Identify the contradictions, destructive stories, and psychological
enemies that are holding you back and blocking your well-being.

Register Now

“Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast,
and each will wrestle for the mastery there.”

~Johann Wilhelm von Goethe

The mind often feels like a battlefield in the course of everyday life. Conflicting thoughts, emotions, and expectations frequently sabotage our best intentions, undermining the ability to make clear choices and bring resolution to the battles within us.

In this eight-week guided writing series, you will learn to make peace with your saboteurs, and disarm the internal adversaries that interfere with your flourishing. When you learn to identify your conflict zones – those areas of life where you feel confused, self-defeating, at cross-purposes – you discover that happiness is within your reach. By untangling your divided mind, and neutralizing conflicting thoughts with insight, you become healthier, wiser, and far more effective.
Writing to Awaken is an incomparable tool for bringing an end to inner conflict. When you explore transformative questions in writing, you come to see yourself more clearly, including the motives, intentions, and mental habits that perpetuate the hostilities within. Writing helps to dissolve the duality of black-or-white thinking and discover the path of the ‘middle way’ that enables one to tolerate contradiction, ambiguity, paradox, and inconsistency without discomfort or self-judgment. This makes way for a more harmonious and expansive way of being.

“As a writer, I know from experience just how transformative
the creative process can be, but Mark Matousek invites us to
make that potential fully conscious. A great resource for anyone
wishing to develop a holistic and healing approach to living.”

~Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

Session Overview

Each week, we investigate a universal aspect of existence where conflict and struggle are likely to arise.

Session One: Not Far from the Tree
In this first session, we examine the enigma of family, and how origins foment conflict in early life.
Session Two: The Riddle of Self
This second session is focused on contradictions of identity, and the fissures that arise in building a personal self.
Session Three: Belonging and Attachment
Next, we examine the nature of relationship and the countercurrents of the heart in love.
Session Four: At Home in the Body
In this lesson, we consider our relationship with the physical body, the ‘animal parts’ of who we are, and how to make peace with our so-called higher and lower nature.
Session Five: Live to Work or Work to Live?
We look at vocation and action in this session and the conflicts inherent to forging one’s destiny in the world.
Session Six: The World is On Fire
In this session, we look at how to relate to external conflicts including global unrest, violence, and the us-versus-them ethos on our divided planet.
Session Seven: On Being Mortal
This penultimate lesson focuses on insecurity, impermanence, and mortality as sources of conflict and unrest.
Session Eight: Wrestling With the Angel
In this final session, we examine our beliefs about spirituality and how they aid or hinder authentic living.

HOW THE GUIDED WRITING SESSIONS WORK

Each Thursday session will meet at 5:00 p.m. Eastern using the easy-to-use Zoom platform which can be accessed from your computer, smart phone or tablet. Dial in options are also available for those who don’t want to use video. The links and info to join the Zoom session will be sent the day before and again an hour before the start of the session. Those that register for individual sessions will receive the Zoom information in their registration confirmation email and one hour before the session start.
Each session consists of Mark’s lesson, followed by two guided writing exercises with group discussion and Q & A period after each exercise. Sessions are 90 minutes in length. You are not required to participate. Anonymity is respected. Each session is recorded and the playback links emailed the following day with additional writing prompts to explore on your own.
For those that register for the complete series, there will be a Google Group for the posting of writing you want to share with the class. Using Google Groups allows the class to read, comment and support each other’s work in a positive and nurturing environment. Set up in the Google Group will be discussed during the first session.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

~Abraham Lincoln

In this course, you will learn how to:

*Recognize self-defeating thought patterns
*Discern the difference between feelings and facts
*Drop outdated joy-killing narratives
*Separate inherited beliefs from personal truth
*Accept paradox, ambiguity, and uncertainty
*Make peace with things you cannot change
*Silence the voice of your saboteurs

Inner conflict is a major challenge for nearly everyone. Whether your conflicts are professional, personal, political, philosophical, or bound up with a painful life situation, these guided writing sessions will help you make peace with your inner antagonists, and resolve unnecessary tension and stress. By facing reality head-on with open eyes, you empower yourself to cut through confusion, clearing the way for a happier, balanced, and more free life.

Register for Individual Sessions

Choose the themes that interest you and fit into your schedule.
Each session is a master class in itself, allowing you to explore each topic in depth.
Individual classes can be purchased up to 30 minutes before the class start time.

Individual Session: $27

All Classes are on Thursdays at 5:00 pm Eastern
4 pm Central, 3 pm Mountain, 2 pm Pacific, 9 pm GMT, 8 am +1 AEDT
Sessions are recorded and sent with additional writing prompts the following day.
Closed
Session One: Not Far from the Tree
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Closed
Session Two: The Riddle of Self
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Closed
Session Three: Belonging and Attachment
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Closed
Session Four: At Home in the Body
Thursday, April 7, 2022
Closed
Session Five: Live to Work or Work to Live?
Thursday, April 14, 2022
$27 - Register Now
Session Six: The World is On Fire
Thursday, April 21, 2022
$27 - Register Now
Session Seven: On Being Mortal
Thursday, April 28, 2022
$27 - Register Now
Session Eight: Wrestling With the Angel
Thursday, May 5, 2022

TESTIMONIALS

“I’m so grateful for the challenge of your teaching, the thoughtfulness of your prompts, and the sensitivity of your responses. I’ve come away from your courses not just with a workable writing practice but with more insight, more self-understanding, and a deepened conviction that writing is my path.”
~Marybeth, United Kingdom
“I feel lighter and brighter about myself and life and am not taking myself or others quite as seriously as before. This has translated into a wonderful new sense of freedom, acceptance and more creative juices flowing in my writing and daily life.”
~Anne, USA
“I am amazed at how this course has helped me with self esteem issues by showing me how I was making up stories that were really not true. I see myself very differently now. I feel so much freer and not at the mercy of my self-critical stories. We were safe; We were encouraged. And we were challenged. We learned fundamental, but profound truths.”
~Wayne, Canada

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