How Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment Nourishes My Soul
Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment began as something I made for other people. It was a way to offer a small, regular practice to writers, journalers, and creative souls who wanted to tend their inner life alongside their other writing and creative work. But somewhere along the way, it became one of the primary ways I tend my own soul too. If I pay attention, I can see how much it helps me breathe, slow down, think, journal, write, and put myself in the way of art, music, poetry, and all kinds of good ideas.
Most days begin with a kind of fullness I don’t consciously choose. There’s email, news, group texts, logistics, Instagram, whatever is happening in the wider world that feels urgent and loud. Preparing and engaging with Daily Nourishment interrupts that pattern. The simple act of opening the day’s offering—reading a quote, pausing, sitting with a poem or a piece of art—reminds me that my life is more than the rush of tasks and a list of things to do for my writing and work.
When I engage with the SDW Daily Nourishment’s Pause, Prompt, and Practice give me a different first voice to listen to.
The breathing practices and other pauses are usually pretty simple. Six-count inhale, six-count exhale. A minute or two of rest. I know they’re short, but they still help me shift into a more thoughtful posture. When I notice my shoulders dropping and my jaw unclenching, I also notice how much my body needs this time to slow down, too. The pause in each Daily Nourishment doesn’t fix my life, but it marks out a sacred pocket of time where my body gets a vote too. My lungs receive my attention and I listen to whatever they want to say about how the day will go. In that sense, even the breathing is its own kind of prayer: nothing elaborate, just attention and kindness toward a body that’s doing a lot of work.
After the pause, there’s usually a poem, a passage, or a piece of art. Poems from recent SDW Daily Nourishment offerings have been by Joy Harjo, Ada Limón, Hanif Abdurraquib, and Marie Howe. Recent art has been by Carrie Mae Weems, Jacob Lawrence, and Ricky Swallow. Music might show up in the form of a Bach trio or a song that feels like it belongs with the words. These pieces are not decoration—they are nourishment. They put me in the way of beauty, complexity, and presence when I might otherwise stay stuck inside my own head.
Art, music, and poetry enlarge the room I live in. They remind me that other people have thought about time, grief, joy, injustice, and hope long before I woke up today. When I’m tempted to feel isolated in my questions, the Daily Nourishment offerings connect me to a lineage of voices. They tell me I’m not the first person to wrestle with waiting, with hope, with the limits of language, with the tension between celebration and lament. That sense of being accompanied is always welcome because the loneliness I feel can be real and intense.
Then there are the questions. Daily Nourishment is built around prompts that invite reflection rather than performance. They don’t ask me to produce something impressive; they ask me to pay attention. What are you waiting for? Which stories make you feel less alone? When has laughter felt holy? How do you put yourself in the way of light? How do you hope for hope?
Questions like these help me think in a slower, deeper way—one that honors my heart, mind, and soul instead of treating them like obstacles to productivity. Journaling or writing into them for ten minutes often reveals things I didn’t know I knew: the grief I’ve been avoiding, the joy I forgot to celebrate, the tension I’ve been carrying in silence, the desire I had decided was too inconvenient to admit.
Engaging regularly with SDW Daily Nourishment also keeps me close to the page. A lot of my life is about writing, but that doesn’t mean I always feel like a person who is actually writing. The practice of setting a timer for ten or fifteen minutes and answering a few questions lowers the bar. I don’t have to write a finished essay or poem; I just have to show up. In those small, consistent sessions, my identity as a writer feels less conditional. I’m reminded that being a writer is not only about publication or word counts—it’s about returning to the page as a way of returning to myself.
One of the gifts I didn’t anticipate is how much Daily Nourishment helps me belong to time. Each day’s piece is short, but repeated over weeks and months, it becomes a rhythm. I am better prepared to notice the seasons in my creative life, the liturgical calendar moving in the background, the public holidays that bring their own complicated mix of joy and grief. Attending to those rhythms in small daily ways helps me treat time less like an enemy and more like a companion. There is always another day to return to the practice. There is always another moment in which to breathe, read, listen, and write.
When I sit with the SDW Daily Nourishment, I also feel myself inhabiting a wider tradition of art and faith. Many of the poets and artists I turn to are asking spiritual questions even when they don’t use overtly religious language. They’re wrestling with mystery, suffering, belonging, and the possibility of love in difficult worlds. Letting their work touch my own questions keeps my spiritual life from shrinking. It reminds me that the divine is not confined to explicitly “religious” spaces—that it can show up in a poem, a painting, a song, a sitcom clip full of laughter, or a small observation scribbled in my journal.
In that way, SDW Daily Nourishment is not just content I make to help others notice the intersection between their creativity and spirituality; it’s a contemplative practice I engage. It helps me breathe when the day feels tight. It slows me when everything else seems to be speeding by too fast. It invites me to think, journal, and write in ways that honor complexity rather than flatten it. Daily Nourishment puts me in the way of art, music, poetry, and good ideas, trusting that these things can change us in ways we cannot always measure.
Much of flourishing anyway—in the middle of stress, grief, ordinary tasks, and the long work of creative life—comes down to where we place ourselves. Daily Nourishment places me, again and again, in the path of what is good for my soul. It doesn’t demand dramatic transformation. It simply invites me to breathe, look, listen, write. It tells me: You are here. You are not alone. You can flourish anyway.
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Much love to the creative souls. May we flourish anyway today and all days.
💚Charlotte
P.S.
See the latest FREE Spiritual Direction for Writers® Daily Nourishment offering here.
See my most recent doses of art at A Daily Dose of Art.
Check out my All of This & More podcast here. (New episodes coming soon!)
About Charlotte Donlon
Charlotte Donlon is a writer, spiritual director, and gatherer whose work centers on helping people explore themes of belonging, artful encounters, spiritual growth, and how to Flourish Anyway®, even when life is full, busy, or chaotic. Her work has woven together themes of belonging, art, and soul exploration for more than 25 years. With a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing (2015-2018), a certificate in spiritual direction (2018-2020), and a life coach certification (2026), Charlotte guides writers and other creative souls in developing sanctuaries of acceptance and connection.
A Christian in the Episcopal church who believes the tenets of the Nicene Creed, Charlotte employs a universal framework of belonging and connection in her spiritual direction work. She fosters meaningful, soulful conversations and gatherings that are welcoming to all—regardless of faith tradition or spiritual inclinations.
In 2020, Broadleaf Books published Charlotte's first book, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other.Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life is slated for release by Here Below Books in September 2026. Three volumes of Charlotte's "Guidebooks for the Soul"—Take More Retreats, The Great Belonging Project, and Belonging Through Art—will also be published in 2026.
As the founder of several initiatives, Charlotte has established herself as a thought leader and an authentic presence at the intersection of creativity and spirituality. Her essays have been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, and The Millions, among others. A new essay about art conservation, Joan Mitchell, and mystery is forthcoming with Image journal.
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Flourish Anyway® is Charlotte’s online hub for all of her writing, spiritual direction, small press, gatherings, and other offerings.