12.2.13

There is nothing better than stumbling across a quote that resonates in your head, a moment of clarity, of truth, which gongs like a bell through your brain. I ran across this on the fabulous Quo Vadis Blog yesterday and had to share. 

“Many of us keep diaries or journals full of our individual thoughts, experiences, and feelings. The art of writing out ones thoughts has a therapeutic side to it (as in narrative therapy): in the process of writing the thoughts or emotions are somewhat ‘distanced’ from the “I” experiencing them. There arises a tiny ‘space’ between the ‘I’ and the experience so that we can explore, study, evaluate the experience and its effects more objectively.”

— Dr. Susan Smalley, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA.  

I've mentioned before that I am not a natural journaler. I try. I buy pretty notebooks, leather covers, special pens. I'll stick to it for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, then I'll skip a day, and boom, I'm off the path. There's something weird about putting all my thoughts, my personal stuff, down on paper. Maybe it makes it too real for me. I don't know.

But what I do like is what Dr. Smalley talks about above. Narrative therapy. Allowing myself a broad scope view of my work, my process, my artistic life.

And it hit me. THIS is why I blog. THIS is why I post these little evening updates. It's a mirror of my creative soul. This has become an important part of my process, these few moments at the end of the day, when I ruminate on my work. It allows me to be present, to gather my thoughts, to assess what's important, and what's working, or not.

Narrative therapy.

"A-ha!" said the writer with the shiny lightbulb above her head...

Sweet dreams!