Positively Tuesday-Write It Out

    

     
     I had a positively Tuesday post that well, wasn't very positive. I ranted and raged about  my grievances and perceived slights. I wrote about trying to let go my resentment towards people that I feel have not treated myself, my family, or my friends right. Then, I let it sit in a draft not to hit publish. No one needs to read it. No one cares that sometimes I let the actions and behaviors of others interfere with my personal happy place. It did however, help me get some frustration out, much like journaling does for others. Reading it back a day later, I may have exaggerating some of the situations in my head, even though my feelings were very real and justified. The act though of writing up all my negative thoughts into a post only to not share was important to me. I felt like I was getting it off my chest without burdening anyone else with all my ill will and negativity.

     As an educator, I've often asked children to use their words. Since I taught preschool, this meant verbal, but I would also encourage them to draw pictures if they were sad about something. As my own children aged and had their own conflicts, hurt, and frustration I encouraged them to write things down. What happened? Who did what? How did it make you feel? What would you like to tell them? Do you see what happened any differently a day later? That sort of thing. It can be very cathartic to write your thoughts down, and then let them stay there, though often a small action might come out of it too. That could be anything from confronting the person, or doing something proactively to change circumstances for the future.

     It's not just about sore feelings and feeling like people were intrusive and rude. Writing out thoughts of hope and promise and commitments to ones self, without ever sharing with anyone else can be useful in prioritizing what you want life to be like and what might need to be done to get there. I have a whole bunch of notebooks that I capture different things at differ times. Little notes of things that peaked my interest, things I want to follow-up on later. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I won't, but writing it down at least peaks my memory later. The short of it is, writing, whether that's for an unpublished blog post, an e-mail you never send or just send back to yourself, or in a stack of notebooks is a good way to let things that are cluttering your mind out. Now, cross my fingers I never accidentally hit publish on the multiple drafts I have in a folder.