Words: Friends or Foe? How can writing help you.

[quirkywords]

People can be afraid of words as they have no confidence in what they write. Maybe at school teachers have said negative things about their writing or their parents have said they don't write well.

Some people are anxious to write their first post as they wonder if they will make sense to others.

I believe words are your friends and everyone who can read this can write in meaningful way.

I want to look at how writing can help you

1) by helping you to explain and express your feelings to others

2) allowing you to connect to others through your words

3) by keeping a journal or starting a thread here and learn from your own writing and read others.

4) by helping you work out how to change certain behaviours

and many more we can share with each other.

To start at the beginning : Are words your friend or foe?

When you see a blank page or screen are you filled with fear or are you excited at the challenge.

Does writing words down help you more or in a different way to speaking them?

Everyone is welcome to contribute, first time posters , regulars, people who don't like writing , people who find they go the character limit for the post every time.

Write on

Quirky

PS writing in this context is same as typing , or using voice to text.

I want to look at how words can help you express your thoughts and emotions?

[BlueRoss]

I can take my sweet time with what I write to express what I want. With direct conversation, everything is twice harder. Misunderstandings scare me, so I used to prefer silence. I am trying to improve as I learn that silence can't fix some problems. This is also the message that Alexandra Casavant's book titled The Voiceless Voice tells me. I am learning to be friends with the words and better shape my world.

[quirkywords]

Hello all

Welcome BlueRoss to this thread. Thanks so much for your reply.

I Like the idea that silence does sometimes work but not always and to be better friends with words.

Misunderstandings scare me too because they can cause so many problems.

Quirky

[PamelaR]

Hi all, welcome BlueRoss lovely to have you here.

Quirky, I wished I was organised. While I do all that above, it’s part and parcel of my years of working in an environment where you had to plan (or have someone help you plan).

Editing my own words took me years to feel okay about. It doesn’t happen over night. I used to have so much negative memories of writing, school, being whacked over the knuckles with a ruler by the school teacher because I didn’t write between the lines. Then high school was no better, my interpretation of a pieces of poetry or a passage from a play was ‘never right’ according to our English teacher. All this lead to unhealthy sense of my own writing skills.

You know, when I chose my subjects at uni, I deliberately chose the hardest ones - those that made me ‘write’. I really wanted to overcome my fear and loathing of my written word. It really has been only in the last 10 or so years that I’ve felt okay with what I write and to heck with it if people don’t like it 🙂

Be gentle with yourself. I love your words, they come from your heart.

PamelaR.

[quirkywords]

Hello everyone

Pamela thanks for your helpful post.

Editing is indeed an art form. it made me think that the words we use are as important as the words we do use.

I wonder what words people don’t feel comfortable using and why.

Also what things do you delete most into your writing.?

Quirky

[Guest_294]

Hi all,

I have recently discovered how helpful writing can be! I bought this really adorable notebook (with a little fox on the front and a nice pen to match and keep them with me at all times, and whenever I get these intrusive or upsetting thoughts, I write. For the most part, I write letters. Often my anxiety will be related to a situation I am having with a particular person and so I will write a letter to that person expressing what I would say to them if I could. It's very helpful, I have found, and it means I can just pour everything out onto a page (when I say a page, my letters often go on for ages!!). If it's not a person, I'll write a letter to my exam, or to myself, or my panic. For some reason I find keeping diaries quite difficult, but when it is formatted as though I am writing a letter, it feels a lot easier. I don't really know why?

Great idea for a forum,

A

[quirkywords]

Hello everyone,

Guest welcome to this thread. I am so glad you found a way to make your writing help you with your anxiety by writing letters.

I often write letters to myself or to other people but never send them.

Quirky

I must admit I have never written to an inanimate object but I am always willing to try. Not sure what I would say to my tax return, may not be printable.

I find when I write a letter to myself it helps me sort things out and creates a distance between myself and my emotions. I feel the letter format lends it itself to sorting through thoughts and issues.

[Moonstruck]

Writing to myself....is really what my big pile of journals is. That's what they are full of....things I am saying to me, I tell myself exactly how I feel, what I'm afraid of, discussing all sorts of things, really deep feelings and personal stuff I couldn't discuss with anyone else! I know I can say anything to myself and I'll still be there....

sometimes i go into detail about others..what they said or did to me, what I hope for, suggest things to myself that might make me feel better......I'd be lost without my journals. sometimes many days go past without the need to write in it....but it's extremely enlightening to read back over the past few years,months, weeks, even days and see how my reactions, emotions etc....can change, get better, get worse, then better again and so on.

"writing it down".. whichever way works best works for you.. is highly effective in relieving mental anguish.

[quirkywords]

Hello all

You have really explained so clearly how writing words down really helps your mental health.

Alas, some people don't have the same writing skills and confidence you have. I know people who like to draw in a book or even cut out pictures and words to make collage. I feel finding a creative outlet is really important for many people, for us it is our writing .

I wonder if people think is it just important to have a creative outlet whatever that is ?

Quirky

[quirkywords]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has used writing to change one's behaviour.

A few years ago I started a gratitude journal and wrote down 5 things a day I was grateful for.

I only did it for a few weeks, but I did notice I was not as negative as I tended to be a pessimist or a worst case scenario person.

What changes has writing heled you achieve?

Quirky

[Moonstruck]

Hi Quirky.....writing down a thought or sentence that gives even the tiniest bit of "relief" is something very worthwhile achieving. Particularly if you are very very low, in despair, powerless, consumed with fear etc. Don't aim to be "healed or cured" of this extreme emotion immediately......just little by little, bit by bit, sentence by sentence.....write the thought that gives "relief".....start from there

The gratitude journal is excellent too, but keep it going as long as you can, every day is the aim I believe.