Yes, yes. You haven't misread!
If you only knew, how powerful is writing therapy for our mind and soul... If you only knew it can truly replace hours and hours of sessions with psychotherapists, save you #loads of money...you would have started much earlier! Even the laziness and skeptical thoughts ("really? pen and paper can help me?") would blow away and reach #Maldives by now!
Alright. Imagine a suitcase. A large gorgeous leather (hopefully) suitcase or a chest, or a valise, full of different items. All messed together, and you can't really see where are the pants and where are the shirts, somewhere under the jeans there are shoes, and slippers, too. It is just one big chaos that is zipped together. You can't add any more items to it, simply because it is overloaded already!
And how about our minds? Our soul? Have you ever unpacked those items from the chest of your heart? Have you touched all those precious colorful things you have kept for years? Have you put them in order so that you clearly know what you feel and mainly Who are you? Are you a bunch of worries, wounds, scars that have built up over the years and have never been healed?
Let us take out all the moldy issues of the past and one by one #write_it_out. I know, sounds maybe cheesy but in fact, it is very easy. Where to start? To begin with, get a notebook and prepare to be patient, as we deal with the old suitcase (probably, a stinky one as for ages it remained untouched)and so, the superficial layers of emotions will come out first.
We shall start with the following exercise:
Split your page into two columns and name the first one "What I feel now" and the second one"What I want to feel". You can download the template for this exercise below:
I always suggest starting with all negative feelings, even if you have to write it #hundred_times, until when you get into the state of complete emptiness in your mind. The complete emptiness means when there is nothing more to add in the negative column. But please! Do not try to fill the second one immediately. On the contrary, cherish this emptiness, take a nap, refresh yourself (remember, we take things from the valise or box one after the another, so here is the same), and in a couple of days open the notebook, re-read what you have written and then start filling the second section. Try this exercise for at least a week before we continue, trust me, you're gonna feel different!