Life Gets Snarky, Write Anyway!

So, life threw you a curveball, did it? Pick yourself up, wipe the dust off your keyboard and write anyway. You

may be in too much of a funk to add pages to your WIP (work in progress) today, but you need to write something just as important.

     Ready? Jot or type your negative thoughts onto a piece of paper without concern for grammar, Oxford commas, or periods. Releasing negativity by purging onto paper takes away the hold it has on you and crushes it like the demon it has become. Allow your mind to ricochet around every nook and cranny, plucking out negativity and squashing it by revealing itself as words on a page. You’ll feel cleansed when you let your mind take over and simply be.

     Why does writing your thoughts help? Writing is conducive to balancing the triad of mind, body, and soul. It brings to the surface buried moments and feelings you may have hidden rather than take the time to deal with healthily. Placing these thoughts on paper pulls them from a place deep within your limbic system (in the midbrain and responsible for emotion, behavior, motivation, long-term memory, smell recognition, and a critical aid in the formation of memories). Writing them down and facing your demons puts those thoughts directly on the page, where they become difficult to ignore.

     The same principle explains why we feel better after talking with a trusted friend. Letting the monster out makes it far less powerful. Don’t let fear sustain these negative thoughts and allow them to return. Acknowledge them, release them, and let them go.

You'll feel like the Terminator!

     Another suggestion for purging negative thoughts is taking the time to count your blessings. It gives the brain a chance to stop and think, life isn’t so bad after all. Today’s worries probably won’t seem as overwhelming tomorrow and for sure by next week they will have found pathways toward resolution.

     Something else to do when your writing stalls out is to find the list of goals you set for yourself in January. You didn’t set goals in January? It’s never too late. Write them down and occasionally refresh these lovelies in your mind and take a step in that goal’s direction. Even a baby step inches you closer to tomorrow’s ultimate victory. Regardless of the tactic, when outside forces take your mind in a negative spiral, creatives such as writers take pen to paper and let magic do its job. Why?

Writers Write!