April 3, 2025 • 27 mins
Words have always been my most reliable source of magic. In celebration of National Poetry Month, I'm diving into the transformative power of writing as both a creative practice and spiritual discipline that helps us navigate life's complexities.
The journey begins with exploring how poetry becomes an accessible gateway for authentic self-expression. When we struggle to tell our complete stories or make sense of complex emotions, poetry offers a container for those fragments – capturing moments of insight, mystical connections with nature, or emotional truths in just a few carefully chosen lines. Through writing, we transform raw experiences into something meaningful, creating an alchemy that turns ordinary moments into extraordinary revelations.
Key talking points include:
• Writing as alchemy - transforming experiences into wisdom and feelings into language
• Poetry as an accessible first form that captures fragments of feelings before the full narrative emerges
• Using writing to observe rather than react to life experiences
• Creating "word magic" by finding beauty in ordinary moments through descriptive language
• Writing about the world we wish to see as an antidote to hopelessness
• Holding space for positivity even during challenging times
• Respecting the natural cycles of creativity - expansion and contraction
• Trusting that creative inspiration will return during quiet periods
This April, take a moment to reconnect with the writer within you. Whether through poetry, journaling, or simple intentions, allow your words to create magic in your life and in the world around you.
Join us next week for an all-new episode of Your Heart Magic and more psychology, spirituality, storytelling, and heart wisdom.
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Your Heart Magic is a space where heart wisdom, spirituality, and psychology meet. Enjoy episodes centered on mental health, spirituality, personal growth, healing, and well-being. Featured as one of the best Heart Energy and Akashic Records Podcasts in 2024 by PlayerFM and Globally Ranked in the top 5% in Listen Notes.
Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright is a Licensed Psychologist, Spiritual Educator, and Akashic Records Reader. She is the author of Small Pearls Big Wisdom, the Award-Winning Lamentations of the Sea, its sequels, and several books of poetry. A psychologist with a mystic mind, she weaves perspectives from both worlds to offer holistic wisdom.
FIND DR. BETHANNE ONLINE:
BOOKS- www.bethannekw.com/books
FACEBOOK - www.facebook.com/drbethannekw
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Episode Transcript
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Intro/Outro Music (00:13):
Aloha and welcome to your Heart Magic, an
illuminating space wherepsychology, spirituality and
heart wisdom meet.
Here's your host, dr BethannKapansky-Wright.
Author, psychologist andspiritual educator.
Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wri (00:33):
Aloha everybody.
Welcome to your Heart Magic.
This is Dr BethannKapansky-Wright, and happy April
to you.
So April is National PoetryMonth and I felt like doing a
playful episode today on thepodcast and celebrating National
Poetry Month by doing a talkstory time theme.
(00:54):
If this is a new podcast to you, talk story time episodes are
where I bring together a fewpassages from my work and talk
story.
It's always unscripted and Ialways choose a few passages
around a central topic or theme.
Sometimes it's just a word thatthey all have in common and I
(01:16):
share not only the writing but alittle bit of the story behind
it or some of the inspiration.
So I thought it would be fun tocelebrate National Poetry Month
and kick it off with somewriting.
Not everything I'm reading todayis a poem, but when I started
writing and I finally took it topublish writing and that was in
(01:37):
such a small way it was just ona blog, my
sunshineandwinterblog that Istarted years ago and every now
and then we'll still publish apoem or a piece on just for old
time's sake.
But when I first startedwriting, I went through a big
poetry phase and I think I foundpoetry so approachable as a
writer and when I was strugglingto find my words or tell the
(02:01):
full story and really put itinto more of an essay or a
narrative form, I felt that Icould put it in a poem and
capture within a few linesaspects of something I was
trying to tell.
Or maybe I might be able totake and personify a spiritual,
(02:22):
connective experience that I'dhad, like if I'd been out in
nature and really felt like Ireceived wisdom from the trees.
I could take a poem and maybeI'd call the poem the things the
trees had to teach and writedown those lessons that I
received in my heart.
And so it was a way of bridgingthis creative and more mystical
(02:44):
realm, the realm of feelings,the realm of intuition, the
realm of the psyche andsubconscious.
When we are working throughsome of our feelings and working
through making meaning out ofsomething in our life, and we
don't necessarily have the fullstory yet, we might not be able
to say chapter one, this is whathappened and tell the full
(03:05):
narrative and bring it throughto conclusion and the end.
And so a poem could encapsulatesome of those things and give
myself a language to expressthese fragments and these mosaic
tiles of life that I wasexperiencing and sometimes I
found oftentimes I found thatthrough the act of writing I
(03:27):
would start to see the biggerpicture.
And, of course, as any goodwriter will tell you, usually
once you start writing yourtruth and telling your truth, it
clears the space for more truthand more writing to happen.
And so writing begets writing,creativity begets creativity.
As I got going with it, Icontinued to develop all of that
(03:49):
and over the years my writingpractices have waxed and waned,
but I love coming back to poetrywhen I'm feeling stuck or
feeling like I need to get backin touch with my soul again.
That is always my jumping offpoint.
So today's Talk Storytimeepisode is a little bit poetry,
but mostly passages of writingthat are about writing, and I
(04:13):
thought it would be fun andplayful to share a little bit
more about the creative processand my sense of what writing
means to me.
Something that I find extremelycliche about writers is many
writers, especially poets,usually have some piece in their
repertoire about, like why theywrite or what their writing
(04:34):
means to them, or what poetrymeans to them, and a lot of
times it's this dramatic I haveto write or my voice will die.
Put in poem form or somethinglike that.
It's so trite and so cliche andI am absolutely celebrating and
rocking that cliche today andpulling together some passages
on why I write.
(04:55):
So, speaking of that, the firstone that I want to share today
is from Revelations of the Skyand it's called my Magic.
And this is all about wordmagic and making magic out of
words and one of the fundamentalreasons why I love writing so
much my magic.
I like to think I have manyforms of magic my heart's
(05:19):
ability to feel, heal, tunneldeep, fall upwards, love, mend
and bend.
My soul's well-trained ear wholistens to the in-betweens and
hears the speak of angelic sings.
My relationship with thenatural world who constantly
teaches me.
The biggest miracles are hiddenbefore our eyes.
(05:41):
So we need to take the shellsoff and learn to see with a
child's mind.
But my words are their own formof magic.
Writing transmutes experiencesinto alchemical gold.
Diving into feelings createsnew elements and compounds of
sea salt and soul gold.
(06:02):
We become the mystic shamanwhen we write, weaving stories
out of the dreams of our lives,creating our own myths and
mysteries, unearthing newprophecies, where we weave the
elements of our histories toscript a new future, to navigate
by Sunshine, daffodil joy,future to navigate by Sunshine,
(06:24):
daffodil, joy, caramel, autumn,bittersweet ocean, grief, blues,
icy white truths.
Words are the alchemist whoemotionally evoke and transmute.
When I write, I go into myspirit's apothecary shop where I
can explore, mix, essence andbrew A pinch of this, a dab or
(06:46):
two.
I string words like kite tailsfrom alphabet soup healing and
feeling and sealing anew,transcribing this life from
observer's view rebirthing,reforming, rewriting the story
from a lens drenched in love.
When I wrote Revelations of theSky, I was going through a Dr
(07:09):
Seuss phase in my life where alot of my poetry rhymes and I'm
amused by that.
Reading it now, I don'tnecessarily feel the need to
rhyme.
Everything, and not everythingin this book rhymes if it's a
poem.
There's a lot of other prosepieces and personal essays too.
Poetry is just a small part ofit.
But I read this one and Ithought oh yes, that was the Dr
(07:30):
Seuss phase where it just cameout of nowhere.
I hadn't been a big rhymer inpoetry.
Poetry obviously can be like somany different things a free
form, verse and patterns andbeats and haiku, and there's so
many ways to write it.
But for some reason, all of asudden I just started rhyming
(07:51):
everything, and if I could finda way to rhyme a stanza, I would
.
So I read this and I thought,oh, look at that, it's the Dr
Seuss phase.
But I think that thinking ofwriting as a form of magic and
magic being our heart, magic,right, our heart, magic being
our gifts and talents and thethings that are unique to us and
things that are unique to usthat we do in a way that nobody
(08:13):
else does.
So I write in a way that, evenif there's other people who
might have a similar voice, mywriting is still unique to my
voice and my vantage point andmy life experience.
And if you write, whether it'sformal writing or whether it's
something that you scribble inyour journal and it's a
self-reflection on who you are,then that is unique to you and
(08:37):
your vantage point and yourpoint of view and it's your
magic.
This is our word.
Magic Words are our ability totap into something more, to put
our feelings into some kind of acompound element and string it
together, and we call thesethings sentences and in those
sentences and littlephraseologies and all that, we
(09:01):
put our emotions and we organizeourselves and we think about
how we think or how we perceivethe world.
We get to be an observer oflife and observe what's going on
around us and notice things,and I think part of the joy of
writing is training one's eye tonotice something that others
(09:22):
might miss because you'relooking at it through an
observer's lens.
And if you've ever been lookingaround for inspiration and
going out into nature or justinvestigating your own life and
thinking what's on my heartright now, what do I feel
inspired to write about?
What kinds of themes orpatterns and dynamics am I
(09:43):
seeing in the world around me?
What kinds of themes orpatterns and dynamics am I
seeing in the world around me,and what do I want to say about
that?
What voice do I have?
What do I feel inspired to say?
Then you notice that you spendmore time noticing and less time
reacting.
When we write, we are oftenmaking space to observe
something, to be mindful ofsomething, to pay attention to
(10:06):
it, and then the act of writingis how we synthesize the
information and we share areflection or some kind of a
component of how we experiencethat, and so I think one of the
things that I find so valuableabout the writing process is
that it dovetails so nicely withmindfulness practices and just
noticing and being more present,and it helps us tune into
(10:30):
what's going on around us.
I love to put together tinylittle vignettes of a day and
I've talked about this before onyour Heart Magic and suggested
it as a journaling exercisewhere you just write about what
happened in your day and it canbe something really short, like
she was grateful on a Tuesdaymorning and greeted the sunrise
(10:51):
or greeted the gray skies orgreeted the clouds above with
coffee and a peaceful heart, orcoffee and a contemplative mind.
It was an ordinary day wherenot much was happening at all
except the stirrings of her soulunder the surface of her deep.
I don't know something likethat.
Obviously I made that up on thecuff, but I love these little
(11:13):
vignettes where I'll take amoment and find what's special
about it and, if nothing wasspecial, make it special through
the act of words, through beinga word alchemist and finding a
way to use descriptives andcolors and elements that evoke
something in me and put themdown on page.
So words are magical.
(11:34):
I'm very grateful for them andI'm grateful to be able to have
a forum to use my voice.
This next one that I want toshare is from Small Pearls, big
Wisdom, and it's called WriteAbout the World we Wish to See.
Write about the world you wishto see.
Hold space for truth, holdspace for peace, hold space for
(11:58):
learning to dance with theshadows and find the light, hold
space for courage, hold spacefor reinvention, hold space for
evolution, hold space for change, hold space for love and keep
following the way of the heart,for that is the path forward
which will help us create abetter way.
(12:19):
I once wrote these words like Iwas spellcasting, creating a
verbal vision board of a betterworld, a world where we grow
love forward and find thecreative courage to let go of
what's no longer working andcreate something better in its
place.
I learned long ago that we canwrite our lives into being
(12:42):
through intention, faith andwords.
Maybe we can't changeeverything, but we can change
ourselves, and I think that ismore than enough.
I wrote my way through adifficult divorce, a shedding of
an old self and a recreation ofa new me.
Each time I wrote my waythrough a difficult divorce, a
shedding of an old self and arecreation of a new me.
Each time I wrote, I foundmyself ending my words, with
(13:06):
hopes and visions of who I'dlike to be and what I'd like to
dream into being.
It might be too much of astretch to say I authored myself
into being, since I think thereare much bigger forces like
life, love, spirit and theintangible threads of fate and
destiny.
That also had a lot to do withit, but I noticed over time that
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I was becoming my vision ofself.
We can create millions ofthings in our lives, from the
tiniest drop of gratitude to thebiggest wave of grace and
change.
So why not save a little spaceto create a more beautiful world
inside ourselves and envision amore beautiful collective world
?
Through tiny scraps of art,little love, notes of kindness
(13:52):
and vision boards built ofpositive quotes, grand ideas and
dreams, we can add more beautyto this vast universe, inspiring
the greatness in each other,inspiring humble acts of change
and inspiring ourselves to writeabout the world we wish to see.
Those inspirations and words oflove might feel nothing more
(14:15):
than a dream today, yet theyhold the potential to create the
energy that builds the steppingstones to a better tomorrow.
It can be hard to hold on tohope in this world, especially
if you are looking around atwhat is happening on the surface
of our world and just observingsome of the things going on
(14:37):
politically with people and theenvironment and relationships.
A lot of people are reallystruggling and there's a lot of
uncertainty in this climateright now and it's impacting
people in all sorts of differentways and I think it's really
easy to capitulate, to despairin that, to capitulate to
hopelessness, to feel reallysmall, to feel that we can't
(14:59):
make a difference.
I think it's also easy,empathically, to absorb some of
that and to struggle to keep ourfrequency up and tuned into
positivity and light and to getdragged down into some of the
grief a little bit and there'snothing wrong with grief, work
and feeling our feelings or anyof that.
But I think it's easy forhopelessness to seep in, or the
(15:23):
gray to seep in, and we don'teven notice it.
And I think that a powerfulpractice is writing about the
world we wish to see, and thatdoes not have to be as grand as
it sounds.
It really could just be writingdown in your journal the
intentions that you might beworking on towards yourself, and
maybe those intentions aresomething like building peace
(15:46):
inside of yourself, buildingmore harmony, building more
abundance, building moreself-compassion, self-kindness.
Those are very normalintentions that many of us, at
any point in time, are workingon some variation of.
And to say and I send the sameenergy out into the world around
me and hope that the world,that the collective, finds more
(16:08):
peace, more harmony, morecompassion, more kindness.
That right there is writingabout the world that you wish to
see.
It is always leaving space forhope, always leaving space for
grace, always leaving space thatwhimsy and magic can still
happen.
It is not about magicalthinking, but it is about
(16:29):
believing that miracles happenand believing that when people
come together with open hearts,we become the miracle.
We create the miracle becausewe're holding so much space for
love and when love is invitedinto a space, magic happens,
sacred things happen, miracleshappen, change happens, and so
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that is a world that I aminvested in being a part of.
It is one that I love to writeabout.
It comes through in so manyways in the pages of my journal.
I definitely see it reflectedin bigger passages that I write,
but, like I said, it doesn'thave to be something big.
It can be an easy practice, andI think that it is a wonderful
(17:10):
antidote to despair because weare controlling what we can and,
first of all, that's the spaceof ourselves.
If we're struggling in any way,it can be really hard to put
pen to paper and write someintentions or even write.
These are the ways.
I need support right now.
Universe, I invite you to comein and support me in all ways.
It is not easy to do, but itdoesn't mean we can't do it.
(17:32):
We can do things that aren'teasy.
We can make ourselves, pushthrough resistance and do
something that we know is goodfor us.
We can hold space forpositivity and hold space for
gritty positivity, forpositivity based in reality, and
we can hold space for that andhold space for the light, even
in times of darkness and even intimes of struggle.
(17:53):
We can do those things.
We can push past that threshold.
So I love doing that and I lovethe idea of encouraging others
to take the concept of writeabout the world you wish to see.
Write about the world that youwish to see in your own small
way, right the microcosm thatyou occupy and then the bigger
macrocosm around you, and do alittle vision statement, a
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vision board verbally, of whatthat might look like and focus
on that.
See what happens.
It's better than worrying.
It is such a relief when youhave exhausted your worries and
you've thought about all the badthings that could happen and
what if this happens, and whatif this happens, and like all of
that stuff that the anxietymind loves to attach to and tell
(18:37):
us stories about.
And some of those things arelegitimate, some of them are not
as legitimate, and that is justour mind speaking.
But one thing that I love doingis saying okay, well, maybe I
can shift my focus now andimagine what I would like to
happen.
Imagine things going throughwith more grace and ease,
imagine being supported in thesechallenges I find myself.
(18:58):
Imagine a little bit more peaceand harmony and all of that.
So I love to write about theworld I wish to see and I love
to challenge myself to pushthrough the gray default setting
that's how I think of it kindof a just gray, hazy space that
it's easy to find ourselves in,sort of like static, and to push
(19:20):
through that and rehome andrefocus where I'm putting my
attention so that I can haveenergy flow into that direction.
So this next piece that I wantto share is called Recollecting
an Ocean's Roar.
I recently published it on mySunshine in Winter blog, I think
.
Earlier I said every now andthen, like once a year, I'll
(19:44):
throw a piece up on there forold time's sake and it will feel
right to put it on that as aplatform.
I don't know why, maybe it ishonoring my younger self and
honoring my roots.
I don't write there very oftenbut I've left it live and I've
left all of those old poems andwritings up and they're really
fun to bring into talk storytime and to read from them.
(20:05):
And so this was one that I feltmoved to recently publish, back
in December, and againrecollecting an ocean's roar.
It was a quiet evening for tarotcards, musings about life,
listening to the sounds ofdarkness and the faint roar of
ocean and winter.
Poetry was slowly stirringagain, and she quietly observed
(20:29):
the creation process, knowing ifshe tried to grasp the tender
threads of words just rising.
Grasp the tender threads ofwords just rising, force them
into greater growth.
Before their time they mightsnap and staunch that which was
slowly coming to rise.
We cannot force the quietstarts and small sparks within
(20:53):
our hearts, but we can gentlystay with our process and trust
the soft seeds of new life.
The sea crooned with mutedroars, crickets and starlight
hummed.
The cards told a story ofsurrender and rebirth.
It was a night for beginnings,recollecting, and oceans roar.
Back in December I had justfinished a really busy season in
(21:17):
life.
I took on a lot in the year of2024 and had a lot happening,
not just in my private practice,but I did back-to-back
choreography projects, which waswonderful.
I'm so glad for thoseopportunities.
But it was a lot on top of workand then in the middle of all
that, I released Small Pearls,big Wisdom.
So I'd been working on thisbook and I published that and I
(21:40):
got through that time and Ithought, oh, wow, that was too
much.
And it was one of those thingsthat you get into the middle of
everything and you know it's toomuch when it's too late and
you're not going to quit onanything.
And so the only way out wasthrough At least that's how I
saw it at the time and I hadjust wrapped up the project
Small Pearls, big Wisdom.
(22:00):
It came out back in November andlike that was off my plate, I'd
wrapped up the lastchoreography project and I knew
that I was going into a winterseason.
The holidays were coming up, Iwas going to have a little bit
of time off and it was just atime to catch my breath and I
had this really nice evening ofjust being with my tarot cards
(22:21):
and my journal and feeling likeI wanted to write again, writing
down little fragments of poetryand my journal, and feeling
like I wanted to write again,writing down little fragments of
poetry and my journal.
That was.
This piece was inspired by allof that and just reflecting on
how we do go through creativeebbs and flows.
There are times where we can'tforce our words.
As much as I love having awriting practice and I think
(22:42):
that ideally I'd love to writeevery day, it's not always
realistic for me, or maybe Ishould say I've not made it
realistic because I don'tnecessarily prioritize that.
I do write every day in myjournal.
If nothing else, I write downthe date.
I at least get the date downand I'll usually write a
reflection on how I'm feeling.
(23:03):
So I'm going to count that aswriting, because I do think that
those self-reflective writingpractices, I think they feed our
creativity.
Contemplation feeds creativity.
So I do write every day, but Idon't necessarily have a
practice that I say I'm going towrite a poem a day or I'm going
to write a little mini story orsomething like that, to work on
the craft.
(23:24):
As a writer, I usually will waitfor inspiration to come and I
love the idea that, even if Idon't feel inspired, that it
still can be really nice to sitdown and write something, to
stay in practice.
But I'm also an advocate thatthere's times where, like
nothing really great is comingout and we're just doing it to
(23:44):
maybe keep our skill set sharpbut we don't feel particularly
inspired and we might be in alull or in a time in life where
our words and our creativityhowever you might self-express,
your creativity just doesn'tfeel very reinvigorated.
And that's okay.
There's a reason for thatsometimes.
(24:05):
Sometimes we're busy, sometimesour soul is under construction
and it's got bigger stuff goingon in our river, beneath the
river, and we're not ready yetto bring together whatever wants
to spring forth.
There are times that we arecreating life and using that
energy in other ways.
We might be working on someother project and our creative
(24:28):
outlet is being channeled intosomething else, and so our usual
artistic practice, our writingpractice, feels a little bit
quieter.
There's a lot of reasons thatwe go through ebbs and flows.
It echoes the process ofexpanding and contracting in
life.
It echoes the process ofexpanding and contracting in
life.
It echoes night and day andlife cycles of there's times
(24:48):
that we're really active andtimes that we're in a yin phase,
a rest phase, a receiving phase.
So that was a time where I wasin a receiving phase and I could
feel everything stirring againand I was like you don't want to
force this, you don't want tomake yourself sit down and say
what this is before it's time.
Just let it happen, just let itunfold.
(25:09):
I always come back to that whenI feel like I'm in a lull phase
or an ebb phase and nothing'sreally flowing is just trusting
that I'm receiving and trustingthat my words will come together
in time and they'll show mewhat they want them to be.
They will help me to feelinspired to do something with
(25:30):
them, and I can trust that.
I can trust that creativeprocess.
Creativity is its own alchemy,it is its own magical brew and,
if you noticed, I use a lot ofwords like elixir and potion and
spellcasting and these sort ofmagical words to describe the
writing process.
It doesn't always feel magical,especially once you've done the
(25:52):
magic of writing and you're inthe editing and refining phase,
if you're publishing, that's awhole other ballgame.
But that initial spark ofwriting and where words come
from, there's something aboutthat that still feels so
beautiful and mysterious to methat sometimes a wave of an idea
will just hit us and we'llchannel these words or have them
(26:13):
pour through us and we can'tsay exactly what's musing us,
but we feel moved by somethingbigger than ourselves to sit
down and put pen to paper or putour fingers on the keyboard or
use our voice and speak it intoa microphone so we can record it
, and we feel moved to createand tell a story in some shape
(26:34):
or form.
So I hope this April NationalPoetry Month that at least once
you sit down and do somethingwith writing write a little poem
, write two lines, make a rhyme,write a haiku, write something,
write a vignette of your day,write down your intentions or
your vision for your life.
Use the inspiration from allthe writers and poets out there
(26:58):
this month who are engaging inpractices and it's at the
forefront a little bit more,since it's National Poetry Month
.
Use that and let it inspire thewriter in you.
Thank you so much for joining mein today's podcast episode.
I will be back next week with anew your Heart Magic on
(27:19):
psychology, creativity,spirituality, heart wisdom and
storytelling.
In the meantime, as always, bewell, be love, be you and be
magic.
Intro/Outro Music (27:38):
You've been listening to your Heart Magic
with Dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright.
Tune in next week for a newepisode to support and empower
your light.
Aloha and welcome to your Heart Magic, an
illuminating space wherepsychology, spirituality and
heart wisdom meet.
Here's your host, dr BethannKapansky-Wright.
Author, psychologist andspiritual educator.
Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wri (00:33):
Aloha everybody.
Welcome to your Heart Magic.
This is Dr BethannKapansky-Wright, and happy April
to you.
So April is National PoetryMonth and I felt like doing a
playful episode today on thepodcast and celebrating National
Poetry Month by doing a talkstory time theme.
(00:54):
If this is a new podcast to you, talk story time episodes are
where I bring together a fewpassages from my work and talk
story.
It's always unscripted and Ialways choose a few passages
around a central topic or theme.
Sometimes it's just a word thatthey all have in common and I
(01:16):
share not only the writing but alittle bit of the story behind
it or some of the inspiration.
So I thought it would be fun tocelebrate National Poetry Month
and kick it off with somewriting.
Not everything I'm reading todayis a poem, but when I started
writing and I finally took it topublish writing and that was in
(01:37):
such a small way it was just ona blog, my
sunshineandwinterblog that Istarted years ago and every now
and then we'll still publish apoem or a piece on just for old
time's sake.
But when I first startedwriting, I went through a big
poetry phase and I think I foundpoetry so approachable as a
writer and when I was strugglingto find my words or tell the
(02:01):
full story and really put itinto more of an essay or a
narrative form, I felt that Icould put it in a poem and
capture within a few linesaspects of something I was
trying to tell.
Or maybe I might be able totake and personify a spiritual,
(02:22):
connective experience that I'dhad, like if I'd been out in
nature and really felt like Ireceived wisdom from the trees.
I could take a poem and maybeI'd call the poem the things the
trees had to teach and writedown those lessons that I
received in my heart.
And so it was a way of bridgingthis creative and more mystical
(02:44):
realm, the realm of feelings,the realm of intuition, the
realm of the psyche andsubconscious.
When we are working throughsome of our feelings and working
through making meaning out ofsomething in our life, and we
don't necessarily have the fullstory yet, we might not be able
to say chapter one, this is whathappened and tell the full
(03:05):
narrative and bring it throughto conclusion and the end.
And so a poem could encapsulatesome of those things and give
myself a language to expressthese fragments and these mosaic
tiles of life that I wasexperiencing and sometimes I
found oftentimes I found thatthrough the act of writing I
(03:27):
would start to see the biggerpicture.
And, of course, as any goodwriter will tell you, usually
once you start writing yourtruth and telling your truth, it
clears the space for more truthand more writing to happen.
And so writing begets writing,creativity begets creativity.
As I got going with it, Icontinued to develop all of that
(03:49):
and over the years my writingpractices have waxed and waned,
but I love coming back to poetrywhen I'm feeling stuck or
feeling like I need to get backin touch with my soul again.
That is always my jumping offpoint.
So today's Talk Storytimeepisode is a little bit poetry,
but mostly passages of writingthat are about writing, and I
(04:13):
thought it would be fun andplayful to share a little bit
more about the creative processand my sense of what writing
means to me.
Something that I find extremelycliche about writers is many
writers, especially poets,usually have some piece in their
repertoire about, like why theywrite or what their writing
(04:34):
means to them, or what poetrymeans to them, and a lot of
times it's this dramatic I haveto write or my voice will die.
Put in poem form or somethinglike that.
It's so trite and so cliche andI am absolutely celebrating and
rocking that cliche today andpulling together some passages
on why I write.
(04:55):
So, speaking of that, the firstone that I want to share today
is from Revelations of the Skyand it's called my Magic.
And this is all about wordmagic and making magic out of
words and one of the fundamentalreasons why I love writing so
much my magic.
I like to think I have manyforms of magic my heart's
(05:19):
ability to feel, heal, tunneldeep, fall upwards, love, mend
and bend.
My soul's well-trained ear wholistens to the in-betweens and
hears the speak of angelic sings.
My relationship with thenatural world who constantly
teaches me.
The biggest miracles are hiddenbefore our eyes.
(05:41):
So we need to take the shellsoff and learn to see with a
child's mind.
But my words are their own formof magic.
Writing transmutes experiencesinto alchemical gold.
Diving into feelings createsnew elements and compounds of
sea salt and soul gold.
(06:02):
We become the mystic shamanwhen we write, weaving stories
out of the dreams of our lives,creating our own myths and
mysteries, unearthing newprophecies, where we weave the
elements of our histories toscript a new future, to navigate
by Sunshine, daffodil joy,future to navigate by Sunshine,
(06:24):
daffodil, joy, caramel, autumn,bittersweet ocean, grief, blues,
icy white truths.
Words are the alchemist whoemotionally evoke and transmute.
When I write, I go into myspirit's apothecary shop where I
can explore, mix, essence andbrew A pinch of this, a dab or
(06:46):
two.
I string words like kite tailsfrom alphabet soup healing and
feeling and sealing anew,transcribing this life from
observer's view rebirthing,reforming, rewriting the story
from a lens drenched in love.
When I wrote Revelations of theSky, I was going through a Dr
(07:09):
Seuss phase in my life where alot of my poetry rhymes and I'm
amused by that.
Reading it now, I don'tnecessarily feel the need to
rhyme.
Everything, and not everythingin this book rhymes if it's a
poem.
There's a lot of other prosepieces and personal essays too.
Poetry is just a small part ofit.
But I read this one and Ithought oh yes, that was the Dr
(07:30):
Seuss phase where it just cameout of nowhere.
I hadn't been a big rhymer inpoetry.
Poetry obviously can be like somany different things a free
form, verse and patterns andbeats and haiku, and there's so
many ways to write it.
But for some reason, all of asudden I just started rhyming
(07:51):
everything, and if I could finda way to rhyme a stanza, I would
.
So I read this and I thought,oh, look at that, it's the Dr
Seuss phase.
But I think that thinking ofwriting as a form of magic and
magic being our heart, magic,right, our heart, magic being
our gifts and talents and thethings that are unique to us and
things that are unique to usthat we do in a way that nobody
(08:13):
else does.
So I write in a way that, evenif there's other people who
might have a similar voice, mywriting is still unique to my
voice and my vantage point andmy life experience.
And if you write, whether it'sformal writing or whether it's
something that you scribble inyour journal and it's a
self-reflection on who you are,then that is unique to you and
(08:37):
your vantage point and yourpoint of view and it's your
magic.
This is our word.
Magic Words are our ability totap into something more, to put
our feelings into some kind of acompound element and string it
together, and we call thesethings sentences and in those
sentences and littlephraseologies and all that, we
(09:01):
put our emotions and we organizeourselves and we think about
how we think or how we perceivethe world.
We get to be an observer oflife and observe what's going on
around us and notice things,and I think part of the joy of
writing is training one's eye tonotice something that others
(09:22):
might miss because you'relooking at it through an
observer's lens.
And if you've ever been lookingaround for inspiration and
going out into nature or justinvestigating your own life and
thinking what's on my heartright now, what do I feel
inspired to write about?
What kinds of themes orpatterns and dynamics am I
(09:43):
seeing in the world around me?
What kinds of themes orpatterns and dynamics am I
seeing in the world around me,and what do I want to say about
that?
What voice do I have?
What do I feel inspired to say?
Then you notice that you spendmore time noticing and less time
reacting.
When we write, we are oftenmaking space to observe
something, to be mindful ofsomething, to pay attention to
(10:06):
it, and then the act of writingis how we synthesize the
information and we share areflection or some kind of a
component of how we experiencethat, and so I think one of the
things that I find so valuableabout the writing process is
that it dovetails so nicely withmindfulness practices and just
noticing and being more present,and it helps us tune into
(10:30):
what's going on around us.
I love to put together tinylittle vignettes of a day and
I've talked about this before onyour Heart Magic and suggested
it as a journaling exercisewhere you just write about what
happened in your day and it canbe something really short, like
she was grateful on a Tuesdaymorning and greeted the sunrise
(10:51):
or greeted the gray skies orgreeted the clouds above with
coffee and a peaceful heart, orcoffee and a contemplative mind.
It was an ordinary day wherenot much was happening at all
except the stirrings of her soulunder the surface of her deep.
I don't know something likethat.
Obviously I made that up on thecuff, but I love these little
(11:13):
vignettes where I'll take amoment and find what's special
about it and, if nothing wasspecial, make it special through
the act of words, through beinga word alchemist and finding a
way to use descriptives andcolors and elements that evoke
something in me and put themdown on page.
So words are magical.
(11:34):
I'm very grateful for them andI'm grateful to be able to have
a forum to use my voice.
This next one that I want toshare is from Small Pearls, big
Wisdom, and it's called WriteAbout the World we Wish to See.
Write about the world you wishto see.
Hold space for truth, holdspace for peace, hold space for
(11:58):
learning to dance with theshadows and find the light, hold
space for courage, hold spacefor reinvention, hold space for
evolution, hold space for change, hold space for love and keep
following the way of the heart,for that is the path forward
which will help us create abetter way.
(12:19):
I once wrote these words like Iwas spellcasting, creating a
verbal vision board of a betterworld, a world where we grow
love forward and find thecreative courage to let go of
what's no longer working andcreate something better in its
place.
I learned long ago that we canwrite our lives into being
(12:42):
through intention, faith andwords.
Maybe we can't changeeverything, but we can change
ourselves, and I think that ismore than enough.
I wrote my way through adifficult divorce, a shedding of
an old self and a recreation ofa new me.
Each time I wrote my waythrough a difficult divorce, a
shedding of an old self and arecreation of a new me.
Each time I wrote, I foundmyself ending my words, with
(13:06):
hopes and visions of who I'dlike to be and what I'd like to
dream into being.
It might be too much of astretch to say I authored myself
into being, since I think thereare much bigger forces like
life, love, spirit and theintangible threads of fate and
destiny.
That also had a lot to do withit, but I noticed over time that
(13:28):
I was becoming my vision ofself.
We can create millions ofthings in our lives, from the
tiniest drop of gratitude to thebiggest wave of grace and
change.
So why not save a little spaceto create a more beautiful world
inside ourselves and envision amore beautiful collective world
?
Through tiny scraps of art,little love, notes of kindness
(13:52):
and vision boards built ofpositive quotes, grand ideas and
dreams, we can add more beautyto this vast universe, inspiring
the greatness in each other,inspiring humble acts of change
and inspiring ourselves to writeabout the world we wish to see.
Those inspirations and words oflove might feel nothing more
(14:15):
than a dream today, yet theyhold the potential to create the
energy that builds the steppingstones to a better tomorrow.
It can be hard to hold on tohope in this world, especially
if you are looking around atwhat is happening on the surface
of our world and just observingsome of the things going on
(14:37):
politically with people and theenvironment and relationships.
A lot of people are reallystruggling and there's a lot of
uncertainty in this climateright now and it's impacting
people in all sorts of differentways and I think it's really
easy to capitulate, to despairin that, to capitulate to
hopelessness, to feel reallysmall, to feel that we can't
(14:59):
make a difference.
I think it's also easy,empathically, to absorb some of
that and to struggle to keep ourfrequency up and tuned into
positivity and light and to getdragged down into some of the
grief a little bit and there'snothing wrong with grief, work
and feeling our feelings or anyof that.
But I think it's easy forhopelessness to seep in, or the
(15:23):
gray to seep in, and we don'teven notice it.
And I think that a powerfulpractice is writing about the
world we wish to see, and thatdoes not have to be as grand as
it sounds.
It really could just be writingdown in your journal the
intentions that you might beworking on towards yourself, and
maybe those intentions aresomething like building peace
(15:46):
inside of yourself, buildingmore harmony, building more
abundance, building moreself-compassion, self-kindness.
Those are very normalintentions that many of us, at
any point in time, are workingon some variation of.
And to say and I send the sameenergy out into the world around
me and hope that the world,that the collective, finds more
(16:08):
peace, more harmony, morecompassion, more kindness.
That right there is writingabout the world that you wish to
see.
It is always leaving space forhope, always leaving space for
grace, always leaving space thatwhimsy and magic can still
happen.
It is not about magicalthinking, but it is about
(16:29):
believing that miracles happenand believing that when people
come together with open hearts,we become the miracle.
We create the miracle becausewe're holding so much space for
love and when love is invitedinto a space, magic happens,
sacred things happen, miracleshappen, change happens, and so
(16:49):
that is a world that I aminvested in being a part of.
It is one that I love to writeabout.
It comes through in so manyways in the pages of my journal.
I definitely see it reflectedin bigger passages that I write,
but, like I said, it doesn'thave to be something big.
It can be an easy practice, andI think that it is a wonderful
(17:10):
antidote to despair because weare controlling what we can and,
first of all, that's the spaceof ourselves.
If we're struggling in any way,it can be really hard to put
pen to paper and write someintentions or even write.
These are the ways.
I need support right now.
Universe, I invite you to comein and support me in all ways.
It is not easy to do, but itdoesn't mean we can't do it.
(17:32):
We can do things that aren'teasy.
We can make ourselves, pushthrough resistance and do
something that we know is goodfor us.
We can hold space forpositivity and hold space for
gritty positivity, forpositivity based in reality, and
we can hold space for that andhold space for the light, even
in times of darkness and even intimes of struggle.
(17:53):
We can do those things.
We can push past that threshold.
So I love doing that and I lovethe idea of encouraging others
to take the concept of writeabout the world you wish to see.
Write about the world that youwish to see in your own small
way, right the microcosm thatyou occupy and then the bigger
macrocosm around you, and do alittle vision statement, a
(18:17):
vision board verbally, of whatthat might look like and focus
on that.
See what happens.
It's better than worrying.
It is such a relief when youhave exhausted your worries and
you've thought about all the badthings that could happen and
what if this happens, and whatif this happens, and like all of
that stuff that the anxietymind loves to attach to and tell
(18:37):
us stories about.
And some of those things arelegitimate, some of them are not
as legitimate, and that is justour mind speaking.
But one thing that I love doingis saying okay, well, maybe I
can shift my focus now andimagine what I would like to
happen.
Imagine things going throughwith more grace and ease,
imagine being supported in thesechallenges I find myself.
(18:58):
Imagine a little bit more peaceand harmony and all of that.
So I love to write about theworld I wish to see and I love
to challenge myself to pushthrough the gray default setting
that's how I think of it kindof a just gray, hazy space that
it's easy to find ourselves in,sort of like static, and to push
(19:20):
through that and rehome andrefocus where I'm putting my
attention so that I can haveenergy flow into that direction.
So this next piece that I wantto share is called Recollecting
an Ocean's Roar.
I recently published it on mySunshine in Winter blog, I think
.
Earlier I said every now andthen, like once a year, I'll
(19:44):
throw a piece up on there forold time's sake and it will feel
right to put it on that as aplatform.
I don't know why, maybe it ishonoring my younger self and
honoring my roots.
I don't write there very oftenbut I've left it live and I've
left all of those old poems andwritings up and they're really
fun to bring into talk storytime and to read from them.
(20:05):
And so this was one that I feltmoved to recently publish, back
in December, and againrecollecting an ocean's roar.
It was a quiet evening for tarotcards, musings about life,
listening to the sounds ofdarkness and the faint roar of
ocean and winter.
Poetry was slowly stirringagain, and she quietly observed
(20:29):
the creation process, knowing ifshe tried to grasp the tender
threads of words just rising.
Grasp the tender threads ofwords just rising, force them
into greater growth.
Before their time they mightsnap and staunch that which was
slowly coming to rise.
We cannot force the quietstarts and small sparks within
(20:53):
our hearts, but we can gentlystay with our process and trust
the soft seeds of new life.
The sea crooned with mutedroars, crickets and starlight
hummed.
The cards told a story ofsurrender and rebirth.
It was a night for beginnings,recollecting, and oceans roar.
Back in December I had justfinished a really busy season in
(21:17):
life.
I took on a lot in the year of2024 and had a lot happening,
not just in my private practice,but I did back-to-back
choreography projects, which waswonderful.
I'm so glad for thoseopportunities.
But it was a lot on top of workand then in the middle of all
that, I released Small Pearls,big Wisdom.
So I'd been working on thisbook and I published that and I
(21:40):
got through that time and Ithought, oh, wow, that was too
much.
And it was one of those thingsthat you get into the middle of
everything and you know it's toomuch when it's too late and
you're not going to quit onanything.
And so the only way out wasthrough At least that's how I
saw it at the time and I hadjust wrapped up the project
Small Pearls, big Wisdom.
(22:00):
It came out back in November andlike that was off my plate, I'd
wrapped up the lastchoreography project and I knew
that I was going into a winterseason.
The holidays were coming up, Iwas going to have a little bit
of time off and it was just atime to catch my breath and I
had this really nice evening ofjust being with my tarot cards
(22:21):
and my journal and feeling likeI wanted to write again, writing
down little fragments of poetryand my journal, and feeling
like I wanted to write again,writing down little fragments of
poetry and my journal.
That was.
This piece was inspired by allof that and just reflecting on
how we do go through creativeebbs and flows.
There are times where we can'tforce our words.
As much as I love having awriting practice and I think
(22:42):
that ideally I'd love to writeevery day, it's not always
realistic for me, or maybe Ishould say I've not made it
realistic because I don'tnecessarily prioritize that.
I do write every day in myjournal.
If nothing else, I write downthe date.
I at least get the date downand I'll usually write a
reflection on how I'm feeling.
(23:03):
So I'm going to count that aswriting, because I do think that
those self-reflective writingpractices, I think they feed our
creativity.
Contemplation feeds creativity.
So I do write every day, but Idon't necessarily have a
practice that I say I'm going towrite a poem a day or I'm going
to write a little mini story orsomething like that, to work on
the craft.
(23:24):
As a writer, I usually will waitfor inspiration to come and I
love the idea that, even if Idon't feel inspired, that it
still can be really nice to sitdown and write something, to
stay in practice.
But I'm also an advocate thatthere's times where, like
nothing really great is comingout and we're just doing it to
(23:44):
maybe keep our skill set sharpbut we don't feel particularly
inspired and we might be in alull or in a time in life where
our words and our creativityhowever you might self-express,
your creativity just doesn'tfeel very reinvigorated.
And that's okay.
There's a reason for thatsometimes.
(24:05):
Sometimes we're busy, sometimesour soul is under construction
and it's got bigger stuff goingon in our river, beneath the
river, and we're not ready yetto bring together whatever wants
to spring forth.
There are times that we arecreating life and using that
energy in other ways.
We might be working on someother project and our creative
(24:28):
outlet is being channeled intosomething else, and so our usual
artistic practice, our writingpractice, feels a little bit
quieter.
There's a lot of reasons thatwe go through ebbs and flows.
It echoes the process ofexpanding and contracting in
life.
It echoes the process ofexpanding and contracting in
life.
It echoes night and day andlife cycles of there's times
(24:48):
that we're really active andtimes that we're in a yin phase,
a rest phase, a receiving phase.
So that was a time where I wasin a receiving phase and I could
feel everything stirring againand I was like you don't want to
force this, you don't want tomake yourself sit down and say
what this is before it's time.
Just let it happen, just let itunfold.
(25:09):
I always come back to that whenI feel like I'm in a lull phase
or an ebb phase and nothing'sreally flowing is just trusting
that I'm receiving and trustingthat my words will come together
in time and they'll show mewhat they want them to be.
They will help me to feelinspired to do something with
(25:30):
them, and I can trust that.
I can trust that creativeprocess.
Creativity is its own alchemy,it is its own magical brew and,
if you noticed, I use a lot ofwords like elixir and potion and
spellcasting and these sort ofmagical words to describe the
writing process.
It doesn't always feel magical,especially once you've done the
(25:52):
magic of writing and you're inthe editing and refining phase,
if you're publishing, that's awhole other ballgame.
But that initial spark ofwriting and where words come
from, there's something aboutthat that still feels so
beautiful and mysterious to methat sometimes a wave of an idea
will just hit us and we'llchannel these words or have them
(26:13):
pour through us and we can'tsay exactly what's musing us,
but we feel moved by somethingbigger than ourselves to sit
down and put pen to paper or putour fingers on the keyboard or
use our voice and speak it intoa microphone so we can record it
, and we feel moved to createand tell a story in some shape
(26:34):
or form.
So I hope this April NationalPoetry Month that at least once
you sit down and do somethingwith writing write a little poem
, write two lines, make a rhyme,write a haiku, write something,
write a vignette of your day,write down your intentions or
your vision for your life.
Use the inspiration from allthe writers and poets out there
(26:58):
this month who are engaging inpractices and it's at the
forefront a little bit more,since it's National Poetry Month
.
Use that and let it inspire thewriter in you.
Thank you so much for joining mein today's podcast episode.
I will be back next week with anew your Heart Magic on
(27:19):
psychology, creativity,spirituality, heart wisdom and
storytelling.
In the meantime, as always, bewell, be love, be you and be
magic.
Intro/Outro Music (27:38):
You've been listening to your Heart Magic
with Dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright.
Tune in next week for a newepisode to support and empower
your light.
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