Hello and Welcome back to a Journey To Awareness, I’m your host Shauna Hoffman.
There are journeys in travel and travel journeys of the soul. And sometimes they coincide. I just got off a cruise with the most lovely group of writers on the Writing Excuses 2021 Retreat. They were mostly SciFi fantasy writers who were there to expand their knowledge, kick start their writing again and meet other like-minded souls.
As I watched them board the ship 8 days ago I could see in their eyes excitement, and nervousness, definite confusion, and mostly this hunger… this hope. I could actually feel the hope more than I could see it. They were there to learn and be inspired by a few of the most egoless instructors I have known. The instructors were established and well-known authors and one was an editor/agent extraordinaire. What the students didn’t know is that their instructors were each on a journey of their own. You see wherever we are and whatever we do we are each on some sort of journey to expand our consciousness, heal our souls and connect with other humans. Maybe it’s one human, or maybe it’s a beautiful classroom filled with a vibrating energy emanating from all these other humans that have chosen to accompany you through the next days of personal growth. And maybe more than personal growth…. maybe even some soul searching enlightenment!
I also saw something that I know to be true. Sometimes with the disconnecting from the people who are normally in our day-to-day lives that makes the space for us to reach out to someone new. A void that allows us to fill it with the unknown.
For many of the students, it was truly an expansion of their comfort zone. They weren’t traveling with anyone they actually knew. Solo travelers on a joint quest to unlock their most hidden talents and dreams… writing. It took an even stronger will and commitment for these writers to show up on a trip where they didn’t have a friend or family member to lean on. For these individuals, their journey to self started the minute they made the decision to come on this trip alone/solo. It was their belief that their dreams deserved to be honored that empowered them to book this event.
This particular trip was quite the adventure for all of us. It was the first travel for many of the group since BC- before Covid. The ship had protocols in place to make everyone stay safe. Our entire group was vaccinated and Covid tested before we could board. Actually, the whole ship was except the children aboard. There wasn’t a question that it took time to shed the fear to stand next to someone, or talk to them without a mask on, to sit in a classroom and just breathe. As the days progressed the obvious care that the ship took to keep everyone safe caused this beautiful thing I call a peeling of the onion. I watched everyone slowly find comfort in their surroundings. I watched them start to enjoy the ship. And with that came the connections to each other. I watched the nerves fade away and the creativity start bursting out from all of them. I watched the seasoned travelers who had taken previous Writing Excuses cruises gently lead their fellow newbies to find comfort in everything from the classes to the ship. They too did it with no egos, just a desire to be there for their fellow writers.
I believe this all could happen because the Group Leaders, the Instructors had given them a safe haven to ask questions, not be perfect, expand their capabilities with no judgment, and more importantly they welcomed them with the most genuine warm smiles every time they met. I witnessed how the instructors left their egos aside to share the wisdom and the passion they had for and about writing. And the beauty was they made it clear that just because they are saying something doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true. I watched as the instructor’s own perceptions about writing grew from their interactions with the students. There is something freeing that comes from remembering that even those teachers around us that we think are bigger or better or more accomplished than we are, are also on their own journey. And it may be that today you teach them something about themselves.
On this cruise, the Writing Excuses Instructors, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Erin Roberts, and DongWong Song made space for each student’s own creativity to be sparked. And they let them all know that they too, were once newbies. And even though this group was made up of students… they were more than that…they were WRITERS!
It’s funny when you are given permission from others to be exactly where you are in life. Permission to not judge yourself but still open your consciousness for growth. In a perfect world, we should all be like this every day without permission from someone else. But we fight these voices in our heads. The ones that tell us we are not good enough. The ones that compare ourselves to others. The ones that squash our own dreams because that critical voice in our heads is louder than the nurturing one. When I talk in my other podcast episodes about being in the present this is exactly where present-based thinking helps most. It is acknowledging where I am today and that it took a helluva lot of living to get here. And I am grateful for every lesson that taught me along the way. And I love myself for surviving them. And today I am grateful for just being here. And today with gratitude and honoring my self I will learn the lessons that today brings me with no judgment. I will embrace today exactly how I woke up! You know that morning innocence where we open our eyes and see the morning light and then remember that it’s a new day.
We are all struggling with that even more in these Covid times. Because there is a weird feeling of Groundhog day. So it is even more important for us to wake up and see that the light is different outside today and my body feels different today and the opportunities I give myself today can be…if I let it… totally different than yesterday!
In one of the discussions, I heard a few of the writers say that they had loved the beginning of lockdown because they had written so much. Then as time went by they just stopped. They didn’t know why. It wasn’t writer’s block it was a lack of motivation. And the choice to come on this cruise was their first step to giving themselves a space to jumpstart their writing again. Well, we all can’t jump on a cruise ship with other like-minded souls and incredibly positive inspiring teachers. But we can make a space for ourselves to quiet our judgemental minds, breathe deeply, listen to our hearts and just start. Start whatever it is that is stirring inside you waiting to be born. And for some who have already started quote-unquote “IT” then it just means to start TODAY. Just start today with the passion and the compassion for yourself to touch that part of you, whether tiny or huge, that is calling out to you.
The journey to self-awareness, as I always say, starts with going inward. Listening to yourself…becoming self-aware. So if the only thing you START with today is your own moments of self-awareness then you are on the most magnificent journey! It may be to something creative or it may be to a moment of self-care that you need. It may be to reach out to someone to talk to or hold hands with or cry with. But it starts with that moment you wake up and realize that it is a new day. If you choose to… you can make today different than yesterday. Today you can write your own story.
After 8 nights the cruise came to an end. The faces that I had seen who were nervous or scared, some of them timid or quiet had changed. I saw smiles! I saw that they felt safe now in the presence of so many like-minded, generous and kind souls. I saw them open up. And I saw them writing! They wrote everywhere on the ship that they could. They had given their dreams life again. Most importantly they had given their strength and hope and creativity more power than their fears. Let me say that again…. they had given their strength and hope and creativity more power than their fears. They were not just inspired. They were home. Not a physical home, after all, they were on a cruise ship. But a most beautiful, peaceful home… within their souls.
Now as I reflect on my own journey on this journey it’s a little different. After over 200 cruises, the cruise for me IS a second home. I figured that I have spent over 3 years of my life aboard a ship. So for me, this trip was a way of coming home after 18 months of lockdown. A way for me to nourish my own soul out on the sea as I watch for sealife jumping or the moon glistening over the ocean. It was my opportunity to invite others to be my guest in my second home and experience all that I love about being out to sea. My way to make sure that they are nourished and feel safe. My way of honoring something that I love so much and sharing it with so many people willing to take that leap of faith and sail with me. And the outcome for me? My own jumpstart to creativity as I record another podcast to share with all of you.
You see just like Dorothy says in the Wizard of Oz…there’s no place like home.
My hope for all of my listeners is that today you just make it today. That you check-in and listen to your mind, body, and soul and you honor all that you hear it say. My hope is that you surround yourself with loving beings who believe in you and your dreams. May you eat nourishing foods and drink lots of water! May you rest if you need to or dance if your soul is dancing! May you be gentle and kind to others, but most importantly to yourself.
Thank you for letting me into your lives this episode and I look forward to popping back in again next time.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONTENT DISCUSSED:
• A Journey to Awareness Podcast: https://www.workingonme.com/podcast
Shauna’s website: https://www.workingonme.com
WHEN DOES IT AIR :
OCTOBER 09, 2021