Pamper Myself Month

August is  here.

The buzz of the insects in the woods and the shadows' change in slant are telling signs to me that fall will be here before we know it. The cool mornings draw me out to sit on my deck and "live in the moment" which I am trying very hard to do now.

The coming week will be busy for me. I have begun physical therapy twice a week and I hope it will help me regain strength and use of my leg and hip. I am doing much better now and can go up and down the stairs with little worry. I don't think I'm  "done" yet.

I am excited about my writing class at Tri-County Community College which begins Tuesday. We have some beginning writers who are champing at the bit to get their words on paper and have some constructive feedback. Who knows what will happen in their lives once they start to put their thoughts and ideas out there for others to read?

I advocate for some things that are very important to me. Writing is one of them. Writing is the best way I know to improve focus when we feel scattered. When I wake up and feel overwhelmed with all the tasks and chores that lie ahead of  me, I calm myself by writing it all down. Make a list and see what can be postponed until tomorrow. Often that is all  I really need to do. Prioritize my to do list.

When I find myself unable to sleep or concentrate because of some problem or matter, I find that if I write about it, both sides of the issue, a solution will come to me. If I am pondering a decision, I make two lists. One is the Pro list and  one is the Con list.

The solution might be to let go of this for awhile and revisit it later. My husband gave me good advice when he saw me fretting over something. "Just forget about it for now. It probably won't happen or if it does, it won't be as bad as you think it  will." He was usually right. 

I've read that good writers don't like to  think of writing as therapy. I believe that writing is great therapy. Recently, after a long tiring day, I came home and sat down to the computer. For months I've had to set a  timer and  be sure I didn't sit for more than fifteen or twenty minutes without getting up and walking around. This time I forgot to set the timer. I forgot everything, even my long hard day, and for almost three hours I wrote about a period of my life that I have not touched on in the past. When I finished I checked the word count of my document. It was over 4000 words. 

My feeling of satisfaction went deep but I was amazed that I could  sit there for that long pouring out all those words without the normally resulting pain in every muscle and joint.  An Aha Moment for  sure. Losing myself in writing affected my entire body. It took away my pain and lifted my spirits higher than any medicine could have done. As author, Maren Mitchell, says in her book,  Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide,  distraction helps chronic pain,  but I think this therapy went even deeper. The subject matter transported me back to a very  happy time in my life and for those hours of writing I escaped from here and now. Writing was the time machine that transported me back to when I was nineteen and twenty years old, innocent of tragedies and losses of my present life.  

Just the right time

This happened at a most opportune time as I have just declared August to be Pamper Myself Month.

I gifted myself with a dozen roses, and interspersed with baby's breath, they sit on my table where I see them all day long. The roses are a reminder that I am worthy, I am viable and I love myself.  

Please leave your comments below or email me: gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com 

HEALING, WRITING AND TAKING WRITING CLASSES

For my writer friends, I have a couple of prompts for you. We used these in our last class at Tri-County College this week. I decided to write along with my students and enjoyed remembering an uncle who has long since passed on.

The prompt: I will never forget her/his voice...

Another prompt: It was an ordinary day...

Many times our greatest triumphs or our greatest tragedies happen on what begins as an ordinary day.

I am taking a short break before beginning classes at Writers Circle with a six week course, Tuesday afternoons, 2 - 4 o'clock. On May 14 we start with Healing through Writing. Call me at 828-389-4441 if you would like to come. 

This is a course for anyone who has ever lost a loved one, gone through a divorce, been emotionally damaged by life and for people who enjoy writing. 

Some of our best writers, most acclaimed authors, found that writing was a way to deal with their childhood abuse both mental and physical. Sylvia Plath was one of them. From those writings came some of their best work. 

Henry Miller was on the verge of suicide because his wife had left him for a mutual friend, a woman, when he found himself at his typewriter pouring out his sorrow and anger on paper. His best selling books, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, resulted from this kind of writing. 

While I sat with my ill husband for weeks in the hospital and then in a hospice center, my writing saved my sanity, I believe. Drugs kept him sleeping most of the time, and I sat with my laptop open and writing everything I was thinking, feeling, hoping for and afraid of. Little did I know that what I was doing was helping me physically. 

In the class on Healing through Writing, we will practice some of the techniques from Dr. Pennebaker's research on opening up about trauma in our lives. We will not always share what we write, but it is a good possibility that we will discover things we had not thought about ourselves, and we might come up with a few publishable essays or poems.

I probably should not be posting this time of night when I'm half asleep and bone tired, but forgive me if I ramble.
My class last Tuesday was excellent with about ten delightful students of all ages. Our oldest is 85 and writes with the confidence of a seasoned writer. All of us are looking forward to his sharing his memories from as far back as World War II. We discussed organizing our stories in folders and writing down the turning points or milestones in our lives. One man couldn't wait to begin heading his folders. I have a good, good, feeling about this class. The trust is already there. I must confess I just love writers and being with writers, beginners or professional.

All of my life I have dealt with stressful situations by writing. Writing is therapy for me and I'm grateful I enjoy it. A few weeks ago as I waited in a room filled with people young and old starring into space, encircled by arms of loved ones, hands griped in hands, the tension and fear was thick enough to choke a person. I pounded on my Neo, a little keyboard I can use anywhere. I would later download my writing to my computer. Like a reporter at the scene of an accident I keyed in all the characters, described faces, body shapes, expressions and actions. I learned this from Darnell Arnoult an excellent writer who says she keeps a notebook with her and gets some of her best characters from watching people in waiting rooms.
I don't plan to use these people in a fiction piece, but it helped me through my waiting time to write about them and imagine what they were facing.
Do you study and examine people you see and wonder about them? Do you write about them? Most writers are observant of the people around them in restaurants, standing in lines and anywhere they can watch people. Try it the next time you have to wait in a doctor's office. Just make notes on what you see in the faces of those who are there in the room. Describe their physical attributes. Notice the difference in noses and describe them. It is fun and a good way to get your mind occupied if you happen to have a troublesome situation you'd rather not think about.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has ever done that or who thinks it might be a good thing to do.