Starla's word stew…

I suspect my internal well looks something like the oil spill off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

We so often hear talk about our “well” going dry, but what about our well getting clogged up with emotional oil spills and daily life garbage of all sorts?

My well has gotten to the point that I’m afraid to raise the bucket and look at the sludge in there.  But if I don’t take steps to empty the gunk in there, it’s gonna overflow and create an even bigger mess. 

Ok, so how to dredge up the detritus to clear it out? 

Writing.  Julia Cameron swears by (or for my Mennonite peeps, “affirms”) “morning pages” — 3 handwritten free-flow pages of anything and everything that’s on your mind.  No internal censor.  No right or wrong.  No good or bad.  Just writing, getting it all out, a word purge if you will. 

Meditation.  Don’t panic — you don’t need to change your religion or spiritual beliefs.  Meditation can be as simple as 10 minutes of quiet time alone just listening to and feeling your breathing.  When you really pay attention, each breath can empty a bucket of gunk out of your soul.  Skeptical?  Then try it. 

Exercise.  Ok, I admit — as a landscaper, exercise sometimes becomes part of the yuck in my well since I’m physcially active most days a week for more hours than I care to think of.  So for me, this one becomes REST.  Time to let my muscles heal, my physical energy rebuild.

Visualization.  Mind pictures.  Seeing myself hauling up that heavy bucket of bleah and emptying it.  Over and over until it comes up empty. Then feeling soul sunshine as I picture rinsing out the bucket and the well… spotless…shiny…enticing!

So now there’s a well to fill.  Now it’s all about the good stuff, the life-giving stuff.  Like 

Word snacks:

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
(from Word Poetry by Mark Strand).

Tweets (or *any*thing!) from Martha Beck (@MarthaBeck):

“My email inbox is the Aegean Stables of interpersonal data. Hmm…what rivers can I divert to clean it out?”

“I’ve really got to learn French now. Be right back…okay, French is hard. This may take a while.”

Rumi.  ’nuff said.

And if there’s any room left after a buffet of word snacks, add in some flowers, plants, greenery.  And conversations with friends.  And sessions with your life coach (look out, Nancy!).  And whatever else it is that makes you sing — literally or figuratively.

We each have the power to contain our own emotional oil spills… what will *your* tactic be??