Aparigraha is the fifth Yama and translates to non-greed and non-attachment.
Remembering the non-greed aspect of this Yama keeps me from writing only to what is currently trending in publishing. It keeps me focused on what I want/yearn/need to write. If I write only to publish, it feels forced and brittle.
Aparigraha can also be applied to our writing practice as putting the process over the outcome. We focus on the writing and let go of our end goal. We can still have a goal or dream of publishing a book or getting an agent or winning a prize but it starts with writing for the joy of it. Writing as a practice rather than product.
I write to process, well, everything: my thoughts and feelings, what is happening in my life, relationships, the world. I write to connect to myself and others. As Joan Didion said:
“I write entirely to find out what I am thinking.”
So much freedom can be found in aparigraha.
Freedom from:
Comparing our writing to others
Obsessing over likes and shares and views
Obsessing acceptances and rejections
Only caring how many books are sold
Feeling anxious over how many people show up to a reading
We let all those metrics go and come back to the foundation which is writing.We release the need for external validation and experience contentment with the act of writing.
I have been writing for over 30 years. I’ve won some prizes, had pieces published. No books (yet). If I only cared about the outcome, I would’ve given up years ago. It’s become such an integral part of who I am and how I experience the world, that I would and will write every day regardless if anyone else reads my words. That is true freedom.
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