You sit to write. The voice on your right shoulder says: tell the story when you were six and got that birthday present, you know, the one you loved so much and how it determined the course of your life. But the voice on your left shoulder says: that's a stupid thing to write. Who wants to hear about that old backpack anyway? Who wants to hear that you loved carrying it so much you asked your father to take you camping all over the country and that it eventually turned into your own travel business. Who cares about your stupid story? And so you have it. The writer's dilemma,two voices battling it out over worthiness.

When we meditate, we practice being. When we write, we do the same thing. The biggest enemy for a writer is lack of trust, period.

Writers have been diagnosing this as writers block but I am here to tell you there is no such thing as writers block. I'm here to redirect your attention to this matter to a new culprit: your relationship with yourself. But there is a cure for this problem and that is to get to know the way your mind works. Watch what happens to the voices on your shoulders when you do anything you really want to do. What do they say and how do the sabotage you from living out your expressions? What else does your mind do when you want to express yourself? Make a note of it and see if that isn't what happens every time you pick up your pen.

Don't be a victim to your own mind. Do not let your childhood conditioning make you a victim. Pick up your pen and write. Your story might just be the one to change a child's life.

And if you have other moments that keep you from writing, for instance, you get antsy or can't find a topic to use for a warm up, consider my book The Mindful Writer, Still the Mind, Free the Pen www.createspace.com/3546101 now an ebook on amazon.

Everyone has to start somewhere, but there is no start unless you have begun.