Literary Ibuprofen

I love to write. I don't really remember doing a lot of creative or expressive writing in school; it was more the expository or formal report writing. I wasn't horrible at creating sentence structure or my thoughts but I would have never told you I loved to write.

Then when I was a freshman in college we were required to write some composition and mine was chosen by the professor as a well organized piece. I was in shock. No one had ever complimented, let alone publicly shown, my work. It truly helped my self-esteem.

It wasn't until I took Iowa Writing Workshop classes for Educators and I was FORCED to write, write, write that I found my voice and my love for the word.

Then as a teacher I wrote a newsletter to my parents every week. One page full of news or thoughts or the kids' antics. It wasn't hard to complete and I loved writing it. I know my parents appreciated it and counted on it to keep them informed.

But rarely did I take time to write for myself. And now in retirement I'm in a local Writing Group and I must write or show up without something and I don't want to not meet the assignment (I've always been an obedient student). I don't write every day and I should (as the following article indicates) but I do find myself thinking of topics all the time. I will probably never do anything with my writing, but I love the freedom of thought it gives me. It is relaxing for me. A creative outlet. And in some ways I feel I'm leaving a little of myself for my family. My words will be with them forever.

Recently I posted the quote that "Writing is a concentrated form of thinking" and this was so profoundly true for me. Here is an article from Time Magazine indicating that writing is very therapeutic and if you don't want to read the entire article I have copied the "cheat sheet' notes for you.

The article.

Sum Up

Here’s how to use writing to overcome the things that upset you:

1. Has enough time passed? Are you suffering longer than you should? Then writing can help.
2. Commit to four days of 20 minutes a day. Most people write at the end of their workday.
3. Write nonstop for 20 minutes about what’s bothering you.Don’t worry about errors or what anyone might think. This is for you.
4. Tying in other areas of your life, acknowledging emotions, telling a story, switching perspectives and making it personal are all associated with better recovery.

You don’t need to wait until you’re getting divorced or somebody dies to use this. You can write whenever you think it might help. It’s literary ibuprofen.