Natalie Goldberg

"Writing, too, is ninety percent listening.  You listen so deeply to the space around you that it fills you, and when you write, it pours out of you. . . . The deeper you listen, the better you can write."

— Natalie Goldberg

American Writer

1948 - 

Most of us probably never associate writing or painting with listening.  Writing and painting are active processes.  We perceive listening to be a passive process.  Actually, listening is very active and engaging.  As writers and painters we need to be listening to the world around us. By listening we learn to see the world for what it is.  The better we understand our world the stronger artist we become.  Those, who are so absorbed in themselves that that they do not listen, ultimately, will lose touch with the world and they will become weak.

Learn to listen with your heart, your body, your soul, your mind and your spirit.  Taste the different flavors of the world around you.  Explore the dark crevices and the deep roots.  Climb the highest trees and tread on the sandiest beaches.  Taste the heights of the human spirit and the deepest valleys of the human heart.  Listen with every pore in your flesh.  Listen with every cell in your body.

Natalie Goldberg

"One of the main aims in writing practice is to learn to trust your own mind and body; to grow patient and nonaggressive."

Natalie Goldberg

American Writer/Painter

1948 - 

Do you trust yourself — your mind, your thoughts, your dreams, your desires, your hopes?  Do you trust your body — how you walk, how you dance, the sound of your stomach gurgling, the pain in your left knee?  Many of us don't trust our own instincts.  We put our faith in others.  Maybe it is a parent, a friend, a spouse of even a spiritual leader.  We believe what they say to be true.  We need to learn to listen to that small tiny voice inside us that knows the way.  This voice is the first one we hear before we quickly move on to our more rational voice.  How many times have you felt something to be true in your gut but you have chosen to do what your rational mind said?  Learn to trust yourself and to believe in yourself.

(The source of this quote is the book, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, by Natalie Goldberg.  Every creative leader should read this book multiple times.)