Writing rights. Sketch in your journal, pen a thank u note, email a longtime pal, craft your dreams on paper...and note the healing u feel.
One day last week, I
came across a note page in the back of my daily planner. Dated 12/16/09, it displayed the following hand-scrawled header: “Things I Can Do to Make Tomorrow Better.” Below that, was this list:
- Take a mid-morning java break;
- Buy flowers for my office desk;
- Take a walk at lunchtime;
- Do yoga stretches at my desk;
- Take a10-minute afternoon break to do
deep breathing.
I honestly cannot
tell you what precipitated the development of this sketch for a better
day. I can only guess on the
day it was written, I had rushed from meeting to meeting (or task to task)—without taking
any sort of dedicated break, and/or experienced duress over a looming, ever-expanding “to
do” list.
Here’s a probable scenario of what ensued as a result:
During a moment of sheer “Yikes!” I sought to work things out for
myself. My journal, generally, is
the place where I do this. Knowing
this would not be accessible to me at work, I found the “notes” section in the
back of my daily planner and began formulating a plan to make the next day
better than the one I was currently experiencing.
Perhaps my actions
were not as beneficial as a journal writing session (This is where I can truly
get in touch with what’s bothering me.).
Yet, in a pinch, writing this list served its purpose. It allowed me to create a solution for
how I was feeling on the day my plan was written, AND essentially, (by doing
so) enabled me to subconsciously identify the initial problem (culprit=not dedicating needed time to
nurture myself). Not bad!
Never underestimate
the power of writing it down.
Writing, after all, rights. T.
