This free writing piece was inspired by author Dr. Clarissa Pinkos Estes, author of Women Who Run With the Wolves. For the past 18 weeks, every week I attended A WRITING GROUP taught by Rae Bales from The Women’s Writing Project. Rae also offers online writing courses.

Part 1 can be read on my Italy Retreat Blog written by Mary Ellen Maguire, one of my Italy Retreat Adventurers and fellow writing buddy in the Women Who Run With the Wolves Writing Workshop.

The assignment was:  Write your own steps to gaining inner strength and knowing. Write for 10 minutes just free writing, set timer, do not edit. (I have not edited even to publish this).

Off the top of my head, My 8 Steps to becoming a woman of intense inner strength and knowing:…I’m sure there are lots more.

1. Do it afraid. Just do it. Feel the fear and do it anyway. You don’t’ have to see the whole stairs. Just take the first step. These are my mantras for gaining strength.
2. Do something to dismantle your limiting beliefs. Find a way to quiet those persistent thoughts that nag you like a menopausal wife on heroin, like a lobster in a boiling pot, like a wolf on a kill. Each fear faced, puts a notch in the strength belt, makes the links in the chain firm and powerful like we were born to be.
3. Enter the realm of silence through prayer and meditation each day, so the grace and light fills the cavities of your being and body. Your own wisdom shines brightly, more easily, like a newborn ray of sunshine.
4. Write profusely, even if it’s shitty, just express, put it down on paper.
5. Study what you love.
6. Read even more—delight your mind.
7. Study a foreign language.
8. Laugh a lot with strangers and good friends.

And then you will Know. You will BE a person of intense inner strength and knowing.

Learn more about traveling to Italy on Lenora’s Italy Retreats For Women
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You are welcome to reprint, copy, or distribute Lenora Boyle’s article, provided author credit is included.