An Art of Healing and Projection

          Each writing is unique to the person reading it, but every writing has an intimate connection with the author. When I was asked why I think writing is important, I immediately flashed back to an experience I had gone through. I was going through a rough transition. I had moved twelve-hundred miles away from my family, and I was then struggling to make it on my own. For you to understand this I must admit, back in that short period of my life I was beginning to feel a little bit insane. I had a lot of other things going on as well, but they are a little too personal to share; however, for the sake of this example keep that in mind. There was only a single activity that kept my mind in a level state. That activity was writing.

          When someone thinks of writing they do not usually associate it with therapy, but there are many different forms of writing, and many different reasons people write. You can write short stories, informative essays, or poems, but these are only a few common things that come to mind when you think about what “writing” is. My niche was writing lists, so since my life was chaotic, I wrote down everything I could possibly think of that might have been causing my anxiety. After I made that long list, I sorted through it, and organized everything into smaller lists. I had lists for things I needed to do at work, things I needed to buy for the house, things I wanted to do with my girlfriend, and I even had a list of things that I did not like about myself. By doing this I could look at everything that was wrong with me. The things that were eating at me before were no longer crammed in my head where there is no way of holding on to a single thought long enough to do anything with it. One-by-one, I focused the objectives on my lists, which I still use today. Every time I get to scratch something off one of my lists, the feeling of demons taking away my soul subsides. If only for a moment, everything feels like it is going to be okay.

         Something else I want to touch on, is writing for an audience. I really embrace this one. I cannot provide the reader with an interesting paper unless I simply do not hold anything back. I must project myself into these writings, and sometimes the things I write end up being things that I have never been able to share with other people. Being able to get personal with a thought is not hard when you write it down. You are able to visualize the thought, and all of its’ dimensions. You can think about it in ways that will lead you to even newer ways of perceiving it; however, remember your audience exists. Blowing off steam by projecting your issues into your writing is extremely effective, but pay close attention to how you are projecting yourself because this is going to determine how crazy your audience believes you to be.

         All-in-all, after years of using blank pages as my own personal therapist, when I am prompted with the question, “why do you think writing is important?” I am confident to say that I believe writing is important because it is one of the greatest forms of therapy. It is an art of healing.