On my blog entry entitled Other Forms of Free Association Writing, a reader posted the following comment:
hi faith, your blog is so helpful and i have learnt a lot from you. thank you. my comment today is this : if i wrote down all the thoughts and things said in my head i would be writing constantly – i cannot even comprehend how someone could write down all the noise in their head. maybe i am misinterpreting you ?? can you explain further please ? ~ Gracie
Gracie – I am sorry that you had to wait for me to get through my personal crisis to get your answer. :0)
My thoughts are constantly spinning as well. Through yoga and meditation, I have learned how to silence my inner chatter, although I confess that I am still not always very good at it, especially when I am under stress.
No, you do not need to write down every thought you ever have in your head. The idea is to set aside 10 or 15 minutes to access one thing in your subconscious that is brewing beneath the surface. For example, let’s say that you have been anxious but are not really sure why. If you do free association writing for a few minutes, you might wind up writing about what is really bothering you. It is a great way to get out feelings and emotions that you are having trouble purging.
I did this with my free association writing in this blog entry. I was feeling an enormous amount of anxiety for weeks. It took me about five minutes to type out those words from my subconscious. Once they were out, I knew what was bothering me and how to comfort myself. The next day, I felt much better.
In one of Dr. Phil’s books, he recommends writing down all of your internal chatter for one day so you can get an idea about how you talk to yourself (whether positively or negatively). While that exercise was insightful, I found it exhausting because my mind pretty much never shuts down. I about got a hand cramp trying to keep up!
Photo credit: Lynda Bernhardt
I want to second Faith’s suggestion. While I am also not always successful with relaxation, it does work sometimes. I also wanted to add that free association writing is one technique to write. Some people may not feel comfortable with that, especially you Gracie if you feel you cannot make sense of the chatter. Sometimes it’s easier to start with simple things when you write, like just saying what you did today, etc. etc. Then you add what you FELT about what you did today, etc. etc. And it goes on and on. Writing can be hard. I tried to journal for years and years without any success. But it’s now very natural to me and I couldn’t imagine living without it. It precisely does what you have trouble with: provides some sense of order to the chaos. It’s not easy. But you can get there. Paul.
thank you faith : )
there is no need for you to apologise about a late reply to my question !! i would always want you to be feeling better in yourself before you tended to me. i would want you to put yourself first. you are such a kind and good person. i hope you are as kind and as good to yourself as you are to others. you deserve your own gentleness : )
thank you for your comments paul – both with regard to this post and to an earlier post. i appreciate your thoughts and ideas : )
with thanks from gracie et al xoxox
Faith,
As Gracie says to you too, I am so sorry to hear that you were not feeling so well. I am happy to hear you are back. I pray the goodness and love that you so gently give comes back to you in the same beautiful way it’s been offered.
Faith I Love your article and I too appreciate Paul’s experience.
I journal everyday sometimes many times a day. I journal on my computer because I absoutely hate my handwriting. On the computer I can also get more of an overview at first glance and can easily go backward if I need to.
I really liked what Paul said about writing, then part 2, writing how you felt about it. I am going to let it run so to speak and hopefully as Faith says tap into the subconscious into free association. One time when I did this an angry part came out and had a lot to say. It was really neat-o,interesting and a bit scary. I reviewed it the next say and still couldn’t believe it!
I don’t neccesarily do this always but will start. I do alot of reporting so to speak as the day goes on. I have the luxury of doing so because I do not work right now and am home a lot.
I am reporting in because my therapist asked me last week if I wrote here. I told her,”No, not this past week.” I know it is an important part of my therapy now.
I just had this thought, this is, the Blog here, a way of getting your thoughts down and for Gracie this is great begining!
Until Next Time.
Blessings to All,
Katie
Hi, Kim.
Writing online was a HUGE part of my healing. I did my writing at http://www.isurvive.com. With each memory, I had to write down every detail. It was my way of breaking the silence and declaring publicly that the abuse happened. Also, the support from others who had been there was priceless because they believed me. I really needed that at the beginning because I kept going back and forth about whether the abuse really happened or whether I was just “crazy.”
Now that I am as far along in healing as I am, I marvel that others could not see it. I was a walking billboard for severe child abuse – the full profile. What’s scary is that I can see many walking billboards around me — even strangers. I can see the symptoms that they, themselves, might not even see.
The healing process is a wild ride.
Take care,
- Faith
[...] Free Association Writing: Multiple Thoughts (faithallen.wordpress.com) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)AutoblogGreen for 07.29.09 Posted in Self Awareness. Tags: Inner Journey, Subconscious. Leave a Comment » [...]