Blank pages are not therapy. They are, however, without a shadow of doubt, therapeutic.
Your deepest thoughts, anxieties, fears and hopes can represent the end of a sad, empty, page’s life. However, it can also be beginning of a healing process. Either you feel like writing a poem, a novel or just journaling, there is always something to learn from your own words splashed across a piece of paper. Writing opens the door to better organizing thoughts, expressing feelings that you didn’t know were there and understand the doubts that cross your mind throughout the day.
Today, the traffic was chaotic in the morning and got me in a bad mood at the very first hour of the day. There are construction works disrupting the metro lines and, suddenly, everyone that crosses the area where I work has gone from circulating underground to filling the streets with cars that honk very loud and queues of nervous pedestrians who need to get a taxi to be able to get to work. Everyone looks stressed and impatient, and I join the chorus by swearing with the windows of my car closed, so that only I can hear my own irritation.
By journaling about this particular moment of my day, I am obliged to reflect what I could have done different and try to find alternatives. What good did it do to yell alone in my car? Why didn’t I try to remain calm? Why was I not able to avoid all the damage that stress does to my immune system? Maybe I can choose a different way tomorrow. One that might be longer, but calmer. The solution might be a different turn on the right, a 4-7-8 breathing exercise or just some mindfulness meditation. By writing this down, I might not solve the problem in the short term, but I am definitely more aware of it and committed to solving it.
Is it hard to fill an empty page, but the reward that comes from seeing your own words gain a new meaning, makes it all worth it.
Impressões 