…and just write!
by Sophie Nicholls
Writing and journaling are beginning to become better understood as ways of letting go of unhelpful emotions and making new meaning out of our lives.
Many people are now using writing as a simple daily practise, a kind of daily ‘clear out’ or release of thoughts and emotions that can help you to stay connected to the movement of your feelings, and rediscover your innate problem-solving abilities and special resources.
One of the common questions that I get asked by people taking my courses and workshops or working with me using writing as private clients is ‘How do I stop over-analysing what I have written?’
If you have a tendency to engage in ‘over thinking,’ analysing and worrying it’s important to employ a few simple control techniques when you use writing as a personal development tool. Here are four
strategies that you can begin to use today in your daily writing:
1. Honour the process and keep writing
The chances are that you have been conditioned – through school and culture – into thinking about writing in terms of the end product – the form and sense of the words on the page. Is what you have written good enough? Does it make sense?
Experiment with what happens when you simply honour the process of writing, the way that your hand feels as it moves across the page, the rhythm of the words, the sound…
Keep writing…
Resist the temptations of editing, crossing-out, reading back.
It is enough to simply write a little each day and then put the writing aside… or even tear it up.
Let it go. Keep writing.
2. Be with and welcome your thoughts
If a thought or emotion comes up for you when writing, notice it and simply be with it for a few moments.
You can take a few deep, slow breaths… Breathe in for one, allowing your tummy to expand all the way OUTWARDS (yes, that’s right, outwards), hold for a moment, and then breathe out for seven, letting
your tummy contract. Experiment with that now. Most of us breathe the opposite way around! You may be surprised at how good it feels to let go of your breath, deeply and slowly and the breathing space that creates for you to simply experience any emotions you are feeling. You can even say to yourself ‘I accept this emotion…’ or ‘I welcome this emotion…’ or ‘I know that I am growing because I can notice and welcome this emotion.’
3. Thoughts are just thoughts, feelings are just feelings
Recognise that your thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. They do not have any intrinsic value in and of themselves. The only values and meanings that your thoughts can have are the ones that you assign to them.
Let go of judging your thoughts. Talk to yourself kindly and encouragingly as you would to a friend. The words and images that you use to and with yourself inside your mind are powerfully hypnotic (if
you hear something often enough, you begin to believe it) so STOP, bre-eathe and change any unhelpful or unkind thoughts into thoughts that help you and support you right now.
Practise being a kind supportive witness or ‘reader’ of your thoughts as you write them.
4. Use some self-hypnosis
If you are experiencing any anxiety, you may like to experiment with some self-hypnosis. In fact, I highly recommend it! You may like to download my Let Go Of Stress audio programme, which includes a powerful self-hypnosis track and talks you through the breathing process I have outlined above.
5. Have fun and play with words
It’s so easy to take writing far to seriously. We write emails,reports, official documents. Why not make your journal a space where you can play with writing?
Have you ever noticed what happens when a child begins to write, making shapes with the pencil, perhaps beginning with their name, naming other things around them, rhyming things down the page?
Write ‘I don’t know what to write,,,’ and keep writing. Choose a letter from the alphabet – any letter – and write around it: ’something beginning with b or g…’ Keep writing.
Take a favouite word and free-associate around the letter for five minutes. Find out where it takes you.
Choose a random line from a book that you pick randomly from your bookshelf and use it to begin more writing.
The more you practise these techniques, the easier you will find it to let go into the rhythm of your writing. Writing is a process that you can enjoy and explore and experiment with. Ten minutes of
daily writing can be a wonderful meditation or self-hypnosis in itself – if you approach it with kindess, patience and a sense of fun.
You can find out more about a gentle five-day process that will guide you through a kind, loving approach to your writing at my Hypnotic Journaling site.
