Troy Amber, TLA Studios 
In my case, I’ve been a pretty decent writer for most of my life, but I never thought anything about it. I was just doing my homework assignments, documenting procedures or meeting notes, developing training manuals, what have you. It was pretty transactional, and I certainly never thought of myself as a “writer.” However, I seem to consistently end up being the “documenter,” the one who organizes the ideas on paper and distributes my notes for the rest of the team. Nothing revolutionary here, but I just never realized how frequently this happens or how naturally it comes to me. (The message tapped me on the shoulder, but I didn’t listen.)
Then about eight months ago, I wrote a paper for my yoga teacher training program about how yoga can help reduce the impact of the inner critic. It was the first time I had written about a topic I really cared about and WHAM, something clicked for me. I was amazed to discover how much I enjoyed the process of writing about something intrinsically interesting. Time zoomed by. I was in the zone. (The message bumped into me and I felt it, but I still didn’t quite connect the dots of how much or why writing was important to me.)
Serdelsol
Since that time, I started my blog because it’s the thing to do if you want to be a good coach. I wrote a few posts. I got coaching around which methods would work the best for me to reach my ideal clients (um, I cried tears of joy when my coach mentioned writing, hello). Low and behold, I’ve started noticing how at ease I feel when writing. How unfiltered. How authentic and inspired. Hmmm, go figure. My authentic self wants to communicate about deeply personal subject matter through words on paper (ok, on screen, you know what I mean.) Alrighty then. I got the message!
Think about the various ways that the people in your life speak to you. Can you understand what they are saying? My mom communicates through textiles. The woman is absolutely brilliant at making the perfect thing for a given occasion: a baby blanket, a quilt, a pillow, a purse, a yoga bag, outfits for my girls. Mom, I hear you, and I love you too. My husband communicates through numbers—models, spreadsheets and graphs.
Hubbert Peak Oil Plot
My sister communicates through delicious food; her husband through his magnificent photos (see the food photo, above). My yoga teacher speaks to me through her artistic and beautiful sequencing of poses. My daughter's first daycare provider speaks toddler (that's one I often don't understand, I tell ya). My somatic coach reads and speaks energy. My new massage therapist speaks to my muscles through her hands (which is more than I can say for my previous one, which is why I left). Radiohead speaks to my soul through music. You can always tell when someone’s communication (both method and message) is authentic because it touches you at a deep level.
What about what you put out into the world... how do you like communicating with others? In what situations do you feel the most at ease and able to connect with people (even if they aren’t in the room, as you are clearly not in my office right now as I write this)? Do you get lit up when working with various media (artistic, technical or otherwise), information, body practices, etc.? Pay attention to what happens in your own body and emotions while communicating in various ways. When you experience feelings of lightness, ease and contentment, treat those feelings as breadcrumbs and follow them. Your authentic self has something to say (I promise), and when you give it permission to speak in its preferred language, you will feel a resounding YES! Do me a favor, speak that language as often as possible because the world wants to hear what you authentically have to say. I know I do.
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