Simple Daily Practice Radio with Peggy Freeh

Pernelle has been writing professionally for 12 years, 7 years as her main job. The writing came in fits and starts. She would go through massive creative spurts and produce tons of work in no time. And then she won’t write for a few weeks or a month. Then she’d have another creative spurt.

This way of working depleted her. She would have one of these creative bursts and then feel empty and think she couldn’t do it again. She knew she could write, but she didn’t know how to make it a sustainable activity for herself.

So she started experimenting. At first, she set up her schedule to write in the afternoons. Then she tried writing first thing in the morning. The she added some meditation before writing.

All the experimenting had paid off. Pernille has a solid writing practice that supports her and allows her to bring her creative work into the world in a way that feels nurturing and sustainable. Listen to her story of how she worked out the details of her practice, what she does now, and how it has changed her life.

• what writing (and life) was like for her before her daily practice
• her analogy of writing a book to running a marathon
• her trial and error process of creating her daily writing practice
• what her daily practice looks like now
• the rituals she goes through before she sits down to start writing
• how and why she separates writing and editing
• why limiting our choices (or eliminating them altogether) can help us be more creative
• her best advice for starting a daily writing practice
• the important difference between “original” and “brilliant”
• how her daily writing practice carried her through burnout after finishing a novel

Resources to Connect with Pernille:

• website
• Pernille’s articles on creating a consistent daily writing practice.
• Facebook
• Twitter

• John Cleese - How To Be Creative (video) - brilliant video about the open and closed modes Pernille mentioned, how they relate to creativity, and how to use that information to be more creative
• The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

Peggy started Simple Daily Practice Radio as a way to talk about daily practice by having people share their stories of their own daily practices. After 24 interviews, she wanted to share 6 insights she’s received from these interviews.

Here is an overview of the 6 insights. For more details for each insight, listen to the podcast. Peggy also gives uses specfiic examples from the 24 interviews to illustrate her points. You can also listen to the original interviews for even more details.

Insight #1 - Follow Your Inspiration

Insight #2 - Start Small and Simple

Insight #3 - You Don’t Have to Be As Consistent As You Think

Insight #4 - Be Flexible

Insight #5 is Choose a Structure that Works for You

Insight #6 - It’s So Worth It

Heather Rampolla leads a guided body love meditation for women you can use every day.

Chel was a sensitive kid. For awhile, she ran away from that sensitivity. In her 20s, she found herself getting into trouble - partying too much, staying up too late. She ended up severely depressed and facing major panic attacks.

She tried journaling and meditation, but they didn’t help. What did help was a micro practice - stopping to observe what she was thinking and feeling many, many times a day. And things started to shift. She was able to develop more awareness and was eventually able to stop her panic attacks.

Chel went on to learn hypnotherapy and uses it to help her stop the automatic negative responses and replace them with new, more positive patterns. She is able to live her life in the calm, confident, loving way she wants. Listen to her story of how she found her way, the practices she used (and continues to use), and how her life has been transformed.

And try her Rewire It! process, one of the key practices she shares with her hypnotherapy clients. She has provided a recording and an ebook to help you learn the technique.

• the two daily practices she used to deal with her panic attacks
• how she became a hypnotherapist (despite her initial skepticism)
• how our subconscious can stop us from making the changes we know we want
• how hypnotherapy help you change your behavior
• the importance of shifting your story
• one of her all time favorite practices
• her #1 suggestion for getting unstuck

• website
• Meditation Minis podcast - website and in iTunes
• Eckhart Tolle - nose focused breathing meditation on website and in iTunes
• ReWire It! ebook to go with the practice above

• Dharma Punx
• Pema Chodron

Laurie went through a series of losses. She withdrew from the world, isolating herself more and more. She continued to study with many different teachers, but she became more reclusive and isolated.

She eventually saw how disconnected she was, from the world around her and from herself. She drew all on she had studied, and created a morning mindfulness practice. The core of the practice was going outside every day to the same spot and sitting there for at least 20 minutes.

But sitting for at least 20 minutes was not Laurie’s problem. She loved sitting there so much that she had to set an alarm to remind her to go in, sometimes sitting as long as 2 hours. Her feeling of connection was coming back, bringing her to tears every day for the first two years.

Laurie shares in beautiful detail how she practices today, the influences that have meant the most to her, and the deep connection she has regain with herself and the world around her.