I read three inspiring blog posts this morning. All are like breaths of fresh air. As one who has lived with serious breathing problems for decades, that statement isn't just figurative.
To breathe, inhale, savor aromas, feel the lungs expand without struggle is literally life-saving and life-giving...energizing.
To write, to express, to create (in the human sense), to explore, to dig, to dive, to discover, to re-discover can also be literally life-saving and life-giving...integrating.
Here are links to the three life-inspiring blog posts:
"When Is It done?" by Martz Szabo
"Welcome to Memoir as Healing" by Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.
"Writing to Find Your Voice, Writing to Heal" by Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.
This morning I also read the following affirmation from Dr. Margaret Jones book "Not of My Making." As I transcribe it below, my heart thrills and my eyes fill with tears - tears of freedom, tears of joy, tears of deep gratitude...
[..the excerpt from page 316 by Margaret Jones, Ph.D.] :
"The following morning, inspired by Mary Hammond's book, I wrote an affirmation in my journal.
This morning with the sun shining through the front window, I am fierce with life. I am rediscovering, reinventing myself. I am taking the pain of the last three years and I am integrating it and using it to become more completely me. No more using my creative energies to try to please others. Instead I am going to use my life energy to write and study and understand what my life has been about. I am going to use it to help others, to stop the pain, the evil that infects us. I am going to integrate my knowledge of psychology, religion, my personal experiences of being bullied, my personal trauma, and use it to help others, to advance our knowledge of the human condition."
[end excerpt]
Note: Click here to view the book Dr. Jones mentions in the excerpt: Mary Hammond's book: "The Church and Dechurched"
~ to breathe, to write, to dance, to love, to embrace~
Yes!
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2 comments:
Thank you for quoting my book, "Not of My Making." Since writing that affirmation/intention I have tried hard to live up to them by publishing my book, practicing my inline skating and most importantly, speaking up for myself and other survivors. I integrate what I learned from my personal experience of spiritual abuse in my work with my psychotherapy clients and by explaining to other survivors the importance of faith and spirituality. A new way I have discovered to do this is by making rosaries and other meditation aids. By selling my book and rosaries I invite conversation about abuse, spiritual abuse and the importance of God and ethics in our lives. My struggle with the dark places of my soul has left me strong and confident. It has ended up being a peculiar kind of blessing. I prefer being a survivor rather than one of the bullies or a silent bystander. Although imperfect, at least I have not sinned in that way.
Your writing has touched this life.
The first few sentences of your affirmation are going on one of my index cards as a "radical acceptance statement."
Sometimes I think I'm selfish to want my voice heard.
The other night I posed a question in a support group I'm involved with. I asked, "Do ya'll ever scream on the inside to be heard? I do and I'm wondering if others do?"
It prompted discussion regarding the innate human need to be heard, in different ways.
Then I asked, "Why? Why do we need that?"
Someone stated, "That's kind of like asking, 'why are we human?' "
I'm learning to speak up for myself and maybe, in doing that, for others. It seems a slow process, but I know I'm making progress.
Thanks again Margaret!!
Cheers and blessings,
~carol
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