Writing to Heal, Learn and Grow

I wanted to share something I posted on my personal blog today...I hope it will encourage others.

Writing is something I've always done ever since I was really young. I believe I was six or seven years old. I remember writing little stories, poems, prayers, and my thoughts and feelings about things I was experiencing at that time in my life.

I find writing to be liberating and deeply healing. Whether it's writing in a physical journal, pen to paper, or journaling online via a blog like this one.

Not only is writing therapeutic, it is incredibly helpful in sorting through a barrage of feelings, thoughts and emotions. It helps to put and keep things in perspective, to view things, people, circumstances, challenges and crises in a different light.

Not only has writing this blog helped me cope and navigate this cancer journey, it has helped friends and family close to me and other people from all over the world either facing cancer themselves or who have friends and loved ones going through cancer cope.

Writing can also be deeply spiritual. I subscribe to a weekly newsletter called Writing Through Cancer and a statement in this week's newsletter sums it up best "writing opens a door into our spiritual journeys. When we come face to face with our mortality and truth, the irrelevant and unnecessary falls away to reveal the meaning of our lives. Writing gives us a way to discover that meaning. Call it what we will--faith, prayer, spiritual practice or meditation--we discover a higher consciousness, something larger than ourselves." I feel exactly these things when I write. I would like encourage all of you to try writing, journaling or blogging. No one has to read what you write but you; unless you want to share with others.

Writing has helped me deal with grief, loss, pain, life's challenges and difficulties, and learn from every season in my life. Writing for me is cathartic, meditative, releasing, therapeutic, and healing. It is an exploration into the deepest recesses of the human psyche. I believe writing helps strengthen the immune system and the mind. It fills the soul and lets the spirit within us free. It reduces stress and anxiety and allows the writer to empty themselves of all the negative thoughts and energies that are counter productive to living a more peaceful, happy and harmonious life themselves and with others.

For some it may feel weird or unnatural to write about inner most feelings, experiences and thoughts, but if you allow yourself the opportunity to step out of the confines of the three dimensional box that is your comfort zone and explore the possibilities through writing, I'm sure you will find yourself pleasantly surprised by the results.