Satya (truthfulness), the second pf the five Yamas on the 8-limb path, encourages integrity in our thoughts, language and behavior.
How can you practice that with your writing?
Write to know yourself deeply + honestly. Use a journal or a Morning Pages notebook to meet your truest self on the page. There is no where to hide there. Speak your truth. Get used to being comfortable with being uncomfortable with what the truth reveals.
Use writing to question beliefs. When those critical thoughts come, which they always do, take to the page. It’s too late for me to be a published writer. Is that really true? Nobody cares what I have to say. Is that really true? I can’t be a writer without an MFA. Is that actually true?
Write and share your truth so others know they aren't alone. It’s why I write about grief, body image struggles, writer doubts, shame, sobriety. I share those pieces of myself so others know it is not just them. I know I feel such a weight has been lifted when I read someone else's truth that resonates deeply with my own.
When you are stuck, follow the advice of Ernest Hemingway: write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.
Be true to details. Connection happens in the details of an essay or story. Grief is universal but writing about watching my feet in pale pink sneakers walk along the sidewalk after I saw the sheriff standing outside Heidi’s apartment, knowing that she was still upstairs in her bed where she died in her sleep just like her mother had and wondering how in the world I was still standing, much less walking is specific to my grief.
Commit to a meditation practice. It allows us to see the fluctuations of our mind and to realize that we are not our thoughts.
Obviously, don’t plagiarize. And that is going to become more and more of an issue as AI becomes more and more popular.
Read this on Substack where she explores truth in writing.
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