The Gift Of Expressive Writing, Everyone Can Do It

Today, like every day, I am grateful for my ability to use expressive writing as my cheerleader and best friend when I have things to deal with on life's fascinating, but unpredictable journey.

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The ability to express myself and pour out my emotions into my poems and stories, is the way I navigate many of my life's ups and downs, and I feel truly blessed. Writing things down is a very healthy form of expression to help deal with a multitude of things, and you can benefit from this form of writing, too.

For several months I have been dealing with recovery after a split-second, freak accident which completely changed the direction of my life, at least for the foreseeable future. My ability to take that event, with all the traumatic and painful situations following the accident, has been supported by the hours of writing my poetry as I processed, made peace with, and have been slowing moving forward with recovery since that fateful day.

Expressive writing has not only helped me through this traumatic life blip, but with many periods of tough stuff and through life-altering situations over the years.

This form of writing, specifically referred to a "expressive writing", is scientifically proven to help people deal with, get through and work towards accepting life-altering scenarios, and I highly recommend you try it if you are faced with a tough situation.

Writing about traumatic things in your life is a means for you to process the situation, work through to supportive solutions, and to purge the raw and painful emotions that are intertwined. Being able to express yourself is also a means to be able to wake up every day in a rough patch and have a means to mentally and proactively help yourself to face whatever is being thrown at you.

One of my books, Your Power To Heal Is Real, (an ebook now available on Amazon), was a collection of poems, affirmations, and methods I used to help myself heal from this or that over the years, and, upon occasion, to help someone else. When asked to share, or write something for someone who needed some support, I realized there was a book in there somewhere, and that I could compile and publish it, and make it available to help and support more people. (Who knows, maybe this collection of poems I have been writing since my recent accident might end up turning into another book along the same lines? In the meantime, my poems are getting me through each day as I travel my path to recovery.)

One of the things I do when I write one of my supportive poems or affirmations is that I find a beautiful piece of music within my digital music library, and then I record my written poem with the music to an app. Later I can listen to whenever I recorded ( with or without headphones) as I feel the need for some personal support. A bonus is that the recording plays back in my own voice, which makes the words have more impact, seemingly like I am my own pocket therapist whenever I want, which feels very powerful. Even as I lay in the hospital last year, I was able to enjoy and reap the benefits of my poetry as I lay there (headphones on), trying to deal with everything. (I read my book, too, Your Power To Heal Is Real, which also helped to get me through each immediate painful and traumatic day, with both the supportive and positive words, and also by enjoying the beautiful and uplifting, accompanying photographs.)

My advice to you...try writing down (on paper, in a journal or on a digital device) your thoughts as you deal with some tough life stuff. Don't worry about spelling, grammar or sentence structure or for anything else, because you will be the only one reading it, (unless you choose to share it). That act of writing and expressing your thoughts and feelings will inevitably help you as you face whatever life has thrown at you. It is a way and means for you to let things out, and that is very healthy and extremely helpful. (This would also be a good time to consider starting a Gratitude Journal, wherein you can write a few positive entries about your day as a means of highlighting your most positive moments. That is very uplifting when things are tough, and lets you focus in on positive thinking.)

Go ahead and try it. I can certainly vouch for the wonderful therapeutic and positive outcomes that come from being able to express yourself, while purging your raw emotions. Expressive writing is a valuable tool in your toolbox for life!

Cheers! Lise

*photo courtesy of gabrielle hendersen on unsplash