I always found blogging to be immensely therapeutic in its own way, so I made a commitment to journal regularly using Day One (which I love, by the way), to take that therapy a level deeper. I found that by simply writing down what I was struggling with was a way to get it out of my head, and either move past it, gain more insight by reflecting on it from a more “outside” perspective, or to simply track my personal progress on issues. When I’m struggling with certain things, I’ll often go back and search items tagged with that topic, and read what I wrote in the past. Sometimes the answer is already there and I’ve forgotten it, or it shows me what I need to work on more (yes, unfortunately there are some issues that just keep coming up). And I try not to wait until the end of the day to write. Why wait all day to change my mind when I’m hung up? I try to write in the moment.
Today I think I found a new focus for my writing. A friend shared this article from NPR, Editing Your Life’s Stories Can Create Happier Endings. As the title suggests, positive affirmations, or re-writing old stories in our heads, can have powerful outcomes. I often tell myself that I don’t have enough money, or that we’ll never have enough time to do “X”, or “that’s just how I am,” etc. So I want to try some focus writing on old issues or “stories” I’ve had, and re-write the endings so they match what I actually want. I’ve experienced how writing can change my mind, how I think, and even how I feel, and I’m willing to see if it can change other aspects of my reality.