Maggie Smith on Poetry and Life Lessons

Apr 8, 2022

Maggie Smith, a renowned poet and bestselling author, shares her insights on navigating emotions and the complexities of self-acceptance. She discusses the importance of allowing feelings to surface without judgment and the transformative power of journaling. Maggie also delves into black-and-white thinking and the lessons learned from life's challenges, highlighting how writing helps capture observations and emotions. Her poetic perspective offers a compelling view on resilience and personal growth, showcasing the beauty found in both joy and struggle.

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ADVICE

Allowing Feelings to Pass

Let feelings come and go without judgment, recognizing they are not permanent.
Practice patience with your feelings, allowing them to pass naturally.

INSIGHT

Loosening the Grip on Black and White Thinking

Maggie Smith discusses her black and white thinking and how she's learning to loosen her grip on it.
She reflects on how this has influenced her parenting and personal life.

INSIGHT

Skillful vs. Unskillful

The concept of skillful vs. unskillful actions can be a more helpful framework than rigid right and wrong.
This allows for context and personal growth.

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Maggie Smith is a poet and author of the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change, as well as Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and Lamp of the Body. Maggie’s poems and essays are widely published and anthologized, appearing in Best American Poetry, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, the Washington Post, The Guardian, and elsewhere.

In this episode, Maggie Smith joins Eric and Ginny for a conversation about her poetry and learning about ourselves through life’s experiences

But wait – there’s more! The episode is not quite over!! We continue the conversation and you can access this exclusive content right in your podcast player feed. Head over to our Patreon page and pledge to donate just $10 a month. It’s that simple and we’ll give you good stuff as a thank you!

Maggie Smith and Ginny and I Discuss Poetry and Life Lessons and…

Allowing feelings to come and waiting them out
Her black and white thinking and working with her judgment
Asking what’s really at stake and what is the cost of saying yes instead of no
Keeping our inner critic in check
How we can learn to parent ourselves
The suffering that comes from judging our feelings that come up
Her Keep Moving Journal with many writing prompts
The lessons we can only learn from living through the tough times
Her poem, Goldenrod
Her desire to capture what she’s observing by writing it down
How she processes and gets at things on paper
Her poem, The Hum
The importance of turning up the self-compassion and turning down the self-criticism
Her poem, Wild

Maggie Smith links:

Maggie’s Website

Twitter

Instagram

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If you enjoyed this conversation with Maggie Smith, you might also enjoy these other episodes:

Writing for Healing with Maggie Smith (2021)

Finding Your Creativity with Julia Cameron

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