Meet Meredith Heller

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meredith Heller a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Meredith, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I started writing poetry and songs as a young teen, living on my own and struggling with issues of identity and meaning, like who am I, why am I here, and what really matters to me. I suffered with depression, overwhelmed by the intensity of my emotions, and I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere. Writing gave me a medium through which I could express everything I held inside, all the feelings that were too big, too heavy, the ones that were consuming me. I found that when I wrote, the act of naming my feelings, exploring every nuance and texture of what I was going through freed me and helped me to belong to myself. I found that I could write myself through my pain and confusion into clarity and acceptance. As I committed to a poem or song, and immersed myself in the creative process, the writing gave me something bigger than myself to live for. It held me like a lifeline. I wanted to share this lifeline with others.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I write books and lead writing workshops for a global community of women writers that focus on expressive writing as a tool for healing and self-discovery. My passion is empowering women to believe in themselves, trust their creative instincts, tap their wild wisdom, express their truth, and ignite their hearts. My books include Writing by Heart, Write a Poem, Save Your Life, and three poetry collections, Yuba Witch, River Spells, and Songlines. Join me for a workshop and express the wild beauty of your heart! www.meredithheller.com

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Inner resourcefulness, taking risks, trusting the process and the journey! Every career I’ve had has built on each previous one and together they weave a rich tapestry that allows me to show up and guide others. I was a bodyworker for 27 years which helped me tune-in deeply to others, then I taught music and dance to children which trained me to be a leader and work with groups, then I was a poet in the schools which developed my capacity to make writing invitations fun and dynamic. Follow what makes your heart sing, try as many different things as you like, nothing is ever lost, everything we do grows our capacity, trust that all the different puzzle pieces of your life have a deeper intelligence, trust your own process.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I feel overwhelmed every time I start something new! I do it anyway. We can’t be afraid of fear. We have to befriend it and walk hand in hand with it. For me, moving my body is essential. Walking, biking, swimming, dancing. It gets my out of my head. I can sit for two hours and have no idea about what to do for a workshop, but 20 steps into a walk, and I have the whole picture. Also, allow your own cycle of fruitful and fallow. We need both to be whole. The fertile darkness is underrated in this culture, and yet it’s where every new seed, idea, and dream germinates.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.meredithheller.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meredith.heller.5

Image Credits

For pics 1, 2, 3, please credit: Vaschelle André