A Sweet New Year

Whether you celebrate Rosh Hashanah or are simply enjoying the change of seasons, what makes your life sweet? Today I’m grateful for the desert cooling down, some recent rain, friends to laugh with, help in my business, and community to celebrate with.

Writing Exercise 2: Increasing skills by exploring explanatory styles with a current situation that feels hard.

Based on the work of psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman. See Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.

 

 

What happened or is happening?

 

What am I telling myself about this?

 

Is this about my whole life, or just one area? (are there areas of my life that are better)

 

Will this hard thing be happening forever, or is it temporary? (will things shift on their own, or is it possible for me to change it in some way)

 

Is this hard experience based on something fixed in me, or is it because of either external circumstances or something I can change in myself? (develop skills)

 

 

 

Writing exercise 1: I am resilient.

Reflecting on an experience of bouncing back

 

What happened?

 

How did I feel?

 

What helped me bounce back?

 

What would I like to remind myself about this so I can be most resilient?

 

 

Write to Heal online workshop–introduction

There is a power in words. In the Jewish tradition, the world is spoken into being. An advantage in writing words down is that it is easier to examine them.

 

I believe we all have a fundamental Right to Heal, and we need to encourage all of our healing and growth. Writing can be a powerful self-help tool that is easily accessible and very low-cost in materials.

 

Writing to Heal can include many aspects. Expressing emotions frees up energy that was used to hold them in and can reduce stress. We can go a step beyond that to reframe situations and gain perspective. We can choose to examine our self-talk and consciously shift it. We can also affect outcomes in our lives by writing the script of our lives as healing adventures, a form of the hero’s journey. Part of that can include preparing to interact with others orally or in writing, from personal to business communication to writing for publication.

 

We are starting by focusing on increasing resiliency. We all encounter setbacks, from the major ones such as losing a job, ending a relationship, or experiencing the death of a loved one, to the more everyday variety such as missing out on a work opportunity, having a car break down, or being turned down when we ask someone out. We can’t avoid these discouraging things to save ourselves from stress; instead we need to learn how to more readily bounce back from disappointments, to learn whatever we may need to learn from them, and then to persevere and take new actions.

 

The first writing exercise is one to remind ourselves of the abilities we’ve already developed to bounce back. I suggest giving yourself 10 minutes to do it; you can go longer if you like.

 

The second exercise is designed to help in increasing resiliency. Plan to give yourself 10 minutes for that one as well.

 

In workshops, people have appreciated the opportunity to share some of their writing. Feel free to post your work on the blog, and remember the focus here is writing for healing, so don’t be concerned about your writing skill level.

 

For information about current workshops or to inquire about scheduling one for your group, see: www.deborahmayaan.com

 

 

 

 

 

Write to Heal

Healing Through Art shifts focus to writing 

Years ago I joined and later became the facilitator of a Healing Through Art group at the Cambridge Women’s Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So when I began offering workshops on creative expression for healing, it seemed natural to chose visual art as the focus. But my own strength is as a writer. I saw that even when I applied for the expansion grant for the Fountain of Peace as a visual artist, the primary focus was getting people writing.

In thinking back on Healing Through Art, when the Tucson Weekly chose it as a Pick of the Week, it was when the topic was for “Increasing Resiliency in Our Bodies and Our Lives.” That topic is fitting for these challenging economic times, so we’ll start with it. We’ll write about a time when we came back up after a setback, and do a writing exercise to help reframe a current situation.

Some of you know my own story is one of bouncing back after having been homebound for years with severe chronic fatigue and chemical sensitivities. Writing continues to be key in my own healing. I think of healing in the deepest sense, in making peace between the disparate aspects of ourselves and creating healing interactions with others, so that our own healing ripples out. I see writing as an invaluable tool for releasing feelings and reframing situations so that I can write a plot of my life as a healing adventure. I’ll share a bit of my own story on the blog, and encourage you to try that out as well.

When I was offering Healing Through Art, people asked for a series in order to go deeper. The challenge was that once someone missed a session, they felt at a loss and didn’t come back. Each Write to Heal workshop is designed to work as a stand-alone workshop. There is a thread running through them, and they are designed so that you can circle back to previous topics on the blog.

People are welcome to participate in Write to Heal by telephone; simply give me notice the day before so that I have the speakerphone set up. The current meeting time is set to work for people in this area who may have a daytime job. 7-8:30 pm Mountain Standard Time is late for people to the east. If you are interested in participating, I’m offering two options: Try out participating by adding to the blog from my website, which will give a bit on the topic each month. If you feel strongly drawn to be in an actual workshop, email me. If several people are interested in a Sunday or weekday daytime option and would preregister, I’ll set one up.

Blessings,
Deborah

Wednesdays, 7-8:30 pm. You may attend your first session on a donation basis. Subsequent sessions are $10.

Dec. 10 Increasing resiliency in our bodies and our lives

Jan. 14 Visions for our bodies and our lives

Feb. 11 Creative tension: from vision to reality

New phase

With the new site up today, each thing has a story to me far beyond the short descriptions on the site. I feel so thankful to all the people and events that have contributed to this journey to date, and look forward to getting our work out to reach more people.