Proprioceptive Writing
In Writing the Mind Alive, the authors assert that “[i]f you practice Proprioceptive Writing, you’ll develop an awareness of the sound of your thinking. You’ll begin to imagine your thoughts as a persona with a voice” (Metcalf & Simon 16). Although Proprioceptive Writing should provide some benefit to everyone who uses the writing practice as taught in Writing the Mind Alive, the assertion that it will result in your thoughts becoming a persona with a voice is not universal outcome, as Metcalf and Simon failed to account for differences in individual personalities. What is Proprioceptive Writing? The definition from Proprioceptive Writing Centre website includes the following:
Proprioceptive Writing is a method for facilitating emotional health, spiritual awakening, creative breakthroughs, and better writing.
Proprioceptive Writing teaches you to listen to your thoughts with empathy and curiosity and reflect on them in writing, with the objective of achieving self-trust.
Other frequently reported benefits include: deepened powers of attention, increased self-confidence, greater intimacy and spontaneity in relationships, enhanced emotional health, awakened spirituality. Through Proprioceptive Writing, people increase their creativity and feel their minds expand, one of life's greatest pleasures. (Proprioceptive Writing Center)
Metcalf and Simon claim that each student they teach Proprioceptive Writing to believes “writing is profoundly linked to spiritual and mental health” (Intro. xxvi). Presumably then, people who do not share that belief, including myself, are not good candidates for succeeding with Proprioceptive Writing.
According to Metcalf and Simon, Proprioceptive Writing provides a framework for organizing and facilitating self-examination (Intro. xxv). That may be true, but not everyone requires such a framework. I personally feel, as I am sure many others do, that I already have the “heightened consciousness” and “emotional health” the can be garnered from Proprioceptive Writing (Intro. xxvii). I, along with others, also have excellent self-trust, which Metcalf and Simon believe is the foundation for the vast majority of worthwhile things in life, even though they claim self-trust is elusive for most people (1). If self-trust is the cornerstone for life’s worthwhile endeavours, and most people lack self-trust, humanity must be pretty sombre to Metcalf and Simon. I have self-trust because I appreciate the quality and function of my mind, and I have a profound sense for the person I am (Metcalf & Simon 1-2). My personality is naturally introverted, but I know when and how to be extroverted in order to achieve desired outcomes. People sometimes ask me why I do not talk more, or they may say that I should be more outgoing, but why would I conduct myself is a way that is counter to the core person I am and that I appreciate? Renowned for his scientific work on personality, psychologist Hans Eysenck published several works that concluded being introverted or extroverted is the result of neurophysiological arousal; an introvert's nervous system is more easily aroused than that of an extrovert's, resulting in extrovert’s needing more external stimulation. Therefore, there is no reason or desire for me to talk more or be more outgoing, as my body does not require that type of stimulation. When extroverts are physically alone, they for the most part feel lonely. Being along usually means peace and quiet for introverts.
Being an introvert is likely why I have strong self-trust, along with heightened consciousness and good emotional health, and is the reason I do not require a framework for self-examination. Some people may feel my life lacks external engagement, but I generally do not desire or seek external engagement as I want and have rich and active inner fulfillment because I truly enjoy thinking about and exploring my thoughts and feelings. Proprioceptive Writing is an exercise for people who have difficulty exploring their thoughts and feelings. Metcalf and Simon claim that the only way to enable proper reflection of one’s thoughts is through Proprioceptive Writing, as they devalue reflecting on spoken thoughts (18); however, they fail to acknowledge that some people—introverts like myself—are very capable of reflecting on their inner thoughts without speaking or writing.
The one downside I have noticed from my strong focus on inner reflection is there are times when I truly believe I or someone else said something in the recent past, but the reality of the situation was that the words were only part of my inner thoughts; the words were never actually spoken. This occurs because as an introvert, I imagine how future events and interactions with people will unfold, including playing out potential conversations in my mind so I can maximize the positive and minimize the negative aspects of each situation. This approach is simply a matter of using my times of solitude to re-energize and prepare, since over-stimulation can take energy away from me, making it difficult for me to function effectively.
Even if Proprioceptive Writing were the optimum way to achieve self-reflection of ones thoughts, Metcalf and Simon failed to account for the evidence that demonstrates writing about oneself or from an autobiographical perspective results in fictionalization, or at a minimum it never results in accurate literal representations. Hunt and Sampson explain that from research on memory, we know that memories are never true literal representations of events (22). They also reference several many others who share a similar viewpoint on the inaccuracies that result from writing about self. Ulric Neisser believes trying to remember the past results in “a mixture of fact and fiction, or even, on occasion, a complete fiction of our imagination (2). The research demonstrates “that the moment we put pen to paper to write about ourselves, we are producing a kind of fiction (Metcalf & Simon 22).
Given that Proprioceptive Writing involves writing about one self, it cannot be ignored that Proprioceptive Writing will result in every participant creating some kind of fiction. Thus, it seems inappropriate, even self-damaging, to use inaccurate personal self-reflections as a tool to achieve “heightened consciousness” and “emotional health”. However, obviously there is a time and place for fictional writing; therefore, Proprioceptive Writing appears to be an excellent tool for improving creativity in writing, including to help remove writer’s block.
Proprioceptive Writing is meant to occur in a stress-free and comfortable place, involving Baroque music and candlelight. Basically, it is a self-created area of solitude. Areas of solitude are fundamental to my inner thoughts and exploration, in which my happiness and energy is created; however, I do not need to physically create such an area, as is required for Proprioceptive Writing. I am in a place and mind solitude anytime I am not distracted by excessive external stimuli. This includes doing yard or house work, cooking, riding a bicycle, golfing, going for a walk, or any solo activity that allows me to be lost in my own thoughts for self-reflection. Additionally, I enjoy delving into and understanding, as much as possible, other people’s thoughts and related actions. This is likely why I thoroughly enjoy movies narrated in a first person narrative, including my favourite movie Shawshank Redemption. Just as first person narrative movies enable me to better understand other people’s thoughts, my introvertedness and the self-trust I have developed allows me to have a keen awareness and understanding of my thoughts, which Metcalf and Simon stress is the fundamental objective of Proprioceptive Writing (16). Perhaps I am being overly critical, as there clearly are benefits to Proprioceptive Writing. Unfortunately for Metcalf and Simon, Writing the Mind Alive is solely about the benefits of Proprioceptive Writing, as it does not suggest that other forms of writing or other approaches towards personal transformation are equally good, if not superior. They acknowledge that meditation and therapy are beneficial, but Metcalf and Simon stress that Proprioceptive Writing is the best way to achieve personal transformation (Intro. xxiii – xxix). Given that Proprioceptive Writing is their livelihood, it is understandable that Writing the Mind Alive feels like a sales pitch. They bestow Proprioceptive Writing as a personal saviour and a path to personal transformation that is needed my all. Please remember, Proprioceptive Writing is for people who believe “writing is profoundly linked to spiritual and mental health” (Intro. xxvi). Since some people believe that and some people do not, Proprioceptive Writing is not for everyone. Proprioceptive Writing provides a framework for self-examination, but there are many ways self-examination can occur, including meditation and therapy, and it would be inappropriate to dismiss or diminish other approaches of self-reflections, especially since mediation and therapy have long been established as effective tools for self-reflection. Furthermore, Proprioceptive Writing seems most appropriate for extroverts, as their physiology requires more external stimulation, resulting in minimal time for self-reflection, whereas introverts naturally include self-reflection as part of their make-up. Given all this, the quote from the beginning of this paper, which formed the basis for this paper should be revised as follows: If it is determined that you may be well-suited to benefit from Proprioceptive Writing, you may develop an awareness of the sound of your thinking and begin to imagine your fictitious thoughts as a persona with a voice.

WORKS CITED
Eysenck, Hans. Readings in Extroversion-Introversion: 3 Bearing on Basic Psychological
Processes. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1971.
Eysenck, Hans. The biological basis of personality. Springfield, IL: Thomas Publishing, 1967.
Hunt, C., and F. Sampson. The Self on the Page: Theory and Practice of Creative Writing in
Personal Development. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1998.
Metcalf, L., and T. Simon. Writing the Mind Alive: The Proprioceptive Method for Finding Your
Authentic Voice. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002.
Neisser, U. Self-narratives true and false. In U. Neisser and R. Rivush (eds) The Remembering
Self. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Proprioceptive Writing Center. n.p. n.d. Web. 08 Dec 2012.

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[ 1 ]. The movie Shawshank Redemption, based on the Stephen King novel Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, is narrated by Red (Morgan Freeman), an aging African man who spent most of his life in Shawshank prison after being convicted of murder. Although the movie illustrates some of the horrific realities of prison life, Shawshank Redemption is truly about the strength of the human spirit.