Beyond the Textbook

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Beyond the Textbook

Laurie Lupold

Many of us write for various reasons and each is important to our ability. This month I am going to touch on an area which is not constructed by our ability but solely by our thought. This month we are going to discuss how writing can be therapeutic.

Many times we come across situations which bring us a great deal of frustration. Try as we might, we worry and struggle with them in our minds but have no results or conclusions. When presented with this we have the option of giving up or looking for a different alternative to obtain a solution. Many times we can gain insight from other individuals but at times that opportunity might not be available or it might be a situation which we don't feel comfortable sharing. In this situation, I have an alternative.

Write your problem out, all thoughts and frustrations accompanied with it. Anything that comes to mind that has to do with this particular topic. Pay no attention to grammar, emotion or how it might sound to someone else. No one else has to read it. Just let it all hang out, so to speak. Pull no punches.

By the time you have completed this portion of the exercise, you should be feeling more relaxed and less boggled down in frustration. If not, you've held back, left things out. Continue to write.

When you have come to the point where your thoughts are more stable, go back and read thoroughly what you wrote. Pay close attention to the problem itself, not the emotion behind it. Quite often we will find that through our writing, we resolved the problem or at least provided a permissible plan with which to address it.

Writing allows us to see things more clearly and because our minds are ventilating we are regaining perspective and more able to see things in a new light. As an example, please read my Healthy Horizons column for this month. You should be able to recognize how through the beginning I was frustrated and confused about the situation but as I ventilated my thoughts to my readers, I, by the end of the column, was able to make choices that were beneficial to the situation. It's harmless, easy and it works.