Writing to Heal From Mark Matousek

Writing to Heal From Mark Matousek

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Have you struggled to release or heal some of your darkest corners of shame, pain or grief? Have you felt these areas are holding you back from living life to its fullest?

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The good news is that your wounds can become the source of your greatest gifts. Places where you have been broken or faced trauma or loss can become wellsprings of strength, resilience and wisdom — after you have fully integrated them.

Through a unique writing process designed by leading author and teacher Mark Matousek — and with enough awareness, courage and love, you can find the blessings in your pain and access the power trapped inside your most defended parts.

This writing process becomes a curriculum in self-realization.

It opens a door to spiritual awakening, making you a conduit for grace, healing and transformation.

In the immortal lyrics of Leonard Cohen, “Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. It’s where the light gets in.”

Most of us have areas of unresolved wounding or closely guarded secrets, partially because it can feel unsafe to air the full messiness of our emotions. This is a prerequisite, though, to awakening and to discovering the blessings within our wounds.

When we stuff our feelings and truths down deep, we can poison the rest of our lives and act out in unconscious, addictive or sabotaging ways. In the recovery community, there is a saying that “you are only as sick as your secrets.” Bringing your secrets and authentic truths to the surface is a key to wellbeing and reaching our full potential.

If you haven’t experienced wounding in dramatic ways from devastating loss or pain, you may think that there are those who are wounded — and then there is you. But the truth is we all have wounds. They are part of the human condition. And they can manifest in many ways — your insecurities, your limiting beliefs, your challenged relationships or issues with anxiety and depression.

Not only do we all have wounds, but we also have aspects to our identities that are lived out in the shadow. And yet, these forbidden parts contain essential elements of our true nature. They hold wisdom, energy, creativity and power — and need to be brought into the light so we can be free and whole. Actors often prefer to play dark, complex or tortured characters because there is more juice, aliveness and liberation that comes when they give these shadow parts a voice.

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But how do you make this journey into your personal wounds, secrets and shadows safe? And how do you not get stuck in old stories or loops but genuinely free yourself?

A practice of deep, transformative writing is one of THE most powerful ways to release and transform your past and find the blessings in what you once saw as burdens.

There is powerful science demonstrating that, for instance, when people write about the loss of a job, they get rehired FAR faster. The same is true of divorces, deaths and many other areas of wounding.

The practice of writing is also very safe. Even safer than sharing with a trusted friend or therapist. It allows you to express in voices that might otherwise be taboo. You can vent. You can rage. You can feel self-pity. You can allow yourself the full spectrum in a space of total confidentiality.

And then, after the raw, naked truth is on the page or screen, you will start to feel freer. Lighter. More whole. More capable of seeing the treasure that was held in the tragedies. More aware of your deeper insights and a higher vantage point on your life.

However, this journey is not simple or easy to take. Defenses and fears come up. Resistance and distractions get in the way. Much of your conscious identity has been created to protect yourself from the broken and hurt places. Thus, it is important to enter into a transformational practice of writing that is guided and supported by a teacher and a community of fellow explorers who can — in their own vulnerability and compassion — give permission for you to do the same.

In Writing to Heal, you have an unprecedented opportunity to enter into an engaged and supportive, 9-month journey to birth a more healed and whole version of yourself, one in which you have alchemically transformed your darker places into gold.
What You’ll Discover in These 9 Months

In this 9-month transformational intensive, Mark will guide you through the fundamental spiritual skills and competencies that you’ll need to successfully navigate your past experiences and mine them for your journey of healing through writing — which will, in turn, transform the quality of your life.

Each weekly, LIVE contemplation and training session will build harmoniously upon the next, so that you’ll develop a complete, holistic understanding of the practices, tools and principles you’ll need to sustain your writing throughout the course and beyond.

Course sessions are on Thursdays at 12:00pm Pacific.
Module 1: Touching the Wound
(July 7, 14 & 21)
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In this module, you’ll look at the questions: Where do feel the most pain in your life? What is the center of your wound? We’ll begin by creating a safe container and you’ll learn to locate your most vulnerable parts — becoming acquainted with the landscape of your losses, fears and limitations.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

Tell the truth about your pain
Isolate the source of suffering and its effects on your life
Free the voice of emotion
Tend to your particular pain
Understand the value of limitations

Module 2: Exposing the Shadow
(August 4, 11 & 18)
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The wounds are nestled in shadow. Hiding the truth in the darkness, the wound wants exposure to the light. This month, you will illuminate your vulnerable parts, bringing more awareness, understanding and acceptance to them. In turn, this releases fresh energy throughout your life.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

Overcome shame towards your shadow
Reflect on parts of yourself you deny
Stop hiding behind your pain
Become intimate with your own damage
Cull the shadow’s hidden treasures

Module 3: Realizing the Gift
(September 1, 8 & 15)
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Your wounds are not burdens, but actual engines of awakening. You may not yet see it, but often your gifts hide in plain sight. In this module, you will be guided to explore and connect with the hidden power latent in your “broken parts” and emerge with the gift that is yours.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

Use the gift as a tool for self-healing
Enter the “fruitful darkness”
Turn the gift toward self-realization
Grasp the power of paradox
Change your wounding story

Module 4: Facing Resistance
(October 6, 13 & 20)
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As you’ll discover, your greatest gift is guarded by adversaries. As you move forward on your path, fear, anger and doubt rise up alongside awakening. This is the paradoxical truth that this module will help you hold. Knowing it is the source of healing.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

Confront your adversaries as difficult friends, not strangers
Tap the inverted power of anger
Weaken fear through open awareness
Stop resisting adversity
Practice comfort in moments of discomfort

Module 5: Piercing the Myth
(November 3, 10 & 17)
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Moving out of the last module, your internal (and external) adversaries force you to face your story. This month we look at: What is the nature of your life myth? Your memory is unreliable; as research shows, we “remember” things that never happened. And those that did happen are clothed in fiction.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

See where your story diverges from reality
Discern in what ways you are blind to yourself
Step outside of the fiction you’re telling
Reinvent this fiction over time
Gain authenticity and wellbeing

Module 6: Transforming Pain
(December 1, 8 & 15)
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When you tell the truth, your story changes. As your story changes, pain is transformed — and your life is transformed. This month, we look at the metamorphic, protean nature of personal reality.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

Become comfortable with life’s messes
Connect vulnerability with strength
Transform pain from suffering to wisdom
Be tender with your wounded parts
Accept the trauma of everyday life

Module 7: Seeing With New Eyes
(January 5, 12 & 19)
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As survivors, we see with new eyes. Having passed through darkness, we’re wide awake. This month we will focus on how our lives are always beginning — that untended wounds freeze us in place, and that awakened wounds enlighten us.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

Harvest the gifts of survivorship
Use limitation as a strength
Establish a beginner’s mind practice
Savor the ever expanding view of what is possible
Dwell in gratitude each day

Module 8: Stabilizing the View
(February 2, 9 & 16)
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The powers of habit are deeply conditioned. In order to balance this new way of seeing, mindfulness is necessary. This month, we investigate mindfulness as a tuning fork that harmonizes with the awakened self.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

Stabilize emotion using mindfulness
Practice mindfulness off the meditation cushion
Catch yourself when old patterns appear
Use the body as a self-tuning instrument
Practice openness to the view

Module 9: Expanding the Circle
(March 2, 9 & 16)
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The awakened self wants to pay its gifts forward. The wounded healer wants to share. Every wound yields its own medicine, its own particular kickback of power. This month, we look at the ways that you can use this power to improve your life and the welfare of others.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

Use the wound as medicine
Put that medicine to the service of love
Bless the gift of the wound
Use pain as a bridge for connecting to others
Know yourself, finally, as unharmed