Breaking the silence of the page
About Devotion to Writing
Devotion to Writing is a program that helps you cultivate a daily writing or creative practice. It helps you sustain this practice and write more deeply and freely than you’ve written before. Through daily creative devotion you reconnect to the source of energy, power, and abundance within you, which sustains your work and your life.
Devotion to Writing eliminates the fears and doubts which paralyze and silence us before we even begin. Breaking the silence of the page over and over, we establish a daily habit of writing. Along the way, we develop a new relationship, a trust and belief in ourselves as creators, as infinitely creative, and the fashioners of our world.
Devotion is defined as a coming to Love. In this sense, Devotion to Writing is coming to love writing. But it goes deeper, we come to love the creative process, and our relationship to the mystery of creating. We begin to honor and love ourselves as creators, and ultimately, we realize we are the creators of our lives. As such, we are full-filled: we realize our richness, depth, energy and love.
“We become what we celebrate,” Mattew Kelly wrote. Let us celebrate, and commune daily with the creative energy at work in and around us.
Devotion to Writing is different from other writing programs in that it:
Acknowledges that doubt and fear are part of the creative process but can be overcome.
helps you write through the mental, physical, and emotional blocks that paralyze you.
works to build your practice incrementally so you can realize our biggest creative visions and dreams
Believes Devotion is the key to sustaining ourselves creatively. Devotion to writing uses both physical and spiritual practices to help you cultivate a daily writing practice.
Believes everyone is a writer, a creative and has access to an infinite spring of creative energy within them.
Gives you tools to build and sustain you writing practice.
Develops with you a resilient habit that isn’t dependent on external validation.
Insists you are creative abundant.
Nourishes your own natural inspiration and joy of writing. To inspire means to breath in spirit, to be filled with God. You will be fulfilled.
Meet Justen
“I see Devotion to Writing as my life’s work, my service. It is a gift to create, and help others discover their creative expression. As a young writer and artist, I always was grateful for the teachers who supported and encouraged me, who told me “I could”. The people who saw me as a writer taught me how to see myself. Too many people have heard they can’t write (create), they aren’t good enough. Too many people inforce this negative believe in themselves. Devotion to Writing helps you remember you can create because you are Creation itself.
I’ve been teaching Devotion to Writing for 12 years. The ideas, tips, advice for this creative pilgrimage come from my own experiences as a writer and artist struggling to cultivate a practice and sustain myself as a creatively for 35+ years. I want to share with you an approach to writing that has released me from paralysis, frustration, and negativity, and has transformed my life into a deeply fulfilling creative journey.”
Bio
Justen Ahren has appeared on NPR’s, “The Point” and serves on NPR’s WCAI Poetry Board. His poetry and photography have appeared in numerous literary and photography journals, and exhibited at MassMoCA. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work has been adapted to the stage and set to music by Grammy Award winning composers Glen Roven and Ileana Vasquez. In 2013, he Founded Noepe Center for Literary Arts, which he directed until 2018. Since 2014, Justen’s been teaching Devotion to Writing. The Martha’s Vineyard Emeritus Poet Laureate, Justen received an MFA from Emerson College’s school of Writing and Publishing. He has two collections of poems A Strange Catechism, and A Machine for Remembering. You can learn more about Justen and read his poetry at Justenahren.com, or on instagram @justenahren.
Justen Ahren
Poet, Author, Founder of Devotion to Writing