I have yet to hear a newly birthed piece of honest writing that isn’t stunning.
I’m Joy Reichart, a writer, coach, and author of Soul Writing: Connecting to Essence. I facilitate writing groups to welcome words that come straight from the soul.
After five years of simply readying the space and then standing back in awe as sublime writing keeps being born on the first try (i.e., unpolished, unedited), I’ve started to think of myself as a sort of midwife… or doula? Or, I don’t know, who’s the person who lights the candles and then sits there slack-jawed at the miracle happening before their eyes?
That’s me.
A bit of my story…
From a young age, I found it difficult to trust myself or my voice. The world was so bombastic and confusing I couldn’t hear myself. I looked to whoever was loudest or strongest or in charge to know how I was supposed to be, what I was supposed to say. I abandoned what I knew was true in order to keep myself safe. I felt pulled apart all the time.
If I had anything important to say I put it in writing. It was the only way I could find out what was true for me and make others understand it. Quite naturally, writing followed me through my life and jobs—not because I was passionate about it, but because it provided the time and space for my thoughts come through clearly, without being battered about by the loud insistence of the world.
For the most part, all my writing stayed in journals, notes, emails, work stuff.
Then in my early 20s I met a teacher* who greeted everything her students wrote with unconditional welcome. It was there I found that when a group of people are writing the truth—and the group honors it—magic happens. Not only do we see the humanity we share (massively powerful and liberating in its own right), we get pointed back to ourselves. The truth of our souls is held up, just for a moment, as the holy thing it is. We see ourselves. We trust our voice.
I began to trust mine, and slowly, my writing began to peek its head out into the world in the form of essays, blog posts, guidebook blurbs, what have you.
* Me and my own writing midwife, Nancy Slonim Aronie, signing copies of our books for each other in 2024.
The start of Soul Writing
In 2020, almost two decades after having my own writer self invited back out into the world, I gathered an intrepid group of folks and we began this practice of Soul Writing: reaching beyond our brains, our critics, and our fears, writing from a place of knowing, and offering unconditional welcome to the words that come through our friends.
And what is it that comes through? Brilliance. We are consistently wowed by each other’s honesty, vulnerability, and unique genius. The more we write and read, the more words arrive, and the braver we get. Who we actually are blasts its way through all the ways we’ve twisted or shrunk or faked it or deluded ourselves.
The truth makes its way from our souls to the page. We discover we have things to say. We discover we are, indeed, writers.
Soul Writing has spread now beyond the core weekly group in the form of regular Mini-Retreats, plus regular groups and series, open to all.
My greatest joy is witnessing new groups of brilliant writers—most of whom don’t know just how brilliant they are yet!—engage in this practice of discovering their own voices and warmly welcoming each other’s.
Me these days
In addition to my close lifelong relationship with writing, I am certified as an Integral Coach: a method that works deeply with people at the level of their genuine longing and abundant wholeness. I am also a longtime student of martial arts, learning to harmonize with life and move through the world with grace.
I have a background in creative communications, and I still occasionally design websites and write copy for folks to keep my li’l’ hands in that space I find so fun and fulfilling.
Long walks are medicine for me, and the Camino de Santiago has become a place that feeds me like nothing else. I’ve been a few times, including co-leading groups there. Here’s some writing about those adventures.
The rest of my time is taken up by laughing with my husband at our two hilarious chihuahuas, getting better at cooking, and enjoying the beautiful spot in Northern California that we call home.