Writing Your Way Home: Answering the Soul’s Call

In this E-course You Will Discover How to…

A Word from Course Creator & Facilitator Jeff Brown

My Story of Finding my Writing Voice

Hi I’m Jeff Brown, and I am thrilled to be facilitating this Course. I too had my own journey of excavating and expressing my writing voice. I had seen glimpses of the call to write throughout my life–in my dreams, when writing school essays, while reading other people’s work–but I was either not emotionally prepared to own it, or I had a number of other things to do first. And excuses, I had lots of those! I found all kinds of ways to delay the call to write for as long as possible. Why? Because I was afraid of it. I was afraid of its intensity, its truthfulness, its transformative properties. And I was afraid to stop seeking. I had been searching for my sacred purpose for a long time and I had grown comfortable with the quest. It felt safer and less vulnerable than actually finding my path. If I was seeking, I never had to risk failing at anything, and I never had to worry about someone taking anything away from me. My sacred purpose was always up ahead on the path, too far out of reach for me to risk losing it. At the same time, I experienced what I refer to as ‘truth-aches’, the deep frustration that arises when we resist a path that calls us. It was very difficult to postpone something so deep in my bones. Our sacred purpose does not take procrastination lightly.

And then the call to write became unstoppable after I completed a lengthy emotional healing journey at Harbin Hot Springs in California. At the end of that journey, emotionally clearer than I had ever been in my adult life, I knew it was time to write. I flew back home to Canada and began writing the next day. And I haven’t stopped since–now 19 years later. Not to say that it has been an easy journey–it hasn’t. At first, I found myself in the clutches of tremendous self-doubt and internalized shame, certain that no one would ever want to read my words. And there was the very real challenge of trying to create space to write while still trying to make a living in the real world. That’s often the biggest challenge people face.

At the same time, there was the energy of the calling pushing me onward. It would call to me at night, at work, in the heart of a distracted moment. Without apology and with tremendous ferocity, it would call me back to the computer, the notebook, the walls I wrote on, insisting that I express it. The calling was particularly alive when I was trying to sleep, relentlessly chirping in my inner ear. If I ignored it, I lay there awake and agitated. If I got up and wrote, I calmed down. It soon became clear that honoring my calling was my best defense against sleeplessness.

As time passed, writing became my primary spiritual practice, one I could not live without. It became my way of finding my way back to center, to connect to something truer, to touch the divine. It didn’t matter if anyone else would ever read it, or like it, or buy it. All that mattered was that I allow this stream of language to rise into expression within me. All that mattered was touching pen to paper and giving voice to my soul’s journey. My way home.

And then, in 2007, I brought my first book to the world: Soulshaping. Published by North Atlantic Books, it was beautifully supported by a community of amazing people on Facebook. One more successful book followed, and I then made the decision to develop my own publishing house–Enrealment Press–so that I could both bring my books to the world on my terms and support other passionate authors. Then I published 6 more books–including the best-selling ‘An Uncommon Bond’–and I formed Soulshaping Institute, fulfilling a long-held dream to create a center that focuses on authentic self-creation. All of this happened because I surrendered to the call to write 19 years earlier. All of this happened because I sat down one day–ass in chair–and made a commitment to overcome the doubts and challenges and find the words. You can too.

Now my life is more satisfying than I could have ever imagined. It is not always easy– sometimes our sacred purpose calls us to work harder than ever before–but I no longer yearn for direction and meaning. I wake up every morning knowing why I am here. And I am able to make a living doing what I love. There are still distractions and challenges, but there is an energy that meets and overcomes them. The fire of sacred purpose can overcome most anything.

I look forward to sharing with you some of the lessons I have learned along the way – and some tools and techniques that may make your creative journey a little smoother, and a lot more satisfying. I also look forward to sharing my knowledge about the publishing industry, so you can make the right choices if you ever decide to write a book. When we identify the paths we are here to walk and the gifts we are here to open, we explode into a world of unlimited vitality.