Writing Helps the Mind and Body

I've always been a proponent of words and creativity throughout my life.  Writing has helped me so much in putting together some very difficult circumstances of life.  Writing helps the mind and body by allowing you to express yourself in a way that may not be easy to do.

For those who have been through trauma, child abuse, and other horrible experiences of life, writing gives you an outlet.  It allows you to venture into a world where you would otherwise not go.  It gives the brain the creative permission to look at things from a different perspective.

Three people that come to my mind immediately (and I know I'm leaving out a ton of others), use writing in a very unique and powerful way.  I enjoy reading the blogs of these individuals because they are just so down to earth and real and unique.

Trevor Marty...

One of these bloggers is Trevor Marty.  Now, Trevor plays some awesome music and he's a very creative person.  He's very real too and compassionate and caring and overall one heck of a great friend to know.  He has a simplistic way about him that just gets down to the heart of the matter in whatever he does and I really admire that about him.  One of his most recent endeavors is sharing adventure stories of his cat, Ms Mama Macy.  You've really got to check it out!

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Writing can be fun as in the case of my friend Trevor.  When writing is fun, it expands your brain and gives you new neural pathways to explore.  I remember as a kid that exploring the barns and corn cribs of the farms we lived on was like traveling to another world.  Writing allows you to do that and sometimes escape the world you're currently in.

When we can escape the world for a moment, it sometimes gives the mind and body a fresh new perspective.  It allows us to see something that we might not have seen and so the mind and body can come together as one, working towards a common goal of awareness.

Surviving My Past.net

Another great blogger is Matt, my friend who writes SurvivingMyPast.net .  Matt is one of the most caring people I've met and is always supportive, no matter how upside his day may be going.  He's very real and open and honest and this shines through in his writing.  I seem to identify so much with what he writes.  Even issues that I thought were healed and sealed in my life, were opened back up with me being able to see them from a different perspective.  He's got a way in doing that.  You should really check out his blog and YouTube podcasts especially if you know of anyone that's a male survivor of child abuse.

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For a long time, I used writing as a tool to heal my life.  There was no way I could verbally express much of this to anyone.  Yet, I had so much pain locked up in me and the only way I could find some sanity in a day was to write.  I didn't write for others to read it.  I wrote to help make sense of it in my own life and in my mind and body.

Savage Lost...

The other person that is one awesome writer is my partner in life.  He writes about the history of music, but in a way that if you did not experience it, you feel like you were there when it happens.  He has such a great way with telling a story that captivates you.  Its more than history to him.  It is about living through these wonderful moments of years gone by as he and many others were dealing with the ever changing kaleidoscope of life.  Take a look at one of his articles from Savage Lost (1960 Florida Garage Bands) he wrote and see if you don't feel like you're right there living the music scene with him. 

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We don't have to be perfect writers.  I don't consider myself to be a perfect writer.  I just write from my experiences and my heart.  That's what these folks do that I've mentioned.

I'm an individual that is constantly expanding my horizons and so I love to read things by different people.  I don't want everything to be the same subject every day because that doesn't help the mind and body grow or evolve.  I challenge myself to read things that I normally would not read and I challenge you to do the same.

For me, writing is about putting down on paper all the thoughts in my head.  Some days, I think I do it more for myself than anything and other people benefit as a result.  Yes, it takes courage at times to share it publicly, but don't let fears and insecurities hold you back.  Just put the words out there!  You'll be amazed at what happens after that.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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Some Days You Just Want To

• Some days you just want to scream for all the stress and torment people and jobs and places put you through. 

• Some days you just want to run down the street waving your arms in the air and yelling at the tops of your lungs.

• Some days you just want to run on the beach naked (after applying sunscreen of course and protecting those special body parts).

• Some days you just want to prank call everyone and anyone having fun in the most stupid and silliest of ways.

Fun, It Does A Body Good

When you have fun, you relax. When you laugh, you relax. If you don't believe me, try it for a day or two or even a week. We all need this in life. Children are best at this. For some reason as we grow older, playfulness is replaced by seriousness, activity and responsibility. Yes, our responsibilities and priorities change as we grow older, but we should never cease to laugh, play and enjoy life.

I know that sometimes we get so busy that we think there is absolutely no time to stop and have some fun. Most likely though, that is the exact moment we need to do this. We need to heed those inner prompts and go outside to play.

Just a few moments or a day of doing stuff that takes our mind off of the worries and stresses in life, will pay dividends. it allows the tense muscles in the body to relax. It allows the heart to beat out of enjoyment rather than out of frantic moments. The head, neck and shoulders have a chance to relax and let the tension from stress flow out of them. Our mood goes from one of feeling overwhelmed to allowing ourselves to feel joy. Our movement changes from labored steps to skipping down the sidewalk.

It is true that we do have the power to change our body and mind in physical ways. We just need to allow it. What better way to allow ourselves freedom from stress than to give our self moments of fun and laughter in our life.


*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

You're Not Talented

"It is usually when we are young that we learn to think we are not talented; we are told so by teachers, parents, and other adults. Inevitably, their evaluations are firmly tied to contexts - to particular schools of thought in particular periods of time - although they are typically unaware of it. We accept their evaluations because we are inexperienced: we don't realize that the contexts in which we are being judged really say little about our talent."

Pg 46, On Becoming An Artist - by Ellen Langer

I know I keep quoting this book but have you ever read one of those books that was just the right book at the right time and everything in it was what you needed to hear? Ok, that's how this book is for me. So, if you're tired of reading about this book, please forgive me! It is just having a big impact on my life at the moment. For that, I won't apologize.

When I read this quoted section of the book that I stated above, it fit me to a T! All my life, I was told how much I didn't know and how many mistakes I made and how I didn't fit in and how I really didn't know what was best for me. These things and more were reinforced through fits of rage, screaming, moments of beatings and just an overall mindset of daily mind control that was exerted upon me. Some of the things were very subtle and some of them could be easily recognized. Many had a role in this from my own parents and siblings to the teachers at school and those that I knew from church.

While I don't remember the exact specifics, I do remember being in first grade and not being able to do first grade math. None of it was sinking into me at the time and I remember my dad making me go through flash card after flash card of first grade math facts that we had to learn. He probably meant well, but when I would get one wrong, he would scream and belittle me. Of course that was during the time that I was first raped and things were pretty horrible in my life. So, it is no wonder that learning was difficult. The ultimate result was that I was held back from First Grade and put back into Kindergarten. I somewhat remember the knots in my stomach during that time and I'm sure my mind and body remembers more than I do consciously.

There were other times though I was put down and I distinctively remember when I was just creating with the songs that I was playing in the piano. I was allowing myself to hit whatever keys my fingers landed on. At the time, some were good notes and some weren't but I was just in the moment playing. Overall, the little tune that came out was pretty good but I remember hearing my dad state to me that there were sure a lot of mistakes in that song, what was the song? This coming from a man that had no musical ability whatsoever but in this moment, he had pronounced himself as judge, jury and executioner. It took me a very long time before anyone else ever got to hear me create in the moment.

We've all got stories that may be similar or different to mine. I could name thousands of them. I doubt any one of us could escape this type of behavior even if the adults around us were well intentioned. I'm sure we have passed the same thing on to others at moment we didn't realize it as well.

The best thing I find is to learn how to allow myself to be a kid again. Some people refer to this as getting in touch with the inner child. But, in simplest form, it is just connecting with that pure, innocent, child like part of yourself that exists in all of us. Freud recognized this back in his day and it is there, whether we want to acknowledge its existence or not. It doesn't mean we have to sit down on the floor and play with toy cars or dolls, although that could be a good start to the child connection within us. It can be much simpler than that.

If we go through our day, enjoying and loving everything we do - we are like the child that is having fun playing in the moment. If you have forgotten what that is, just watch some children playing and you'll soon remember. For they play as if there is no tomorrow, no rules and nothing else that has to be done. This is something I constantly have to remind myself of as well. For being in the moment, enjoying the moment and acting as if there is nothing else in our lives can bring us back to the basic, simple moment that matters so much in who we are as humans. It isn't any harder than that, although we as adults make it hard.

So for today, as you read this, see if you can find the fun moments in your day.

Enjoy your day. Have fun with it! Find the playful side of it. Think of the things you have to do as playful and fun events of your day. - Don Shetterly