The Value of Embracing Writer’s Lows
Ancient Indians, who gave us Ayurvedic medicine, recognized states of being, useful to every writer.
Three states of being that every writer should recognize
If you practice yoga, a gift of Hindu culture, you may be aware of three qualities of energy, from which we draw strength. Even if you don’t, paying close attention to these three strands and how they affect your moods, physique, and desire to write or not, can help you enhance your highs, coast through the lows, and otherwise find your most productive center of being. Body chemistry is as vital as a mental outlook for writers.
Running through us and all of the natural worlds are three types of energy: rajas, the energy of passion and aggressiveness; tamas, the energy of inertia and passivity; and sattva, the strand of clarity, peace, and equanimity. From these descriptions, you may recognize your rajas-dominant mood when you are cooking with fire, in the timeless zone of creativity, writing on auto-pilot, perhaps having paroxysms of genius. Every flame has its point of extinction and this state cannot healthily be sustained. What invariably occurs next is that rajas reach critical mass and tanks. Tamas kicks in. If you’ve been writing seriously for any length of time…
