We Write To Heal And We Heal By Writing
Don't let the life work of healing get derailed by writing…
… and don’t let your writing get derailed by healing.
This is a deep belief that I've experienced myself. I also saw it unfold firsthand in several business owners who participated in a recent cohort of the 30-day Finding Flow experience.
When I was writing Unfussy Life, things came up to heal that I didn't know were there. Through some of the memoir writing, I was surprised how some of the past events still had a grip on me. I uncovered all kinds of gunk in my brain — limiting beliefs, old stories that weren’t serving me, and wounding from lifetimes past, present, and parallel — wounding that we all have in some form or another.
Right before publishing that book, I went deep into excavating things that happened to me when I was younger that I didn’t even recall initially. Slowly, over time, more and more was revealed. SHIT came up while I was working on my memoir project — and may come up for you. I share this with you for two reasons. First, so you can see that doing deep healing work didn’t derail my mission to get my writing out there. And second, that writing opened me up to doing the deep work.
The good news is that writing can still happen when your bruises are fading. You can heal your wounds and do profound healing work.
Why would you want to do this and not just leave shit alone?
Clarity. Every wound you uncover and heal makes you a clearer vessel for tuning into your intuition and speaking truth. I took it easy on myself AND continued to focus on my book. I took the energy of healing, made sure I was honoring what I was navigating, and used it as fuel to finish my work. The writing work that I said was so important to me.
This is part of the work of being a human on this planet. And it’s my responsibility as a writer to write from as clear a place as possible. As I change and grow, I look back at my writing and see how much ego was present. I was writing from a place of unawareness — certain parts of me had been hiding in the shadow.
While my instinct may be to unpublish all that old work, that would also be irresponsible. I leave it there to show my evolution. And to trust that some readers may resonate with older work of mine and not the new stuff based on their unique path and where they are right now.
When I was going through rounds of book edits too, I knew that certain sections would require more ease and grace. I let myself move slowly. And in many cases, I’d reserve those sections for the end of the day, so that I could integrate what was coming up for me throughout the evening and while sleeping.
In a recent Finding Flow writing experience, one student uncovered some healing she needed to do around the practice of writing itself.
Paraphrasing what she said to me...
"I free-wrote (finally!) on your prompt about my relationship to writing when I was young one and found it VERY enlightening. There's so much there about feeling like my voice doesn't matter, that while I've always written, it's always been private."
When I read her question, I felt such deep resonance. Not just from myself, but I hear this from so many people. Since I work with creative business owners, it's this feeling about our voices not mattering that keeps us from publishing our websites, writing blogs, creating consistent content, launching a business, sending newsletters... all the things that make our business (and us) visible.
Healing work is life work. Be gentle with yourself as you heal and write.
I didn’t set out to write books because I thought it would be so therapeutic, but I certainly got what I needed.
I’ve also met people who say they’re afraid to write — even in a journal because they’re not ready to face what comes up.
If you sense you’ve got some healing work to do, here are some writing prompts to explore (in addition to the ones I share in this blog). Bring these to your next freewriting session or morning pages.
What do you believe to be true about your writing?
Who influenced your beliefs about your writing skills?
Did someone or some event lead me to hesitate to share my voice?
What would I write if I knew it was safe? What would it look like? What would I say?
List all the things you believe about writing that are keeping you from sharing your voice — then, for each one, write at least 3 reasons why it IS safe to share.
Remember, as you explore writing prompts, turn your thinking brain off. I see a lot of people trying to force or control their journaling practice. They think that journaling needs to do something for them — like give them their next big brilliant business idea or convince lurkers to sign up and buy something.
Let your writing be there for you.
Let it be a space to process your ideas. A place to let it out, judgment-free with complete surrender. And most of all — trust that the words pouring out of you are coming out for a reason.
Stay curious with some more writing prompts from these articles:
