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Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Hi all,

I have found throughout the course of my life that writing has been a constant companion to me. It has provided me with a way to vent my frustrations, to grapple with the eternal verities of life that confound and delight me, to explore ideas and concepts, and to try to put into words the often chaotic moods and thoughts that result from having a mind that's a little bit odd...

I have written lots of poems, especially in the last 3 or 4 years, dealing with depression and bipolar. They help me to process and understand some of the things that are happening in this twisted little noodle of mine. As such, writing has become one of my main forms of therapy.

One of the best things that I find about writing is that it can act as a kind of mood diary. I can read things that I had previously written, and it will quite often map out where I was at during the time of writing. The words I spread across the page act as signposts of my progress, too. As my self knowledge increases and my life journey progresses, I find that it affects how I write and what I write...

Often, we do not see the thousands of tiny little changes to our selves that our life experiences cause over the years. It can be very helpful to re-read old writings, in order to see how far we have come, what we have improved, where we have fallen back into old harmful habits, and the things that we have learned.

The language that we use in our writings and in our thoughts and in our speech is very important. It can reveal a lot about our selves, our states of mind, and our moods...

That language, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I believe that we attract certain kinds of people around us, and create (or at least influence) life situations based on our choice of language. It helps define who we are as a person.

Negative thinking, self-deprecation, self-hatred, these sorts of dangerous life traps are often revealed in our choice of words. So too are the positive things. It all starts with a glass. How we describe the glass and the quantity and quality of its contents, that's where language comes into it, and it can shape our very lives and the lives of those around us.

Writing... it is my solace and my main tool of self-analysis. It is my favourite form of therapy...

2932 replies

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In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Relationsh!ts and loathe affairs...

Powerful poetry @GonePirate

I hope you keep writing it out.

Better for the soul than Red Absinthe

But looking for anaesthesia is understandable ........

Thinking of you, and wishing you some peace of heart, m'hearty.

⚓️ ⚔ ☠

In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Too right @Silenus

We have enough of our own stuff to carry around through life - whatever it is - financial stress, anxiety and depression, PTSD. chonic pain - Fibromyalgia, chronic fatiques syndrome etc etc etc

And we don't need someone else dragging us back - hey - let them have their own hang-up, regrets and let them live in their world of limited understanding

Those of us who feel lost in the surf are gradually winning I think - it's maybe a tortoise and hare thing - but if we are going to get to the end learning as we go - we are better off not dragging people like that behind us

It's dead weight

Decadian

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Hi @Decadian 😊

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

I wonder if anyone will mind if I write therapeutically an occasional diary in this thread. Testing the water, here goes...

Stiff, aching legs on waking. Still aching. Oh for the days when I used to walk on the beach. It seems I may have walked on the beach too much. Walking off the blues, waking up a body that had been in hibernation for years. One of the possible problems with them now, I'm told, is that I walked barefoot all that time. But I thought it was good for us to walk barefoot. It was a great pleasure to walk that borderline between earth and sea, the waves lapping at my feet. I wonder if it's something I'll be able to experience much again. If not, I will try and be grateful I had those years of lapping waves kissing troubled sole.

Back in my cave, today I finally achieved direct contact with the writer whose piece I have adapted for the latest video I've put together. She was too busy to watch immediately but has said she will give it her attention by tomorrow. Then she will say yay or nay on whether I can share it beyond my living room. Now I'm just afraid she will forget about it in her busy-ness. This writer happens to have a substantial reputation, even internationally, and so her incentive to be glad or even much notice my little piece may be small. Usually I make videos from the work of writers who are unknown or not very much known, like myself.

The other unusual thing about this one is that it is the first piece I have made that is very much about Australia. Previously, I have mostly put together videos about more personal, universal issues, often from people writing in other countries. For some reason, the Australian-ness of this video has me feeling more vulnerable, wanting more for approval. Hard to say why without going into a lot more detail. Suffice to say, I do not always feel comfortable or accepted in my own country.

This writing may be the closest I get these days to rants. I usually suppress a lot of my emotions in real life. Writing of this kind helps to release some of the feeling I have stored up inside. I still never tell my deepest stories though. They seems too strange to reveal to anyone really, too potentially controversial, too archetypically between me and the dead.

Without being suicidal, death is often on my mind.

As is life.

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Glad you are getting attention for your work @Mazarita

Our Australianness is delicate for me .. and always has .. you are on of the first women of my own age who I have had some good nostalic reflections with .. about Melbourne and Oz film .. thanks bella ..

Sorry about your legs ... I used to be a barefoot queen and still often garden in the summer in bare feet.. unless I need to dig.

Maybe the beach walk will be less frequent but I hope you still can get there ... knowing you were there .. helped me imagine I was ... talk about living viscerally through others ..duh ...

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Yes, I have enjoyed our cultural proximity too, @Appleblossom. I thought of you when I was writing about my difficulties with my nationality. I am really sulking about my legs at the moment, feel a kind of mourning process setting in about how bad they are. I did ballet and used to dance a lot when I was younger, so much pleasure and release in that. So to feel my legs failing me is a painful thing aside from the physical pain. Nostalgia is a good compensation in some ways though. Memories are so important to our lives. They can be melancholy or joyful and everything in between. But they are as present as dreams in my experience, and life would be far poorer without them.

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

As I sit at home alone

The chills are going through my bone

I can hear the rain outside

I really need to hide

I feel so sad for my little girl

where everything is in a swirl

I don't have any photos of her

and most of the memories are just a blur

I wish i could talk to this little girl

and tell her I love her with that curl

tell her how much she is loved

but it's all gone

And as the tears start to flow

I just wish I could go

to somewhere nice over the sea

and let me just be me

I don't know why I'm writing this

My mind is all in a bliss

of anger, fear and comfort too

I just wish I could be you

I dont even know what I want

but all i can see is you in front

this is such a crazy mind

i just need a litte more time

I wish I was strong

and had a great bond

but i know i never will

so the mind tries to sit still

None of this is making sense

It's just all words that made me commence

to write this piece of story of me

oh I wish I was free

In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

So anyhoo...

Firstly, @Mazarita - thank you for the gift of your words in this active and hopefully therapeutic conversation. 🙂

I will read properly and digest as I am able...

So here I am at the wedding of my lovely partner's son...

[Grits teeth. Goes to happy place inside...]

Last night was a less than stellar introduction to the bride's side of the family. I organised a tasting at a winery I'm a member of. I paid for lots of wine, a pig on the spit, salads...

Alas, the selfish ignorance and greed of a lot of people meant that I got no thanks from the gathering (except for from "my" side of the family)...

I also got no food, either...

Not even a tiny sliver of crackling...

I guess that makes me a selfish person... thinking only of the impact on myself...

[A mixture of sarcasm and mild regret that so many humans seem to be stuck in their own little I-Me-Mine ego bubbles with little consideration for others...]

This is why I am dedicated to personal self evolution... it's about improvement of self, and an ever greater awareness of self and others...

Sigh...

[Goes back to paying for everyone else's party and trying to ignore unevolved selfish ignorance...]

This would have triggered me several years ago...

Now?

Just this...

Sigh...

In response to: Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Oh @Silenus

That is terrible behaviour you have encountered there (!!) and I am so sorry to hear it .......

They do say that weddings bring out the best and the worst in people ..... and while we are talking "silver linings" ...... which you are very good at ..... here are a few -

You have risen above the obnoxious carry-on ........ ✅

It has spelled out to you how much further evolved you have become ...... ✅

It has given you, and presumably your partner, clear insight about what to expect ..... and just as importantly ..... what not to expect ........ from these people going forward ....... ✅

It's not a waste in terms of what you have given ....... as there is so much integrity in having given the gift in the first place ...... and that generosity is not lost on the giving side, although sadly the ball has been dropped and somewhat broken on the receiving side ....... for which you are not responsible ..... as you have acknowledged ..... ✅

Keep looking for some joy in the occasion. I am sure you will find some to take away with you, and we are here to share the stories.

❤️

In response to: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

Re: Writing As A Form Of Therapy

A Holy Mind

There is a hole in my mind,
And looking into that hole I find...

Ways to untether the ties that bind,
Ways to be grateful, respectful and kind,
Ways to not be worn down by the grind,
Ways for my clouds to be silver lined,
Ways to see where before I was blind,
Ways for tension and stress to unwind...

This holistic approach from a holy mind,
Releasing the hold, with fresh gold yet to be mined...
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