Writing to Heal with 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?

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.

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.