Proprioceptive writing encourages evolution in thinking
By Emily Crisman for the Chattanooga Times Free Press
If you've made a vow to spend more time with your journal this year, take that a step further with proprioceptive writing. Unlike other process-writing methods that focus solely on expression - including journal writing, free writing and stream-of-consciousness writing - proprioceptive writing focuses on both expression and reflection. It's basically a tool to change the way you think.
The method can be used to unburden the mind, resolve emotional conflicts, connect with the spiritual self, focus awareness and find one's voice, among other things, according to "Writing the Mind Alive, The Proprioceptive Method for Finding Your Authentic Voice," the 2002 book on the practice written by method founders Linda Trichter Metcalf and Tobin Simon.
"It's a great therapeutic tool for psychic exploration," says Anne Bright, who started teaching the method in the late '90s and founded Proprioceptive Writing Center, Southeast in Chattanooga. She is one of only three faculty members in the country aside from Metcalf and Simon. "You become your own inquisitor in a loving, open, nonjudgmental way," Bright says of the practice.
Proprioceptive writing involves the use of "auditory imagination," in which you shift to overhearing thoughts as if they were spoken rather than experiencing thoughts as just words in your head. To accomplish that shift, proprioceptive writing requires you to find a space free of distractions for 25 minutes, light a candle and play Baroque music, which has a rhythmic quality reflective of the human pulse. The slower tempos are believed to help the brain switch from its everyday beta rhythms to more creativity-conducive alpha rhythms, according to Trichter Metcalf and Simon. You then begin to write down your thoughts on unlined paper, using auditory imagination to listen to your thoughts without judging, editing or censoring them. With each thought you ask yourself, and write, the proprioceptive question, or PQ: "What do I mean by?" You then fill in the blank with whatever word, phrase or expression comes to mind.
Asking the PQ is intended to help you begin to relive specific experiences imaginatively by bringing out concrete details. "It leads to an evolution in thinking," Bright says. "It makes your writing so much more alive."