I had shared a few personal stories on a recent ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ Podcast with Psychic Medium, fellow Gemini and ‘soul mentor’ Peter Williams. We were discussing ‘The Healing Power of Writing’ and what that actually ‘means’. What does healing with writing look like? 

I find Memoir is a fantastic ‘medium’ to write and heal at the same time, since the heart of the genre is all about ‘Transformation’. However, for those who feel they lack confidence in writing I explained you don’t need to be a good writer to heal or feel some benefit from putting pen to paper. A few seemingly unconnected words thrown on a page can help you more than you think.

Journals, diaries, letters and blogs are all excellent ways to jot down words, thought forms or just a feeling. Poetry is also another amazing way to connect with those innermost feelings. In fact there is a saying along the lines of ‘before there was therapy there was poetry‘. For me, particularly as a teenager, I didn’t even know what I was thinking half the time – until I saw it on the page in front of me.

When it comes to writing for the sake of our wellbeing or healing it’s important not to concern yourself with the technicality of writing. Nobody is going to be looking at your writing – far less judging your grammar or sentence structure. It may seem strange at first but try to ‘get out of your own way’. That is to say – don’t over-think or over-analyse what you’re writing. In fact try to write without even thinking about what word comes next. 

When we connect with poetry in this context it’s more about the symbolism and the meaning the words have to you in your life right now rather than a work of art. 

To show you exactly what I mean I opened up the old suitcase I have carried around since my teenage years. It is full of scraps of paper that are so old they have have been typed – yes – on a typewriter. As I may have mentioned in another post, I can’t quite believe I still have this case after all these years considering how much I have move between Scotland and Sydney – but when I look at the poem opposite it becomes a little clearer just how important my relationship was  with my writing.

I have shared a poem I wrote while living in a bedsit (a front room in a large, Victorian era family home) aged 17. I was still at school and had a Saturday and a Thursday evening job to pay the rent – as well as some help from my grandmother.

To provide context to my life at that time, my best friend’s family had intervened and put a stop to years of physical violence and mental abuse. They saved me!  They got me out – but of course I could only stay with them for so long. I had to strike out in the world while I was still finishing school. I was happy on one hand to be free but I was also grieving for the life I had wanted … and the life I would never have.

This was one of those poems I didn’t consciously set out to write. It just appeared on my page. When I read it back the next morning, I remember thinking it was all about waiting for inspiration – and how the words took different forms and moods

I used to sit down to write every night because I was hooked on that feeling of creating something out of nothing. I’d generally still be sitting there at 3am – oblivious to time until I stopped. 

When I look back now , it’s probably a fairly basic example of some of the work I was doing at the time – but that doesn’t matter because the focus here is on how important writing, creativity and that connection with something higher than myself was to me (and still is). I used to worry about the day I couldn’t write …I think more than that ..it was the ‘feeling’ of writing and what it gave me that I would crave – that feeling of connection. And release! Writing that I would never show anyone (until over 30 years later).

Interestingly, this was written long before I had any notion of the daughter I would bring into the world and have to confess when I read this back I could relate the feelings back to her.  I’m sure many parents can relate to as their child grows up. It’s almost prophetic which I find so funny now. 

I can also see – clear as day – by the wording that came through that I was connecting to a higher source – ‘answers to everything’ and that feeling of electricity as the ‘energy’ flowed through me.

It was also a comment on my own fears and how limiting they were and perhaps I was connecting with my inner child on some level – as she was so desperate to have someone who was waiting patiently for her to come home. Someone who would welcome her with open arms and love her unconditionally – but it took me a very long time to see that story in those words.

They might look like a random assortment of words – sentence structures and symbolism – but there is healing and wisdom in those words that still speak to me all these years later. 

The Write Feeling … a poem about the joy of writing – and waiting on the creative inspiration to strike …shared to show it doesn’t matter how the words tumble out …the ‘real’ meaning will shine through even if you’re not aware of it at the time … just write.