{"id":9502,"date":"2020-08-06T07:06:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T14:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=9502"},"modified":"2020-08-05T11:06:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:06:54","slug":"suleika-jaouad-and-the-isolation-journals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/suleika-jaouad-and-the-isolation-journals\/","title":{"rendered":"Suleika Jaouad and The Isolation Journals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Guest Post by Suleika Jaouad, creator of The Isolation Journals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Isolation Journals was founded on the idea that life\u2019s interruptions are invitations to deepen our creative practice.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suileika:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I started The Isolation Journals project, I had no idea so many would join me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late March 2020, I was quarantining in my parents\u2019 attic, having left New York City as Covid-19 was surging. I was no stranger to isolation. For much of my twenties, I was in treatment for leukemia, unable to travel, eat out, see friends, even take a walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now isolation was back\u2014this time on a global scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Isolation Journals<\/a> is an artist-led community and publishing platform that cultivates creativity and fosters connection in challenging times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in an unprecedented moment. This is one small way to stay grounded and hopeful to transform our isolation to connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suleika\u2019s August 2, 2020 Isolation Journals Post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s prompt is inspired by the relationship between movement and creativity. It\u2019s something that artists and thinkers have observed for millennia. One of the earliest examples is the legend of Aristotle, who paced while he taught, and his students\u2014called \u201cthe Peripatetics,\u201d a word that means \u201cto walk around\u201d\u2014followed suit. As Thoreau wrote in his journal, \u201cMethinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.\u201d\u00a0

But what\u00a0is\u00a0new is scientific evidence to support the age-old phenomenon. In the last decade, studies have emerged showing that movement and thinking are symbiotic, and some neuroscientists theorize that the evolutionary process that allowed us to develop the ability to walk upright is the same one that helped us develop conscious cognition. It\u2019s a fascinating idea, one with so many implications for the creative practice.

I\u2019ll say one last thing before getting to the prompt\u2014that we\u2019re all different, with varying access to places to walk, with bodies that have different abilities and disabilities. Because of that, it\u2019s natural that how we move will vary as widely as the writing that will follow it. Just find what works for you; as always, this practice is yours, so make it your own.
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Prompt 103. The Singular Glory of a Solo Walk<\/strong> In mid-March, I was working on a grueling last edit of my memoir\u00a0Between Two Kingdoms.<\/em> From early in the morning until late at night, I sat hunched over my computer in my parents\u2019 attic, second-guessing every comma, re-thinking every word. I was panicking, sure it was a total disaster, and my quarantine roommate Carmen offered to read the entire manuscript out loud with me. Between the stress of the deadline and being so sedentary, our bodies ached. From time to time, we\u2019d have to take a break\u2014walking in the woods and stopping for a spontaneous snowball fight, or doing yoga there in the attic.

One afternoon, we were both in downward dog, and I said to Carmen, \u201cI have an idea.\u201d I rambled something vague about journal prompts and helping others complete a 100-day project. \u201cGo write that down,\u201d Carmen told me. \u201cNow\u2014before you forget it.\u201d And I got up from the mat, and I did. I didn\u2019t expect it would go anywhere, at least not immediately. But writing it down made the idea seem more real, and I kept mulling it over. Then as the number of cases of covid-19 rose, as cities and states and countries went into lockdown, that seed of an idea\u2014one that had occurred in a moment when I was giving my mind a break\u2014sprouted a week later into the Isolation Journals.

This isn\u2019t a one-off. When I\u2019m stuck and can\u2019t work something out on the page, or when my head is too full of chatter, I\u2019ve learned to get out of my mind and into my body. I go for a walk, and as I move and fall into a rhythm, the chatter quiets. Whatever knots my thoughts are in begin to loosen.\u00a0

It happened just yesterday. Over the weekend, Jon and I moved to an artist\u2019s residency, to a house near a river with miles and miles of walking paths. I\u2019ve\u00a0been sick\u2014last week I tested positive for Lyme disease, which has made my joints swollen, my movements slow and labored. But yesterday morning, I felt good enough to take a walk, and on a long gentle amble, I began to get an idea of what I want to write next. Right now, I\u2019m just seeing little glimpses, like glints of sunlight on the river, but it feels good to be inspired again. As I settle into our new digs, I\u2019m setting a new intention to take a quiet, solitary morning walk before I write. I trust that soon enough, the seed of this next idea will begin to sprout.

Your prompt for the week:
Begin with a movement that roots you in your body. Maybe take a walk outside, or dance around your house, or take deep breaths and blow each exhale through loose horse lips\u2014whatever will get you out of your head. Capture what springs to mind using the voice recording app on your phone or by jotting quick notes. Do this for as long as you\u2019d like.

Next, write in your journal about what came up. You can elaborate on the thoughts and ideas you had, or you can get meta, reflecting on how movement carried you into a new contemplative space.\u00a0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Suleika Jaouad<\/a>\u00a0is an Emmy Award\u2013winning writer, speaker, cancer survivor & author of the forthcoming memoir, Between Two Kingdoms.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is the creator of The Isolation Journals,<\/a> a global movement cultivating community and creativity during hard times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can pre-order her book, due to be released February 2021, Between Two Kingdoms, A Memory of A Life Interrupted.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suleika’s humorous, informative, meaning-full Ted Talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hardest part of my cancer experience began once the cancer was gone,\u201d says author Suleika Jaouad. In this fierce, funny, wisdom-packed talk, she challenges us to think beyond the divide between \u201csick\u201d and \u201cwell,\u201d asking: How do you begin again and find meaning after life is interrupted?\u201d \u2014 Official TED Conference, 2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Guest Post by Suleika Jaouad, creator of The Isolation Journals. The Isolation Journals was founded on the idea that life\u2019s interruptions are invitations to deepen our creative practice. Suileika: When I started The Isolation Journals project, I had no idea so many would join me. In late March 2020, I was quarantining in my parents\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1408,1407,1404,1405,1406],"class_list":["post-9502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-a-memory-of-a-life-interrupted","tag-between-two-kingdoms","tag-suleika-jaouad","tag-the-isolation-journals","tag-the-isolation-journals-project"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2tg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9502"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9520,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions\/9520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}