How Writing is The Best Therapy The World Needs
Random thoughts from the last days after a good sprint of daily writing and publishing. I love how thoughts keep coming and going, so freely and spontaneously, out of any reasonable, logical or human control.
Could be middle of the day or middle of the night, the ideas come no matter when. Hence why I keep a pen and paper of any sorts next to me at all times. Whether it’s a long thought that needs working more than a few hours or days, or a sweet short read to release the mind, chest and soul.
Writing is so much a therapy. And by this I mean writing with pen/pencil and paper.
I have been telling my patients, friends, family, strangers, beloved ones and anyone who crosses my path how they can write anything in any given time. For the sake of enjoyment or maybe healing. For the sake of expressing that difficult feeling; for the sake of allowing an old memory to move from your heart and mind space to the outer space where it doesn’t occupy your life space any more.
I believe that writing is truly a healing therapy.
I’ve done it myself forever and it’s no surprise that my closest people who know me well, always acknowledge, even admire, my deep insight capacity. And I honestly think this is thanks to writing. More like journaling.
Journaling is writing with the knowing that no one in the world will ever read your deepest feelings and thoughts.
Journaling is knowing that anything you express is entirely and purely your own, without filters, without censure, without holding back and in complete privacy. Journaling is almost sacred, a sacred time you choose to spend with yourself and immerse into your inner world.
Journaling is truly one of the most healing ways to express ourselves, in absolute trust and confidence of our very own needs.
It can be happy, sad, tough, challenging, angry, thrilled, you name it. Whatever feeling so strong that needs coming out of your system is always worth journaling. Sometimes maybe even better than venting in the very first sprint to your closest ones.
Journaling about your inner world and experience makes you slow down and become an observer of yourself, like meditation.
Observing yourself without judgements, letting it all just flow out of your system. Journaling is like throwing plates nonstop against a wall, or screaming ravishingly at someone on a really bad day. Journaling makes you stop and become aware of yourself, your reactions to the world, your thinking, and with this all comes a marvellous and innate process of releasing and healing.
Everyone who has tried it agrees on how after journaling you’re overcome with a great feeling of lightness in the body, of relief, even gratitude.
No, you don’t need to be a writer to journal like this.
You might’ve never written or felt curious about it before but suddenly, on the rush of a moment you feel like you need to explode in ink on a blank paper.
Yes, journaling, just like painting, is an art.
An art that brings out feelings from the inside of you and into the outer world. Whether the world will see it or not, it’s your art, your feelings, your expression.
It is sacred and unique. Because it is YOU.
I never tire to recommend journaling as my main prescription as a Doctor.
Always joyful to see how many people seem surprised and willing to my recommendation. Most people never think of writing like a tool to express, vent, release and heal, yet when I explain its benefits to them, they all fully get it, leaving my consultation with a convinced desire in their faces to at least try. Certainly grateful faces for opening up their minds to something new in their worlds.
I am a doctor and also a writer. I have healed myself with more writing than pills I’ve ever taken. I have had tendencies to lean on sadness many times, yet I have never been diagnosed or prescribed something for depression, anxiety or any others, even though I’ve clearly gone through seasons of it all – like most people do. Not because humans are depressed but only because it’s human to have both happiness and sadness linger through us!
And it is indeed our own awareness and insight ability that helps sail through all the feelings and all the seasons, no matter how shallow or deep your feelings can be.
Writing takes time and effort, it’s true. Mostly an effort to be within yourself and this, my friends, is exactly the issue. In this modern fast-paced world, not many people embrace the stillness of who they are. And writing is precisely this.
When we write, we go within, quietly, calmly, free of judgments, just as an observer.
When we write, we watch and feel a lot. When we write we become our front-row audience to ourselves. It takes grip to do this. It takes an inner strength and desire to sit down and feel yourself.
Writing, oh my, writing is such a precious life tool. If only everyone could cultivate a small bit of this curiosity to use sometime in their lifetime, simply as a rescue tool or as a releasing or relaxing tool.
Because when we write we are called to pace down and space out. To call in our most comfortable and confident self to snuggle down and choose to swim in our waters. When we write we are called to be completely present, right there, with ourselves and no one else. Opposite to what happens when we all seem so rushed and addressing urgent life-or-death matters while grabbing the phone with our hands standing in the metro as it moves through to the next stop, and the next stop, and the next stop.
Life is so fast-paced in a way that has made us forget to look up as we walk. To see the people around us, the gestures, the events, the sun, the earth and life as it happens, right in front of our eyes. Instead, all we do is look down on a screen with a worried eyebrow gesture, so fatalistic, so empty; missing on so much that can easily show us how human we are and how great it is to connect with our eyes. A lost art indeed.
But when we stop down to write a page or two, a thought or two, we truly slow down, we look up, we enjoy the view, we sip a cuppa coffee or tea with gust, we breathe more deeply, softer, calmer. We might even share a smile or two, exchange a word or two. And this is just as beautiful and rare as life itself.
Yes, I do believe writing is just another way of meditating, and another way of treating any dis-ease of the mind.
I wonder what would happen if more doctors were prescribing small journals and a pen and more green walks around the park or the mountain or the beach rather than just anxiety pills.
We are missing a huge opportunity on giving people more life and less pills. More movement, air and awareness rather than just orange bottles with white and red capsules.
What we all need is to look up more, breathe more deeply, walk more slowly so that we can see the world again, without rush, without an unconscious suffering gesture on the face.
I know I have done this for myself as much as my patients, my friends, my readers. Every one of them can assure this, I’m sure.
So, may this post be an added source for me to plant in you a small curiosity seed about writing your feelings out when needed. You don’t need to become a writer or be one to do so. All you need is to have some feelings and a desire to flash out of the crowd, take some air and down time so that you can flush it all out. Spark it all out. Whatever your soul calls for. It will be deeply and forever grateful.
To more expressing our feelings in this fast world where all we need is less speed, more feelings and human connection.
Sincerely,
Mariana
Image Credit: Unsplash
