Strong At the Broken Places Eight-Week Guided Writing Series - Mark Matousek

Strong at the Broken Places FB 12.11

“The world breaks everyone and afterward
many are strong at the broken places.”

~Ernest Hemingway

We’ve learned an important lesson this year, that surrender, adaptation, and self-renewal are the best tools for moving through difficult times. Till we learn to accept things as they are and release the grip of fear and suffering, it’s impossible to recognize the potential in crisis, the gift inside the wound.

This eight-week Guided Writing Series will help you shift your perspective from fear to freedom, from resisting change to choosing happiness even in the midst of turmoil. Instead of fighting what can’t be avoided, you’ll learn principles for adapting to loss and challenge with hope, curiosity and a creative spirit. This wisdom perspective enables you to accept the deck you’ve been handed and release the inner strength that comes from surrender.

Through these eight inspiring live video sessions, you will use Mark’s Writing to Awaken method to explore the lesson themes to gain valuable personal insight.

Although part of the series, each session approaches it’s own unique subject matter and can be taken individually. Choose the themes that interest you or work with your schedule.

Strong At the Broken Places Will Help You:

~Make friends and become allies with impermanence
~Recognize that you are not what you do
~Dis-identify from the character you play in the world
~Recognize that life has a natural order when you listen to intuition
~Overcome your resistance to change, in favor of the mystery
~Stop attempting to control what’s beyond you, and make peace with what is

“Let Mark be your guide as you journey to the depths of your mind
to nurture a new way of being with yourself and with others.”

~Daniel J. Siegel, MD, Clinical Professor and NY TImes bestselling author

Using Mark’s Writing To Awaken method, these sessions are a deep-dive into the stories that drive your emotional life. Writing To Awaken is Mark’s transformative method of self-discovery, creative growth, and spiritual insight. Using targeted, revelatory questions, you’re prompted to explore your hidden narratives — to write honestly about your wounds, desires, and opportunities for growth – in order to gain an authentic understanding that can move you toward a more liberated, truthful life.

Scientific studies have shown that a regular writing practice has the ability to improve physical, mental, and emotional health in dramatic ways. Writing to Awaken has helped thousands of people around the world to reach their creative and spiritual goals. No writing experience is necessary. Curiosity, courage, and the willingness to question your personal narratives are all you need to benefit from these inspiring, supportive class.

Session Overview

Week One: Why is the Wrong Question
When it comes to resilience, why is often the wrong question – as in “why did this happen to me? — since it faces backward instead of forward. How is far more helpful when you are ready to move ahead. In this first lesson, we look at the human tendency to ruminate, over-analyze, lose ourselves in retrospection, and how to turn this mindset around.

Week Two: Leave Your Story Behind
Once you’ve done this about-face, the next step is to investigate who you are underneath the public, “authorized version” of your narrative. This is a gradual awakening, as you learn to survey your original nature, the part of you that has never changed, and will be with you until you die. This essential self gives you the strength to change, knowing there is nothing to lose.

Week Three: Adaptation is Genius
“Man is the animal that can adapt to anything,” wrote the novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. Our ability to learn, grow, shapeshift, and transform our lives through shifting circumstances, is a unique human genius that enables a person to see things anew. In this lesson, we explore obstacles to adaptation, and personal metamorphosis.

Week Four: The Landscape of Desire
Desire is the fuel of transformation, the energy source that activates the imagination, vitalizes everyday life, and teaches us about who we are. In Week Four, we investigate the range of our own desires – those we avoid, those we indulged, and those that seem out of reach. How can we use the energy of desire as force for growth and creative expansion?

Week Five: Think Like an Artist
The answer to that question is the focus of Lesson Five. When you think like an artist, you accept risk, intuition, and failure. You live with “beginners mind,” the ability to see life though fresh, unbiased eyes. Artists know that life is a mystery, and that it unfolds in miraculous ways when we put the ego aside and allow higher intelligence to instruct us.

Week Six: The Power of Choice
Beginners mind enables you to make clearer choices, and free yourself from fear. Choice leads to self-reliance and meaning, the end of victimization, and the start of a grown-up, intentional life. How and what you choose determines the quality of your existence, and in this lesson you’ll examine the power of choice and how it guides you on your path.

Week Seven: Boldness Matters
Once you’ve made a choice, it’s crucial to be bold, and dare to be faithful to yourself. In Week Seven, you’ll learn tools for strengthening courage, knowing when to push and when to pause, when to use will and when to surrender. Boldness means singularity of purpose, not being deceived by life’s ups and down, and “standing in” what you know without apology.

Week Eight: Building a Web
In this final lesson, you will write about interconnection, strengthening the web of good faith and support, and why we need to know ourselves – and be happy within – if we hope to thrive in these difficult times. “It is in each other’s shadow that we flourish,” according to Irish stateswoman, Mary Robinson. Knowing this is the secret to a happy life not dependent on where we find ourselves on Fortune’s Wheel.

How the Guided Writing Series Works

This eight-week Guided Writing Series focuses on gaining insight through Mark’s inspirational lessons and the writing process using his Writing to Awaken method. Each live video session is 75 minutes and consists of Mark’s lesson, two writing prompts with sharing, discussion, and Q&A after each exercise. You are not required to participate in the group dialog. Anonymity is respected. The sessions are recorded and playback links are emailed to all registrants the following day.

Each session meets on Wednesday at 5 pm Eastern on the easy-to-use Zoom platform which is accessible from your computer, smart phone or tablet. Dial-in options are also available for those who don’t want to use video. The Zoom access details are emailed the day prior to and one hour before the start of each session.

For those who register for the complete series, there will be a Google Group for posting any 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. We will contact you a few days before the first class for setup in the Group. Participation in the Google Group is not mandatory.

“Beyond the amazing opportunity of opening my writing channel in a safe environment, the workshop represented for me a unique and special chance to heal through deep self-inquiry. I was touched by Mark’s absolute presence and deep care for all and each of the participants. Totally recommended!”

~Diego, USA

It’s time to bless the broken places that brought you to the present moment and make you unique.
As Rumi said, “The wound is the place where the light enters you.”
Join me for this series and move toward a happy, resilient life.

Registration
We’re Sorry. This Class Has Ended.
Please Visit the Online Class Page for the Current Schedule

All Classes Begin at 5:00 PM EST/ 2:00 pm PST
UK 22:00 GMT/ Australia 9:00 AM +1 AEDT
Sessions are recorded and the playback links are emailed to participants the following day.

Individual Sessions: $25

Each lesson explores a different theme and can be taken individually.
Choose the themes that interest you and fit into your schedule.
Individual sessions can be purchased up to 30 minutes before the start time.

Testimonials

“Mark’s illuminating assignments, poignant feedback, and seasoned direction unlocked many mysteries that had been buried within my psyche. The introspection that resulted was sometimes scary, sometimes difficult, and many time astounding — just what I needed and more. I am deeply grateful for the experience.”

~Brian, USA

“I never thought I was a writer until a friend kept at me to take Mark’s workshops. Thank goodness I finally took the plunge. The workshops have been transformative for me, delving deeply into aspects of my life and digging up memories I thought were long gone. I am forever grateful to Mark for his time, his insights, his ability to put his finger on each person’s pulse in such a way that we all learn not only from him but from each other.”

~Philippa, USA