Why Write?
As I was exploring what to write about this week, I came across Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s blog post “Why I Write - and Why You Should Too”. She’s a successful writer and a popular one - 100,000 people have had eyes on her posts, something she never expected to happen when she began writing once a week.
The question she asked herself after reaching this milestone was “would I keep on writing if no one ever read my words?”.
Of course the answer was yes!
“Writing is a way to create meaning.
Writing allows us to craft our own world, to untangle our thoughts, to design our own mental models, to make sense of our lives. Writing lets us turn fluttering thoughts into little vessels that may take a life of their own once outside our minds.”
The benefits to writing, any kind of writing, are many. For some writing isn’t a choice - it’s a calling, it’s in their bones.
Some writers create a writing process to follow. The one that comes to mind immediately is “Morning Pages” created by Julia Cameron, who encourages daily stream-of-consciousness writing - 3 pages of non-stop writing in the morning, designed to increase creativity.
And, then there’s the blogging that goes on, my own included! Writing a blog is one way to express one’s inner thoughts, offer support and encouragement, share political viewpoints, teach about writing and other things close to one’s heart, and, of course, can be a tool to entice readers into a membership or to sign up to a newsletter. (Here’s where I shamelessly invite you to join my newsletter The W.I.S.E.R. Woman’s Guide)
Another author, Laura Davis, uses writing prompts to write, as does Tanya Lynch, creator of EASE Retreats. Both women host writing retreats that target and support women with a desire to grow, learn, and write, whether in a journal or to write a memoir.
The International Association of Journal Writers offers courses, journaling sessions, books, a blog, and a strong community of people whose common goal is to journal. Their mission is “to inspire your creative self-expression and life enrichment through journaling!”
My friend and writing mentor, Helen, creator of Ageless Possibilities, facilitates autobiographical and life story writing. I’m about to embark on my second session with Helen who’s themes and quotes inspire us to write our life’s stories two pages at a time.
I discovered therapeutic/reflective writing a year ago. It was quite by accident that I came across a course on therapeutic/reflective writing offered by the Professional Writing Academy. Each week we explored the use of curated prompts, poetry, a variety of authors’ writing to explore our inner worlds and help tap into our creativity.
There was no worry about spelling or grammar, just the opportunity to scratch the surface of something or take a deep dive into the unconscious world of limiting beliefs, old patterns, changes that were happening or, we discovered, needed to happen.
It didn’t surprise me that many of us were able to unearth core challenges that remained hidden until a line from a poem or a weekly prompt triggered its emergence.
The magic is in then having a choice as to what comes next, what next steps one can take to resolve or transform what’s been hidden or buried and now no longer needs to exist to keep one stuck.
Unless you’re working with a therapist/counsellor and using this type of writing as part of the therapeutic process, therapeutic/reflective writing is therapeutic, but it is not therapy.
And yet, it is amazing at the insight, change, and transformation that can happen with this simple but powerful tool.
This brings me to how writing regularly impacts our mental health. Through this simple practice, we’re able to reduce our stress - there’s something about physically putting pen to paper and getting our thoughts and feelings out of our head and onto the page that helps regulate our emotions and clear our minds.
Using therapeutic/reflective prompts in our writing, we’re able to become more self-aware, view situations and challenges from other perspectives, and open up new ways of seeing our way forward.
Other types of prompts such as music, art, poetry, videos are also utilized in therapeutic/reflective writing to elicit feelings, allowing us access our subconscious, a place we have a hard time getting to when our cognitive mind is fully engaged.
As I was walking (another great way to connect inward), I wondered how to describe therapeutic/reflective writing to you, to share what can happen when we “arrive at the page”.
This is what my hands wrote:
I arrive at the page, uncertain of my words.
With deep breaths and taps on my body
I ask for space to allow – allow my mind to rest and relax,
Allow my deeper brain to come alive,
Taking me places I wouldn’t normally go.
I arrive at the page, grateful to write what matters to me,
Free to misspell and scribble my way into the depths of my soul,
where unknown wisdom is hiding, waiting to emerge, open
to being seen.
I arrive at the page, inviting my rage to emerge,
raw and untethered,
wild like the sea in a storm that breaks on the rocks with
such force, a force to be reckoned with and respected.
I arrive at the page, ready to explore this resistance holding me back,
To uncover how life might be transformed with more ease
with a gentle nudge from a prompt that says, “it’s ok, go
ahead.”
I arrive at the page, trusting the words will come
And what I’m meant to write will find its way -
A journey from heart to head to ink on the page.
I’m here at the page, writing until I no longer have anything to say.
If you haven’t experienced a therapeutic/reflective writing session, I highly recommend it. No writing experience needed - just an open mind, a dash of curiosity, and your favorite pen and journal.
Join me in The W.I.S.E.R. Woman’s Guide where you’re invited to explore themes and write from carefully crafted prompts - and you’ll be the first to know about upcoming Tap and Write Circles.
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Thanks for reading!
Joan
Whenever you are ready, there are three ways I can support you:
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