How you do anything is how you do everything – Zen proverb
Beginning to write about a difficult experience signals that we
have chosen hope rather than despair.
Conversely, when we’re in despair,
if we write we become more hopeful. – Tom O’Brien
The discipline of work provides an exercise bar,
so that the wild, irrational motions of the soul become formal and creative
– May Sarton
Writing is a way of recovering what is lost. - Isabel Allende
Emotional territory we live in and manage provides potential for writing. Our challenge involves allowing feelings to emerge as we write; to let ourselves experience them and use them to deepen our writing.
Often writing uncovers emotions that temporarily make us uncomfortable.
If we can tolerate these feelings, our writing will become enriched by the self-knowledge gained.
We need to dig in and take risks to explore unresolved puzzles or ongoing concerns. Artistic expression will provide range and depth of experience.
Writing about troubling life experiences makes us healthier and able to achieve a level of understanding of our lives that only writing can provide. In part, writing distracts us from our problems. Through writing, we cultivate the quality of absorption – becoming deeply immersed in our work. Writing regularly fosters resilience.
Writing as an observer, we regard our lives with a certain detachment and distance when we view it as a subject to describe and interpret.
1. Choose a quote above and begin writing.
2. Consider what puzzles, confuses, or troubles you. Make a list. Choose one topic from your list and then write from the perspective of the third person – “he or she.”
3. Think of “tangled emotions” – emotions where you feel conflicted. How can you write to untangle them?
4. Define someone else’s problem you’ve already solved. How did you solve it? How did you change your relationship to trauma? How did you transform despair into understanding?
Find strength in emotional territory.
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