this at a career seminar where I was asked to speak, and another woman on the panel said something very profound. She said, "the words I am are the two most powerful words in the universe. So be careful what you put after them."

And I realized that she was right. Those words are very powerful. In fact, I AM is one of the names God calls himself in the Bible. When you say I am ___ -- anything you fill in the blank goes right into your subconscious mind and you begin to believe and achieve it--good or bad. So I cautioned my writers to think about what they really are, and separate it from things they feel or things they do. For example. Begin to say, "I feel afraid," rather than "I am afraid." Or "I made a stupid decision," rather than "I am stupid."

That last one is something I stress over and over with my daughter--that she is always a good girl. Her behavior is not always good, but she is always a good girl. When we see people making bad choices, we may talk about their behavior as bad, but always remember that every one is good in their inner most self. Their spiritual nature is perfect, even thought their thoughts and behavior may not be.

This was a big realization for everyone in my writing class. There were lots of "ahas" and "oh mys." And so, to end our final class we did a version of an "I AM" mediation, the words of which were:

I am the light of the soul,
I am beautiful,
I am bountiful,
I am bliss.
I am.
I am.

It's a beautiful mediation, which Bibi Bhani Kaur put to music that you can listen to here.

After class, no one wanted to go yet, so we all decided to take portraits of ourselves for JR's global art project INSIDE OUT. If you haven't heard about it yet, you can watch this link. It's amazing and inspiring. So, to symbolize what we were most passionate about, we all wrote I am on our faces with black eyeliner and then took pictures which will soon grace the streets of Los Angeles as art. (Watch JR's speech)

And I was thinking how cool it would be to see portraits of readers with I am written on your face or belly. I don't get to see many pictures of readers unless you are a fan on facebook. It would be cool to post pictures of divine mothers from all over the world. So if you feel like getting handy with or creative with I am in some other way, I invite you to send me a picture or post them on our Facebook Page wall. Let me see who you are.