Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Writing down the soul grabbed me at the dedication page and held me in its grip for 177 pages. At page 178, nature and dinner were calling! I skipped dessert and finished the book that night. Instead of chocolate, I filled my craving with Conner's pearls of wisdom and insights. The next morning I woke with the resolve to practice journaling.

Two things distinguish Conner's book from others in its genre: First, Conner is an exceptional writer. She writes as if she's speaking to you. Second, Conner establishes credibility with readers who are advocates of positive psychology. She sites a half dozen or more research studies supporting the benefits of journaling.

Janet Conner is the real deal: a courageous modern mystic who can teach the rest of us how to create the kind of intimate relationship she enjoys with the divine. Once upon a time, she was a cute-as-a-button Chicago-born Irish Catholic professional woman with an Ivy League degree and an impressive resume... and then, everything changed... and her waking life took on the characteristics of Everywoman's Worst Nightmare. Lucky for us, she turned her heart-rending adversity into an amazing spiritual adventure. And THEN she turned around and figured out how she did that so she can teach the rest of us how to do it, too. The result, "Writing Down Your Soul," is authentic, engaging, insightful, illuminating, and brilliant -- like the author.

If you are feeling lost, or looking for answers and don't know where to turn, this is the book for you. More than simply journal writing, Writing Down Your Soul is a profound process for psycho-spiritual growth: a method for connecting with a source of inner wisdom. What's more it's easy (no writing skills required), can be done in the privacy of your own home, and it works.

Conner calls this wisdom the "Voice," and reminds us that we all have this voice, which lives just below our surface awareness in our mind, heart, and soul. Another writer might call it intuition, or someone else might call it source energy, or God. The name isn't important; it is the act of writing faithfully and soulfully that activates a profound and meditative state, enabling us to hear the still, quiet wisdom inside.

Conner writes from her soul, so we are given a first-hand experience of what that looks, sounds, and feels like--and it is inspiring. Using four basic steps to writing down your soul: show up, open up, listen up, and follow up, the author walks--or rather--talks us through each step, sounding more like a compassionate friend than a stranger. The author draws you in to the unfolding conversations available from your soul -- her reassurance, enthusiasm, and heart wisdom alone stirs us to connect with our own inner guidance and find our own voice home.

Review by Julie Clayton

Janet Conner's has created a masterpiece! Her simple insightful technique provides each soul writer with a direct line to god ... Writing Down Your Soul should be required reading (and writing) for anyone wishing to contact and learn from the deeper layers of their own Sacred Soul. Janet is a masterful teacher, powerful writer and witty wayshower whose wisdom comes from wrestling with her own spirit ... and writing down the words delivered to her directly from the Voice. Hearing her amazing stories, following her simple directions ... puts one in direct contact with one's own Voice, Spirit, Soul, God, Goddess, Enlightened One. It works. It's wonderful.

If you have read and appreciated Julia Cameron's book The Artist way but never really got into writing morning pages or like me.. started and dropped them) this book is for you. It which explains why writing every day at the same time is so powerful through inspiring stories, and scientific back up. It provided the inspiration to get me back on track and appreciating connecting with my higher wisdom via writing every day.

I always found meditation hard .. too much going on in my head. This book shows an alternate and very powerful way to connect with my higher (whatever one wants to call it - Janet Connor is very careful to keep it open to believers in all traditions and none).

Janet is a real joy ... this book can show you a simple technique to make a big difference to your life. Give it a go ... and then spread the word!

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.