stories

Featured Author: Paul Henning

Paul Henning is a reader, writer, gardener, and aspiring thinker. Having been spiritually and politically shaken awake by the madness and corruption of the last few years on earth, he is now working on rewriting his future and pursuing his Personal Legend. 

I Self Published a Book - And You Should Too
How Mass Intentional Self-Expression Can Save The World

"You know, I should write a book.”

Have you ever had that thought to yourself, or out loud to others?

I would bet money right now that yes, yes you have. Probably even more than once.

Maybe it was a thought to write about your own life or an experience you had. Maybe it was about someone else’s life, like a parent, grandparent, or historical figure. Perhaps you read a book one time that wasn’t very impressive and thought, “I could do better than this.” Maybe you have a skill or a unique perspective you think the world could benefit from or find entertaining.

If noone has told you yet, it would be my privilege to be the first: You can, and absolutely 100% should, write that book.

It doesn’t have to be good, it doesn’t have to be published, and hell, it doesn’t even have to be finished! All it needs is to be allowed to be released from your mind and onto text.

Really, that is what the call to write or create is, a signal to your consciousness that your creative supply tank is full and needs more space to receive more inspiring and creative notions.

The point of writing, I continue to discover, is not so much to share the content of my mind with others, but to allow my brain the potential for new content to expand my consciousness. If others read my work that is fine and dandy, but it’s my spiritual wellness I am to keep as a primary aim while here manifesting in this human form, not my follower count.

When you go to write don’t be disappointed by how much you get done, or what the quality is. It is best to have only the expectation to get your thoughts out.

Maybe one day soon you sit down on a window-open type of sunny, cool morning to a freshly blank computer screen and a full cup of steaming tea ready to finally start writing this book, but nothing comes out. Perhaps only the title comes out, or the theme of what you would like to write, and nothing more.

That’s okay! That’s great even! You gave the idea the chance to spread its wings. You opened the portal of your body and gave it the chance to leave and move on. If it crawled out like a tired slug, instead of blasting out in sparkly flames like the phoenix you expected, it makes no difference to the next idea that is on the way in to fill the newfound space.

If you haven’t yet, I highly encourage you to read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love. This book is one of the BEST places to find the inspiration, encouragement, and permission to create your own art and express yourself. She talks a lot about this concept of letting ideas come and go through us. She goes beyond and suggests that there are ideas floating around the ether of human subconsciousness constantly, and they are looking for people to inspire. If our minds are closed, or filled with old, neglected creative thoughts, the new ideas will not find home with us and they will move on to someone else.

Instead, if we let our creativity out, not only will new ideas be able to come to us, the universe will know we are a ready vessel for this and bring us even more ideas, greater than before and with increased frequency. Like a muscle we work out, our ability to be a portal for creative expression and novel thought can be exercised. This can be done through whatever our passion of choice is, it doesn’t have to be only in writing. Dancing, building, singing, painting, gardening, podcasting, tinkering, carpentry, cooking, or anything else that one might consider a creative expression of self applies.

I want to take this one step further.

We each as individuals all have an obligation to the greater aggregate of humanity. We can only make the world a better place by being better people ourselves, that’s it, that’s literally the only way.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” We have all heard it.

Attempts at trying to make the world a better place by stepping over our own personal culpability is an effort to deceive not only ourselves, but Karma and the spirit of the universe. But Karma cannot be deceived as a rule of natural law. In some fashion in this life we will pay our debts, or get paid what we are owed. No exceptions, no slips through the cracks. If we ourselves don’t pay, our bloodlines will until someone sets it right.

Writing a book, or attempting to at least begin the outline to even prepare for imagining to write a book, is one way we can rise the tide of the sea of human consciousness by at least one deliberate drop. The next idea that quickly comes to you after you write these few, or many, words will benefit your life overall, and thus benefit us all. Stagnation of the spirit is why we are in this mess of a modern era, an era filled with depression, unhealthiness, and increasingly hateful, ignorant, and manic divisiveness.

We need to stand up and shake off from us and our neighbors the thick layers of dust that is other people’s content, and government/corporate opinion and manipulation that has coated us systemically for decades. Writing, creating, and expressing with the intent to grow emotionally, instead of more and more mindless and detrimental consumption, has the power to free us from the spiritual shackles we have been nearly hopelessly confined by. More creation, less consumption.

On top of this incredible obligation to humanity, your book is going to be interesting, enlightening, and yours. In case you were wondering if anybody cares about what you have to say, let me assure you, a LOT of people do. More than you could ever imagine.

There is an audience for your book, no matter what the topic is. There is no person in this world who has an experience that would not be worth reading, if it is halfway well written. The fact that we could all write books doesn’t decrease the value, either. It’s not like, “If everyone is special, then noone is special.” Not at all. This is an infinite game. Abundance abounds.

It is more like, “Everyone is special because the magic of life lives in us all, how we let it back out is the only difference.”

Also, if you are worried about quality, you don’t need to be a professional because you can ask for help at the parts you need help on. Noone expects you to be able to do it all, you just have to have the story.

The book I just published, International Backpacking and Domestic Travel - What I Learned While Traveling the World: A Comprehensive “How To” Guidebook cost me around $600 to do all of the things I couldn’t or didn’t want to do. I paid $300 for line and grammar edits, $160 for formatting, and $130 for the cover, all from freelancers off of Fiverr.com. It was no big deal really, considering it took me almost 4 years to write it.

Consider your ideas and inspirations seriously, but don’t consider them in your head alone for too long. Get them out and into the tangible world, and do it soon. You will get better at it faster than you could have predicted if you are even mildly consistent.

We are in great need of your art, and the onus is on all of us, after all.

Paul Henning