Writing Heals

I have been writing on blogs now for almost 10 years.  I initially started doing it, to help others, feeling like I had knowledge to share, and a blog was a great place to share it.  I had followers that reached all over the world, and made some great contacts, but it was still not my love.  Later when I really started writing, just to write, is when I felt the healing process in my own life begin.  The research says that writing can reduce the healing time, both emotionally and physically, by 50%. In my opinion, it can be even more than that.


I gotta admit, a couple of years ago, I started a blog called Walk the Creek, which is now meshed in with this blog.  I  started it because I was really struggling with some depression and feeling lost in life. I needed a place to sort my thoughts and feelings.  I needed a place to help me feel better, and if in the process I helped someone else, then bonus.  I started writing about ways people could feel happier, be more secure with life, love life, and in the process, I began to love life again.  

Writing about your thoughts, experiences, and emotions are all part of how we can begin to heal.  Think of the things you like to read about.  If  you are struggling with your marriage, does it help you to read about someone else who is winning the battle, someone who you can relate to?  If you struggle with employment, children, abuse, mental health, or any aspect of life, does it help to know there is someone else out there going through similar challenges and you can heal from connecting with them?  I guarantee if you feel like you need to heal, start writing about the process, and amazing things will start happening for you.  The healing process will begin.

You can write online, a blog if you want.  There are many different places you can start a blog for free, and I won't go into them all here simply for lack of time, and space, suffice it to say the options are many.  If you prefer not to write on a blog, then go to the local dollar store and pick up a coil notebook or two and start writing.  I have the habit of carrying a notebook with me almost everywhere I go.  I say almost because sometimes I forget it, and on those times, I always find something I wish I could have written down.  My memory isn't all that anymore, and inevitably when I want to remember something I saw or heard, I don't.  

Write about the hard stuff.  Write about the things that hurt.  Be willing to open up your inner self, and you will begin to heal.  Write about the good stuff.  Write about the happiness, even if it is found through the hard stuff.  Fill your notebooks with quotes, inspiration, and wisdom.  Write about things that you see, hear, feel, and experience.  Write about things you read and learn.  Give yourself freedom to write about anything at all, there are no limits.  It is your notebook, your blog, your journal, your novel, yours to do what you want to do with it, and in the process, whatever healing you need, it will come.  It may come slowly over time and you don't even realize it, until one day, you wonder how you got to that place.  It may come suddenly, when you have an "aha" moment, that answers all your prayers you have been sending out there.  

Whatever way the healing comes, and whatever way you choose to write about it, is entirely up to you.  If I have learned one thing over the last 10 years of my consistent writing, it is this.  Write you.  Yes, write you.  You are different than anyone else out there.  Don't try to do it the same way someone else has, it won't work.  You need to do it your way.  It may be the same subject, but I guarantee when you find your flair, your niche, you will write what works for you, and you will find healing in the process.

I tried writing to make money, like so many blogs out there, but it wasn't who I am.  I tried writing about "popular" niche topics because I thought it would draw more traffic to my blogs. I just got burned out because I didn't love what I was doing.  I tried writing about my hobbies, but they change as I change and learn.  It wasn't until I started writing just to write about what I feel, and even more importantly because I loved it, that I started to heal inside.  It is a journey.  It is a journey that nobody controls except you.  

My healing journey has led me to a place in my life where I can honestly say, I have an inner peace that I didn't have a few years ago.  Did it all of a sudden appear?  Nope.  It has come one day at a time as I watch little children experience new things.  It has come one day at a time as I have learned to accept life for what it is and embrace the good, let the bad roll off.  Has there been ups and downs?  Definitely.  Some days I don't want to write on my blog, and I go for a couple of weeks where I don't.  I write in my notebooks.  I write on my novel.  I write somewhere else because I don't feel like I want to share on my blog, and that's okay.  So many times, I have read how you need to write consistently to have readers follow you, and not lose your audience.  Well I have finally come to realize, that is not why I write. I don't care about the audience.  I care about what I want to write, and those who want to heal along with me.  I care about writing because I love to write.  It is who I am. 

Write for you.  Write how you want.  Write to be healed.  Don't write for others, write for you.  In the process of you being healed, you will be writing for others as well, for they will find you and you will heal each other.  In the end, what you want will come out, and if that is to be a great writer, then that will happen too.