Free Form Writing

Free-form writing is a simple technique to help clear the unconscious. If you ever find yourself thinking, feeling, and doing things that you cannot explain or experiencing illness or pain with an unknown cause, this technique may assist you.
Preparation
I recommend you light a candle. Sometimes as you write, emotional negativity will come up and release into the room. Since it tends to go toward flame, this may keep the room clear and the negativity away from you.
In addition to lighting a candle it’d be good to put a little more into the setup. Get a pen and a pad of paper. Sit somewhere comfortable where you wont be disturbed as you are writing. Set an intention for your writing. And, if you’d like, call yourself forward into the light.
The Technique
Allow a thought into your mind and transfer it into the pen.
You may not even finish a sentence before the next thought comes up. For example, the thought, “go to the restaurant together” arises. As you start to write “together” you may get T-O-G-E . . . and then the next word or thought that comes up is “help” and you may write H-L-P. That is just fine because you know what you mean by it.
In some instances you will find yourself writing as fast as you can, and at other times you will be writing slowly. But throughout this process you should be writing continuously because there are always thoughts in your mind—and you are to write them down, even if they are, “Gee, I don’t know why I’m doing this. What should I write next? HMMMM.”
The first time people approach this they usually sit down and think, “I wonder what I should write?” Instead, they should be writing, “I wonder what I should write?” “Gee, this sure is stupid.” “I think this makes me look like a fool.” “I feel like such a phony.”
“Run…can’t…yes…theelephantwasthere… no . . . the cows jumped . . . I can’t . . . I don’t know why I’m doing it.” On to the next page.
You will see a flow begin, then all of a sudden it may become jumbled. You may think, “I wonder why I wrote ‘green elephant?’” Don’t start doing that. Instead, write, “I wonder why I wrote green elephant?” The writing will open the mind again and the repository of jumbled information that has been holding energy will start to release.
One thing you do not do in this process is let the pen write and then read what it has written. That is automatic writing, a very different process.
Be aware that you are not giving yourself over to anything when you do free-from writing because you are in absolute control of what is happening.
When you get through writing, do not read it over. Rip up what you have written and burn it. Never share what you write with anyone else.
Time Period
Start slowly, with say 10-20 minutes, but work up to writing for at least an hour. Two hours per session is optimal. Each person is different, but to notice some real changes I recommend a minimum of three times a week for a minimum of three months. With practice you can get to the point where you can do this in fifteen minutes, but it will probably take you a year or so to get to that point.
Note
After you have done free-form writing for any length of time you will start to get some beautiful, inspirational, wonderful prose which you will want to keep. And when you are through with your session you will forget where the beautiful writing was and will want to read through what you wrote to find it. Do not do this because the energy and negativity that you released onto the paper can return to you if you reread it.
Instead, as you are writing, and thoughts are flowing through, take the pieces of paper on which you write the inspirational thoughts and set them aside, separate from the other writing. When you finish your session, rewrite the sections you want to keep in a special book. Then you can rip up and burn all the original pages.
The Releasing Process
It is important that you do not do free-form writing on a computer or a typewriter. Free-form writing is a kinesthetic activity: the neural impulses from the fingers are sent back to the brain so that the writing actually releases and records the patterns of the unconscious. I call them the “beach balls,” those things we have suppressed for a long, long, time and have expended energy to keep under the surface. They can carry tremendous emotion. So at times you may end up writing very forcefully. That’s why I recommend that you do not write with a pencil: The lead can break and you lose the flow.
As you do this, a wonderful thing can take place. Because your writing is often a symbol of an inner disturbance, you may find that pressure leaves you as you write. An obsessive behavior, a habitual pattern, suddenly disappears and you won’t even know that it was inside of you or how it managed to get there. You will just know that it is gone. Often it will feel like relief or a sense that somebody has taken a weight off you. The strange thing is that you will probably not be aware that it was there until it is gone! Such is the nature of the unconscious.
When it goes, I would strongly advise you not even to question what it was, because you might find it and re-establish it inside. We are powerful creators. Just by thinking about how glad you are to be rid of it you could reactivate your own memory of it and— poof!—it’s in.
I emphasize this because it is very hard to get something out a second time. I am speaking from personal experience. I re-looked at something, and it took me fifteen years before I was able to clear it again.
I was aware every day that I had not cleared it, so I just kept at it. And one day it went. I knew what it was when it released because of where it was expressing in my body. And I just smiled and got busy doing something else to distract my mind so I would not go back to see if I had really released it.
There is something crazy about our human minds. We say, “But is it really gone?” And, in doing so, we bring it back. It’s as if we were to quit smoking, and then smoke another cigarette just to see if we really quit. Then we’re hooked again.
My advice is that when you let anything go, don’t be concerned about it. Just let it go.