I have always loved paper: whether the paper of books (nothing will ever beat them nor replace them), or a simple but beautiful white sheet of paper.

I love the smell of books: new books in their shiny pristine aspects (in particular hardcover books, especially US editions), and old books (especially those on the Quais de Seine in Paris, in old book stalls in French villages or in my grandmother’s house in Provence).

I also love blank paper.

A blank sheet of paper is a blank canvas.

A blank canvas is the possibility for Creation.

It is a universe waiting to be created.

It is a new world waiting to be born.

A formula for Reality

Michael Neill, in Creating the Impossible (p. 252), gives the following formula for how our own personal reality is created based on Syd Banks’ explanation in The Enlightened Gardener Revisited:

Mind + Consciousness + Thought = Reality

He goes on to explain how to create a new reality for ourselves:

Mind + Consciousness + New Thought = New Reality

I would add that if it stays at the level of thought (i.e. in your head), it might stay there. A thought or idea needs a bridge to the material world, to start becoming manifested:

Mind + Consciousness + New Thought + Writing = Manifested New Reality

(You can replace “Writing” by “Drawing/Sketching/Doodling/Painting”)

Writing/drawing can be a remarkable bridge to getting your ideas out of your head and into the world.

Writing in the World

Think about it:

You can have a list of things you want to buy in your mind, but when you make a shopping list, not only do you declutter your mind (by outsourcing this psychic weight onto paper), but you increase the chances of these groceries materializing as you go shopping.

If you have a to-do list, same thing.

If you feel overwhelmed by all the things you have to do, important deadlines and projects, you can organize your to-do list into the Eisenhower Matrix (learn more about this tool here, and download a template here.). Within 10 minutes, what you thought would take weeks to do might take only a couple of days (yes, that’s part of becoming a Time Master).

It all starts with a pen and paper.

Now here are other magical things you can do with a pen and paper:

-Send a handwritten letter to someone you love

-Send a thank-you note to someone who did something that really helped you

-Create a piece of art worth 5000 Francs, on a paper napkin, just like Picasso did (story here)

-Scribble down ideas for a new project

-Journaling on your thoughts, feelings and aspirations

-Organize your thoughts, time, goals in a Bullet Journal

-Do some Morning Pages, as explained by Julia Cameron in The Artists’s Way

-Use the reMarkable to write as much as you want without using any paper and keeping all your documents organized !

If you would like to know more about the power of writing, read my article on routines that changed my life and go straight to point #10 on writing (link here).

The paper is the canvas on which a new reality can be unfolded.

That’s what happens when you sign a contract: you bind yourself to an agreement. You make a commitment.

The pen is the bridge between your consciousness, your intention, and the material world. It is a medium to transcribe thought, ideas and images into physical reality. It is a bridge from higher dimensions (4^th, 5^th and above), to the 2^nd and 3^rd dimensions (we could debate whether writing is flat in the 2^nd dimension or still is a bit of a bump on paper and happens in the 3^rd dimension. It doesn’t matter in the context of this conversation).

How do you use your creative power?

How do you use the power of writing, drawing, sketching and doodling?

What would you love to create?