Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within [Paperback]

Janet Conner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2009

You could pray, or meditate, or dream, or visit a shaman, or a minister, or a hypnotherapist. With so many routes into inner consciousness, why write? Of all the ways to get in touch with God, as you understand God... to hear the small, still voice pointing you in the right direction... why take the time to write?

One reason: it works. It works amazingly well. If you want to engage in a vibrant conversation with the wisdom that dwells just a hair below your conscious awareness, write. Write every day, at approximately the same time, with passion, honesty, and the intention of speaking with and listening to the voice within.

Janet Conner was escaping a terrible situation of domestic abuse. While trying to figure out how she and her son could live and how they could eat, she realized she had hit rock bottom. With no other advisers, she listened to her own inner voice, which told her to start writing. As she did, Janet's inner voice gained clarity and strength, and she felt an incredible connection to the divine, and almost immediately miracles began to happen.

Today, research scientists in psychology, physics, biochemistry, and neurology are providing peeks into what consciousness is and how it works. Their findings give us intriguing clues as to what is actually happening in and through our bodies, minds, and spirits as we roll pen across paper. Writing Down Your Soul explores some of this research and instructs readers how to access the power and beauty of their own deepest selves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Just reading her words will make you want to write." - Victoria Moran, author of Creating a Charmed Life

"You've just given me the best book to recommend to my writing students. And you! You, who say you cannot write or do not know how to write--read this. You! You, who feel lost and do not know where to turn--read this. Janet shows you the best road…the one that leads to what your soul already knows." --Mary Anne Radmacher, author of Live Boldly and Lean Forward into Your Life

"This is a how-to book that reads like the best novel ever... With paper and pen in hand, one can find out who one is and what one's purpose is....The book is for young and old, rich and poor, happy and sad. It is a book to be treasured for years to come." -- Betsey Brooks, ARE Association for Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach, Va.

"...This is one of the most effective methods of psychospiritual growth available. To learn how to set this process in motion in your life, Writing Down Your Soul is an invaluable guide." --Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words and The Power of Premonitions

"Every human being has an 'inner voice,' a 'higher' nature, an awareness beyond thought and beyond intellect. It is called by various names: Buddha Nature, Christ Consciousness... Atman, etc. It is our Soul. In it we just 'know.' But precious little in our cultural training has helped us to 'connect' with that place of infinite wisdom, unconditional Love, and pure joy. Janet Conner's wonderful book, Writing Down Your Soul is a magnificent gift for us all. It offers a clear, concise, nurturing path to connecting--every day--with the highest and deepest part of ourselves. In that process it helps us become fully alive, fully awake, and fully loving. I highly recommend this superb, insightful, compassionate book!" -- John E. Welshons, author of Awakening From Grief and One Soul, One Love, One Heart: The Sacred Path to Healing All Relationships

"...put it to work enriching your life... immediately." -- August Gold, author of The Prayer Chest, Founder, Spiritual Director of Sacred Center New York

"...She has developed a special formula for success...I didn't want it to end and will highly recommend it to my clients and colleagues." -- Gail McMeekin, career and creativity coach and the author of The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women

About the Author

Janet Conner is an expert on the power of sacred journaling, personal prayer, and forgiveness to heal your heart and transform your world. In grateful appreciation for the gifts she has been given, Janet tithes ten percent of earnings to her spiritual sources. Visit her at writingdownyoursoul.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (January 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573243566
• ISBN-13: 978-1573243568
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Self-Help > Journal Writing
  • #1 in Books > Self-Help > Handwriting Analysis
  • #14 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Divination

More About the Author

Janet Conner is a vibrant writer, speaker, and teacher who became a catalyst for deep soul change after a series of personal traumas. Her landmark book, Writing Down Your Soul (Conari 2009), connects readers to their "extraordinary voice within" and is consistently the #1 book in the journal writing category on Amazon. She also developed My Soul Pages (Conari Press 2011), a unique companion journal designed to support deep soul writers.

Janet's newest book, The Lotus and the Lily (Conari Press Oct 2012), cracks the abundance code by linking the wisdom of the inner voice with the surprising parallel teachings of Buddha and Jesus. In a profound yet simple 30-day program, Janet sheds radical new light on "The Great Paradox of Prosperity" and guides readers to create the personal receptive conditions that nourish a bountiful life.

Janet and her work have been featured in national media including Martha Stewart's Whole Living, Daily Word, Daily Om, Unity Magazine, Beliefnet.com and many more. She teaches five courses in her trademark series Your Soul Wants Five Things, sharing five wisdom habits that meet the soul's primary needs to connect with Source, commit to values, serve a purpose, express itself, and create life.

Janet lives and writes in Ozona, Florida. She speaks nationally at conferences, churches, bookstores, libraries, and spiritual centers, and reaches thousands worldwide through her global telecourses. With her signature teaching of Your Soul Wants Five Things, Janet is fast becoming a major voice for spiritual growth and understanding in our time.

Visit Janet at www.janetconner.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

181 of 187 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Advice, Be a Wise Reader Though February 23, 2009

By Lisa Shea HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I have read many books about the power of journaling, and I definitely believe that keeping a journal can help you become physically and emotionally more content. By journaling you review what went well, find solutions for what went poorly, focus on what is coming up in your future, and keep yourself on track. This can help with diets, relationships, careers, and much more.

Janet's book is specialized in that it focuses on an "inner voice" for your journal. Instead of just writing down the day's events, Janet wants you to engage in a dialogue with your inner self. By asking yourself questions, you prod yourself to answer from your subconscious, without thinking, without filtering the answers. It gets you more in touch with what the inner you craves. She goes for speed writing, scrawling quickly, so you can get those thoughts out before your mental critic jumps in and tries to regulate your feelings.

I definitely feel this is one great way of journaling. Sometimes it's good to make logical to-do lists, to chronicle your day's events. At other times, though, writing quickly, stream-of-conscious, with blinding energy can really help you get out emotions you might have otherwise blocked.

Janet provides practical advice for doing this. Set up a schedule. Commit to it. Set your intention BEFORE you write, to really give this your best effort. Commit to using the advice to take baby steps forward in your life. Try to plan a space for your writing, but don't keep putting off your start date until that space is "perfect". It is better to begin than to keep waiting. You can create the space as you go.

She provides guidelines about handling privacy issues, about blocking out distractions, about ways to avoid self-editing. You want to write your honest thoughts....

Janet goes into some research behind how journaling helps. A study of people who had experienced something traumatic had one group write about the facts only, a second group write about their feelings only, and a third group write about the facts and feelings. The third group had far lower stress and better health after the study was done.

In a separate study, job searchers were broken into three groups. One group wrote about their thoughts about finding a job. The second group wrote about time management, and the third group did not write at all. After 3 months, 27% of the "thoughts" group had jobs - but less than 5% of the other two groups did. They all went on the same number of interviews, too!

Janet recommends you write about specific questions you want answers. She provides LOTS of samples. You want to write in the present, active tense. "What can I do this week to help my job search?" You do not want to write vague passive questions like "when will a job appear?" The aim is to tap your own creativity to achieve your goals.

I greatly appreciate that Janet talks about how we develop our inner critics - the ones she is working so hard to help us overcome. We developed them to protect ourselves! In the past, we found failure very painful. Our critics try to shield us from that pain. By saying "do not try that, you might get hurt" the critic is trying to keep us safe. However, the critic also stands in the way of our growth! We need to soothe the critic, accept it and move beyond it. Janet helps us with that step by step.

That all being said, I found several things questionable. I always doubt the truthfulness of reviews on Amazon for example when a bunch appear on the same day, as if the author found a bunch of friends to submit good reviews for her. Next, she claims that her soul writing is different than journaling because she provides scientific studies proving her ways work. Her studies she quoted are also in SEVERAL other books - and they are all about JOURNALING, not about soul writing! She says several times to just write about a desire ("I want $1000") and then sit back and do nothing, and it will appear. I consider that VERY bad advice. It's good to have goals - and it's also important to deliberately go after them. To advise people to sit back and watch TV and expect their bills to be paid can be extraordinarily harmful. The talks about how it is extremely difficult to listen 70% of the time and only talk 30% of the time. She makes it sound like this is a sweeping statement for all of humanity. If that were true then how could it ever be a valid stat? Someone else must be listening the other part of the time! What must be true is SHE likes to talk a lot. Lots of people like to listen and never talk. I'm sure I could easily find 10 guys I know who only talk 30% of the time and their wives talk 70% of the time. Their wives complain about it!

Still, she has a lot of good information here, if you accept that not all of it is 100% gospel. Well recommended. Read more ›

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary... writing and results! February 3, 2009

By Maryn Hallock

Format:Paperback

I so thoroughly enjoyed this book, just for the writing alone. Janet's story is amazing and gives hope to all of us especially when we're in a down spot. Truly inspiring... but then there is the process of soul writing - my oh my - I had no idea I would be in for such a ride as getting to know the Voice of my own Spirit! I have sporadically journaled for years but gave up usually out of disgust with the "pity-party on a page" that I always seemed to create. Now, I write eagerly just to find out what my kind, loving inner voice has to say to me. Get this book and Soul Write! You will be astonished.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Life-changer of life-changers May 13, 2011

By J. Howard

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

It was yet another night of lying in bed, worrying about all sorts of things, when something told me it might be time to take a look at that book I purchased a while ago. I had no idea what to expect. I just knew I wanted to learn a little more about myself and my soul. So I started reading, and found myself moved by Janet's stories about the amazing surprises and blessings that are in store for us when we write this way. I felt a sense of peace that had become a stranger to me. I'm a seasoned journaler and I've read all the great writers on the subject -- Kathleen Adams, Christina Baldwin, Tristine Rainer -- and yes, Tristine's work is wonderful at helping us see how writing can connect us to something bigger, how patterns and meaning emerges through our lives, and how we can write our story in a way that is spiritually powerful. But nothing prepared me for Janet's work: here was someone talking matter-of-factly about the downright miracles that can happen when you connect like this, and she's the most down-to-earth person who talks about miracles you could ever meet! I knew she was right because at my most connected, most aligned, the miracles have happened for me, too. I even been working on a memoir about that for a couple years now because I thought I had so much to share with the world. This book and Janet's work is teaching me that I haven't scratched the surface. There's more. So much more. And I've experienced incredible things that most people just wouldn't believe, so that's saying something.

It's the first thing to *really* speak to me in a really long time, and while I can name a handful of books that were life-changing in one way or the other (I LOVE reading), this one blows the others out of the water.... The other books were inspiring, but this one is more than that: it expresses in the most concrete terms what to DO to change your life. It's a guide to that, to transformation, to how to be real, to how to listen to your intuition, to how to connect in the deepest way, to live authentically -- even how to get even more out of those other life-changing books! It works so well because she doesn't teach each of these things specifically; they just naturally emerge from this incredible process.

Since I read this book a few weeks ago, I:

* Have felt so creative that it's as though every muse is whispering in my ear at once.
* Have felt God working in my life in so many ways.
* Went from feeling that it would take a miracle to fix all the things that are messed up in my life to actually seeing that miracle.
* Have clients rolling into my business no thanks at all to marketing; this process just led me to reconnect with what's valuable about my work, and they started coming!
* Went off an antidepressant I had been on for 2.5 years. A little "glitch" in my health insurance made my refill more expensive than I could afford, and because I was paying attention, thanks to Janet's work, I took it as a sign that I didn't need them anymore.
* Have a more focused vision of my passion in life than I have ever felt before, more concrete than ever, and I've been struggling with this for a long time.
* Have had so many wonderful experiences that I'm surely forgetting some huge ones.
* Have not gotten much rest, honestly, because I have a lifetime of Writing Down Your Soul to catch up on! And in fact, when I try to "do" something "productive" sometimes inspiration will suddenly strike and I'll have to stop to do something like, well, write this review.

Full disclosure: I also joined one of Janet's telecourses since reading the book, and that certainly helped to propel me in this direction, but it's all thanks to Janet's stuff, and it all starts with this extraordinary book.

Read it at your own risk. Read more ›

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Writing Down Your Soul January 20, 2009

By Robert A. Evans, Ph.D.

Format:Paperback

Isn't it interesting that Janet's book comes along just when our individual and collective worlds need it. Janet is an extraordinary writer who literally and figuratively takes the reader by the hand and leads them to finding solutions to their problems. This book is a scientifically based, 21st Century, "how to" on problem solving. Wayne Dyer tells us that there is a spiritual solution to every problem and Janet gives us an itinerary to those solutions. Helping professionals will want to work with their clients through Janet's techniques. This book is a guide to helping all of us on our inner and outer journeys through this life. Saying this is a "must read" is an incredible understatement. If you do not need this help at this time in your life, you know someone who does; buy them this book; you'll both feel better.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A leap of faith for a new way of journaling May 3, 2011

By J. Whitford TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I started out using the Artist's Way practice of morning pages, writing daily each morning. The first year was just three pages of whining, with little insight into myself or my dreams. I burned that journal. The second year I did a core dump of the day first, and then I started writing about things I wanted to do. The more I wrote, the more answers came to me as I wrote and I had solutions to most of my problems by the time I stopped writing. Then there were times when I would read what I wrote and noticed advice I would not have thought of myself - but it was inspirational and amicably resolved the issue I was writing about. This process continued daily for almost a decade - until about three years ago when I stopped writing and focused on the long hours I was putting in on my job.

I felt out of balance and I wanted to start journaling again, but in a way that would connect to that Divine Wisdom that seemed to showed up during my previous writing time. I came across this book and signed up for Janet Conner's online five week class. What she teaches is a very simple process to help you move from Beta (where we fret over problems) to Theta to connect to your inner wisdom.

Now is this an easy process and do you connect right away? Not if you have fears and doubts about the process or what you are going to receive. Most people do not want to hear what their inner voice has to say because that means they will have to stop ignoring things that need to be resolved in their lives and they will need to act on them. Others fear they will hear their inner critics tormenting them to no end.

Once you get past your fears and doubts, you relax into the process. You pick a time you want to write each day and commit to that time.... Turn off your phone and computer, no eating or drinking, etc. Let your family know this is your quiet time. Write as fast as you can for about ten to fifteen minutes without distraction (no TV, no radio, no music - no interruptions.) And by write I mean in a journal or on paper. Do not worry about grammar, spelling, editing or anything - just write. Then act on any wisdom you receive.

Now it may take time to clear the emotional clutter. Some people get clear in a few weeks or months. Once I got off my pity party wheel, my life began to change. I began to write things in my journal that helped me personally, helped resolve technical issues at work - you name it, wonderful things began to occur when I connected to my inner Voice - or what I call my own higher self or soul.

Before you make a decision about using this process or buying this book, go to the author's web site and read her newsletters and blog. In addition to this book she also has a thirty day plan you can purchase that coincides with the book. Using this plan you can take it a day at a time, a few pages at a time and within a month have a good writing practice that connects you with your own inner voice. Read more ›