... the road to July!

30 December, 2006

How can writing help in self healing?

Lately, with an internet connection up in my room, writing is something keeping me busy more than anything else. Keying in infinite combination of words within a couple of hours is a routine activity now but to derive out the satisfaction out of what I write is still a rare phenomenon. A few observations that I made during this process are:

1। Almost every time, composition din't come out the way I wanted it to be.

2. Many times I had a strong urge to write on a defined subject with lots of related threads in mind but soon as I gained the posture, mind just went blank & couldn't find anything structured to be written.

3. Out of whatever I write, its only 10% of all write-ups that I feel okayish about & give me sense of satisfaction.

4. Many times when I failed to articulate a subject appropriately, this definitely created some sort of restlessness and made me feel little aggravated.

Nevertheless, it’s an activity in isolation with nobody to comment/remark upon and there is nobody who is interrupting me as well (given that I write in isolation), then why do these patterns emerge at all? Does leaving someone irritated solely for not been able to write perfectly makes any sense? Neither it’s a competition nor a matter of recognition then where does this irritation finds it room to come in?

This suggests that the presence of irritation surely hints to something, something on a microscopic level. Now what remains unexplored is that something!

First of all not many people come to writing but the ones who do should ask themselves if it is by any chance an emotional outlet for them?

If the writing is meant to release your emotions or better to say to give a direction/channel to the emotions & feelings within your self, then I find convinced that getting irritated is no way unjustified. Playing with your emotions and feelings always directly/indirectly always creates some sort of chaos within the self.

Very simple, consider computer memory, it can be referenced either directly with the help of normal data-type variables or indirectly with the help of pointers (Now everyone knows how complex pointers are!). Similarly your emotions can be referenced indirectly with the help of writing, very much like pointers. You go little careless about them, they ensure to bring worst of the behavior on screen. It’s a kind of miniature simulation of human behavior.

Therefore, writing to express is as important as talking to somebody, listening to someone, visiting a hill station to chill out, hanging around a nearby pub or going out to a concert for a change. Doesn't this hint that writing is actually a means to heal oneself as well?

I believe it does! I also believe introverts cling more towards writing to release their emotions. Since I'm getting more n more comfortable with writing, it also is validating the fact for my own self that I am an introvert too. Cool! How easy it is to identify your own self with the arts of life!

Therefore, it is important to learn to be able to write effectively, compose it elegantly and articulate it appropriately. And whenever you experience that the composition is not coming the way you want, it may mean one of the following:

1.1. There are collisions happening among the thoughts to find preference.

1.2. You are not letting yourself free to write.

It is really important to learn here that grammar & punctuation mistakes shouldn't be looked after with a serious mood. It’s okay even if we have some, until you find it comfortable to read.

1.3. Emotions are still finding difficult to come in print. Let your mind loose & allow heart to take the complete control of the situation. Probably you are targeting a specific audience, forget that for a moment and think about those who would like to see this articulation.

You don't have to be an experienced or eloquent writer to get the self-healing benefits that the writing has to offer. The beauty of writing as a form of self healing is that it leaves no one offended. Self healing stems from honesty and expression of emotions and if you censor yourself while you write, the healing doesn't come out of the process. Style of writing also doesn't matter, it should just be written with single aim in mind - "to express honestly".

But why the strong urge doesn't lead to anything sometimes, certainly confuse me so much still!

To get best out of writing as a healing practice, I follow few of these ways.

1. Read your article continuously after every paragraph been written from top to bottom. Read slowly but loudly in a single go (making sure nobody is around to get disturbed). Don't know what's the science behind it but yes it certainly helps to a great deal.

2. Once the write up is complete as per the intuition, editing at last is certainly a good idea. The amusing aspect here is that the composition usually gets doubled or more than the original size under this process. Be open to add more feelings and jumble up the paragraphs completely up or down.

3. Giving a final reading to the write-up coming after a decent break of hours or a day if possible. Longer the break better it is!

I'm sure writing has the capacity to heal one's mind, heart & soul. I've seen it happening it with me and it’s much better a way than any other. Much better because eventually one has to heal his/her within self & its only through writing you express every tiny emotion and yet remain in the safest hands, that’s yours!

People who do not want to be open to others surely find it a wonderful means. That is only why I said, introverts are better at this than the others.

Disclaimer: I am not a writer by trade and therefore, cannot attest to the facts that I have mentioned above. To get any attestation done, either you need a professional help or at best just follow your intuition. Forgetting anything been mentioned here can also help one in writing to a great deal.

2 comments:

Sukriti said...

hey
nice post
one doubt remains.. if we are writing for self healing purpose , dont you think it should be written wihtout breaks.
the feeling doesn't remain so strong aftre all afetr some time

also writing well implies being introvert?

Piyush said...

How to write is the prerogative of the individual.

In my opinion, writing itself means introvert. Writing well may mean the same as well.