Is Your Definition of Success Hurting Your Writing Progress?

by Heidi DuPree

Within a week of publishing my first book, The Other Medicine That Really Works: How Energy Medicine Can Help You Heal in Body, Mind and Spirit, my life was in a tailspin.

I had just spent three years writing a lifetime’s worth of information and insights gained through my work as a clinical nurse in Western medicine, and my work as a holistic nurse practicing energy healing and energy medicine.

The book was a labor of love that weaved together wisdom garnered through my work and healing stories from my clients, along with research that helped explain each concept. It was written with the intention of helping the suffering masses.

But the moment the book was published, I came face-to-face with what seemed to be an insurmountable problem.

The qualities that make me a sensitive, intuitive writer are the very qualities that make it difficult to get that writing out into the world.

As an introvert, an HSP (highly sensitive person) and an empath, I feel the energies of others. If I’m not careful, I can absorb these energies like a sponge, including others’ emotions and physical symptoms. These sensitivities and intuitive abilities are an asset in my work with clients, and as a writer. But the marketing world seems to favor those who are either logical, left-brained or extroverted.

My Desire for My Book to Be Seen Collided with My Fear of Being Seen

For months after my first book was published, I was in a constant state of turmoil. This deep inner conflict was caused by desire clashing with fear. My desire for my book to be seen was colliding with my fear of being seen!

And my desire for the book to be successful and reach those who needed it was pitted against my fear that it would fail—and that it would be my fault. With three years invested in the book, there was much at stake.

Everywhere I turned for advice on how to promote a book, I got the same formulaic approach with an emphasis on sales and measurable performance that simply did not work. I did not resonate with manipulative practices, like playing to people’s fears or creating a false sense of urgency. And public speaking was very challenging with my sensitivities. Throughout my life, being seen meant becoming a target of abuse. How could I feel safe while putting myself out there?

I had already experienced a seismic shift in my life in the early 1990s, chronicled in the first book. I wrote about my “awakening,” the realization that the self-concepts I had built my life on were an illusion. Like a house of cards, those false beliefs that formed my identity collapsed. As I became fully conscious, the myriad of health issues I had been suffering with resolved, one by one. This transformational experience included a career change. After holistic healing restored my health, I left clinical nursing to pursue a career in energy healing and energy medicine.

Awakening is a lifelong process with stages that don’t necessarily occur in a linear fashion.

With the publication of my first book, I was plunged into another stage of awakening when I faced the illusion that an introverted, reclusive writer is incapable of a public author life. In the middle of all this turmoil, I turned again to what has always helped: writing.

The Conflict Created by Publishing a Book Can Only be Resolved by Writing Another Book

The catalyst for the first seismic shift in my life was health issues. Finding a way to resolve my health issues outside of mainstream medical practices transformed my life. This time the catalyst for transformation was publishing a book, and finding a way to resolve the inner turmoil outside of mainstream marketing practices.

Ironically, the conflict created by publishing a book could only be resolved by writing another book!

Fully expressing thoughts and emotions is vital to the process of healing. And writing provides an excellent medium for that expression.

Writing is also an excellent tool for enhancing awareness of limiting negative beliefs, and for identifying patterns of healing.

People often do not recognize that change is occurring unless they are recording it through writing. This is because change can be subtle. But over time, a series of subtle changes can add up to a changed life.

Writing facilitates clarity. A daily writing practice can be an effective tool for self-discovery. This can help us gain insights, find solutions and reach a state of self-acceptance that is key to healing. Even writing this article has enhanced my awareness and clarity!

As I started writing about the conflict between my desire to be seen and the fear of being seen, and the conflict between my desire to succeed and the fear of failure, I began to recognize similar fear-desire conflicts among clients in my energy healing practice.

We all have a desire to avoid feeling fear—the fear of feeling inadequate and not enough, the fear of feeling anxious, empty, guilty, embarrassed, worried or powerless. Through writing, I would discover that all these fears were coming from the same source.

As soon as I began writing what would become my second book, Awaken Your Greater Health: How Energy Medicine Opens the Way to Healing, answers about the nature of this inner conflict and how to transform and heal it came to me spontaneously.

One after another, experiences began occurring on a regular basis that brought information and dramatic insights. New clients arrived in my practice with situations that provided more pieces of the puzzle. A series of synchronistic and serendipitous experiences guided me as if I were on some great adventure. Chapters took shape around a series of self-help energy healing skills and techniques that came to me intuitively.

Almost Everyone Suffers from Some Form of “Not Enough”

The reason why we feel such angst and turmoil in a fear-desire conflict is this: It creates significant disruption and disharmony in our energy systems. And the state of our energy determines the state of our health and happiness.

Not only do our fears come from the same source, but desire does as well. Whether you are in fear or desire, it is coming from the illusion of lack. When we live from our wounds and our conditioning, we live outside the infinite source within us—our spirit. When we are disconnected from our source of unlimited energy at our core, we experience ourselves and our lives as not enough.

Almost everyone suffers from some form of “not enough”—whether that is not enough time, not enough money, not enough energy, not enough health. This “not enough” issue also includes not feeling good enough about yourself or smart enough, talented enough, etc. Almost everyone suffers from some form of “not enough,” because almost everyone suffers from some form of wounding or conditioning.

You are not your wounds or your conditioning. Who you really are is your soul—your spirit. But when you live from your wounds, outside of your spirit, you aren’t connected to your natural state of abundance. And life is experienced as lacking. This leaves us in a state of desire for “more,” and a fear of “not enough.” In this illusion, we live in a state of wanting for what we don’t realize we already have!

Here is a universal truth that is a key to health, harmony and happiness: No matter what has happened to you, no matter what has been done to you, and no matter what you think you’ve done—you are always whole, complete and enough, always and forever.

Writing My Second Book Transformed Me and My Work with Others

Using the skills and techniques that I wrote about in Awaken Your Greater Health, my turmoil dissipated along with my fear. In a state of harmony and abundance, unique solutions to problems that had seemed insurmountable came spontaneously.

Before I wrote the book, I worked in a basement office that had a dungeon-like quality! But after writing the book, everything changed. This transformation began with the realization that while the basement was safe and comfortable, it had become very limiting and confining, like a prison!

After 20 years of working the same way in the same space, my work suddenly shifted from local to global. I moved my energy healing coaching practice online, and also became an online teacher. Due to the non-local nature of energy, I can easily sense and shift energy patterns regardless of the geographic distance. I can now connect to readers, work with sensitive and creative women from all over the world, and teach students—all online.

In the state of harmony facilitated by writing the book, I can now put myself out there in a huge way that didn’t seem possible before. And I can do this while still honoring my sensitivities. This is because I am less likely to become drained, or to absorb the negative energies of others while working online. And as I find myself feeling quite at home online, both books have found their home as well. They have both won numerous book awards and now serve as “textbooks” for my online students, as well as being available to the public.

Completing the second book has taken my work in the world to a whole new level. As I live more and more from who I really am—my spirit—I can facilitate quantum change in others within the context of unlimited potential. I’m able to more effectively guide my sensitive and creative clients and students in using the skills and techniques from the book. And they are experiencing more harmony, abundance and success in their lives. I cannot imagine a greater honor than helping to change a life.

It’s Time to Change Our Definition of “Successful People”

If you are a creative, sensitive, intuitive or introverted person (as many writers are), these qualities indicate tremendous giftedness! And those gifts are greatly needed in the world.

As ecologist David W. Orr wrote in Ecological Literacy, “The planet does not need more ‘successful’ people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of every kind.”

In my work, I have found this to be true. However, I would suggest that we change our definition of “successful people.”

Success for a writer is not determined by whether or not they write a book, or whether or not that book is published. Success is not based on the number of books they sell, the number of readers they have or the number of social media followers they acquire. Despite what we have been conditioned to believe, success is not based on performance! Success is a state of resonance that naturally attracts abundance to us.

In the East, success is defined as the attainment of harmony and enlightenment, and through the discovery of universal truths. Pursuing success by Western standards can actually create disharmony by disrupting energy flow, which compromises health and causes unhappiness.

This is because success is not something we have to seek and desire outside of ourselves. Success comes from restoring our natural inner state of harmony, which creates energetic resonance. And the first step to success is letting go of the Western definition of success!

Writing is a service to others, whether the intention is to entertain, inform, inspire, or to help others improve their lives. But once we put sales first, that service orientation can become lost. We each have a unique gift to offer the world. How we share that gift with the world doesn’t need to look exactly like the way anyone else does it. Nor should it.

You are the only person on the planet who can fulfill your unique life purpose. And each person who embraces their unique self and shares their unique gift in a unique way makes the world a better place.

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Heidi DuPree is an award-winning author, holistic nurse, Certified Traditional Naturopath, energy healing coach, transformational entrepreneur and founder of Energypathy Healing®. She teaches sensitive and creative women, healers, coaches, nurses and caregivers how to master their energy, restore their vitality and improve their health through her coaching, writing and courses. For more information about her books, blog, courses and private sessions, please see her website, or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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Awaken to Your Greater Health: Are you experiencing upheaval in your life and a lack of success and fulfillment related to your health, relationships or career path? Do you feel called to work with social and environmental problems, bring healing and knowledge to others, or make a difference in the world—but are unable to realize your greater aspirations?

Awaken Your Greater Health is the award-winning road map to guide you out of the turmoil to where greater energies can rule your life. Through practical information on energy medicine and true-life stories of transformation, you will learn how to clear the way to your “inner castle”—the sanctuary within you where power, health and happiness come from.

Available at Amazon.