Something potent happens when we put pen to paper and allow the hand, rather than the head, to do our thinking. We gain an immediate intimacy with our thoughts along with a detachment not usually available through talking.
In the act of writing, we process information differently than we
do when thinking or talking. What’s more, the three actions do not produce the
same results. Undirected thinking and talking perpetuate mental and emotional
chaos because they further enroll us in our unconscious beliefs. On the other
hand, writing out feelings in a free and exaggerated way is liberating. The
writing stimulates awareness and thereby perpetuates release.
Stories are magic and medicine. They stimulate adrenaline and
neutralize destructive energy. They have the power to comfort, heal, and
transform. They invigorate the imagination and build spiritual muscle. They
illuminate the path to the subconscious. The power of our stories launches us
into galaxies of self-awareness.
In Western literature, traditional stories have a beginning, a
middle, and an end. In the writing process used in this book, our stories can
go on eternally. They become vehicles for healing when we mulling them over,
entertaining twists and turns, finding their sources, bestowing them with new
meaning, and enlarging their possibilities. As our consciousness of our stories
grows, healing occurs and our awareness of our inner power enlarges.
Today, “the age of technology has both revived the use of writing
and provided ever more reasons for its spiritual solace,” the New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen
tells us. Since “the letter fell out of
favor and education became professionalized, with its goal less the expansion
of the mind than the acquisition of a job, writing began to be seen largely as
the purview of writers. Writing at work also became so stylistically removed
from the story of our lives that the two seemed to have nothing in common.”
On the other hand, when we write purely for self-expression, we
alchemize our mental activity, and, our stories become the fuel for liberation,
creativity, transformation, and healing.
Expressive writing teaches us ways of seeing ourselves as
novelists of our own lives. The rediscovery of our fictions and their
“re-visioning” (i.e. revising by seeing
differently) makes us conscious authors of scenes past, present, and future.
The process is full of surprises.
Visit www.radicalwriting.com to learn more and sign up for online writing courses. Start learning about yourself and expression!
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