Friends,
Tomorrow at noon Mountain Time, I’m offering a free webinar so you can experience Writing the Heart for yourself.
A few years ago, if you’d told me that I would be leading a community like this, I don’t think I would have believed you.
For most of my life, I was an adventure writer. I chased stories across the world for magazines like Outside, National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times Magazine, and others. My reporting took me to India, Palestine, Greenland, the Amazon, Indonesia, and dozens of other places. I climbed
mountains, crossed deserts, followed rivers, sat with shamans and monks, and spent years convinced that the next journey might reveal something essential about how to live.
What I eventually discovered was that the most interesting terrain I’d ever explore was much closer to home. It was the landscape of memory, meaning, loss, joy, purpose, and the stories we tell ourselves about our lives. That’s where Writing the Heart came from.
Despite the name, you don’t need to be a writer, a seeker, or a particularly emotional person to benefit from this community. In fact, many members arrive skeptical. Some join because they want to write a memoir. Others come because they want a reason to slow down and reflect in a world that rarely encourages either. Some are looking for a creative practice. Others are simply looking for a community where people speak honestly about their lives.
Every week, we gather on Zoom. We begin with a brief meditation, check in with one another, and then I share a passage from a memoir, essay, or poem that I love. I pull a few lines from the reading and offer them as jumping-off points. Then we write for twenty minutes and gather again to share whatever emerged on the page.
The process is remarkably simple, but the results continue to surprise me. People remember stories they had forgotten. They discover connections between events that once seemed unrelated. They gain clarity about challenges they’re facing. They uncover gratitude, grief, humor, wisdom, and sometimes entirely new ways of understanding their lives.
One woman joined last August and has since written an 80,000-word memoir largely from material that emerged during these sessions. Others have no desire to write a book. They come because the practice helps them hear themselves more clearly. They come because life moves quickly, and this gives them ninety minutes each week to pause, reflect, and pay attention.
Part of the reason I call this community Writing the Heart is that I’ve become increasingly interested in the relationship between thinking and feeling. We live in a culture that prizes analysis, productivity, and certainty. Those things matter. But I’ve found that some of the most important decisions in my life emerged from a deeper conversation between intellect and intuition, between what I think and what I know.
Scientists now understand that the heart and brain are in constant communication. Long before modern science, poets, memoirists, contemplatives, and philosophers were exploring that same territory through story, observation, and lived experience. Whether we approach it through science, psychology, writing, or simple curiosity, most of us recognize that there is a difference between merely thinking about our lives and genuinely listening to them.
Writing the Heart isn’t about abandoning reason. It’s about bringing more of yourself into the conversation. It’s about becoming curious about your own life. It’s about paying attention to the experiences that shaped you and finding the courage to tell the truth about them.
The word courage comes from the Old French “coeur,” meaning heart. I’ve come to believe that courage isn’t certainty. It isn’t having all the answers. Courage is vulnerability. Courage is the willingness to look honestly at your life and put words to what you find there.
Leading this community has become my passion and purpose. After decades of searching for stories around the world, I find myself most energized by helping people discover the stories they already carry within them. Again and again, I’ve watched people surprise themselves with what emerges when they slow down, write, and share their words in the company of others.
Tomorrow’s webinar will give you a chance to experience the process firsthand. We’ll do exactly what we do in class. I’ll share a reading, offer a prompt, and we’ll write together.
Thursday, June 18
12:00 PM Mountain Time
11:00 AM Pacific
1:00 PM Central
2:00 PM Eastern
7:00 PM UK
Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_anb5IXvRTzOGFrbaCZn7Tg
Whether you’re working on a memoir, looking for a meaningful writing practice, or simply interested in understanding yourself a little better, I’d love to have you join us.
Warmly,
Brad
If you haven’t bought my memoir, Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing, yet, I hope you will.
Here’s what author Hampton Sides wrote about it:
“Brad Wetzler has led the very definition of an adventurous life, but in Into the Soul of the World, he gives an unflinching account of his interior adventures. Wetzler’s soulful quest, by turns anguished and transcendent, will resonate with readers around the world who struggle to find purpose and a sense of the holy in the ambient jitter of the digital age.”
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