Writing for Happiness

It has nearly been 1 entire year since I last wrote on this blog. I've been busy. Why?

I've had work. I have been compelled to watch mediocre programming and to sit atop a strategic placement of ice packs and heating pads. Mainly, I think I have not been writing because I just don't feel like it.

Joy is a fleeting experience. Optimism is a state of mind that too often eludes me.

Can writing bring happiness?

Reflection can provide a space that allows us to distance ourself from our feelings. There are times when writing our feelings strengthens them, giving them the momentum needed to drown out any other thought or cognitive cog that could chain the driving emotion we began hoped to disburse through writing. However, writing can also help us to be able to look at what we are thinking from a reasonable perspective.

Have you ever written out those nagging feelings to realize that you were basing your anger, fear, naive hope on an unrealistic vision of the future. Perhaps you had been reading minds? Someone said something to you that just stuck somewhere in under your shoulder blade and you had been annoyed all day. You write it out and realized that you completely understand the situation and there really is no reason to be upset.

Writing, of course, does not just help us see the cognitive flaws in our thinking. It can also provide a forum where we can dream of what could be if the impossible were true. It gives us a space to map out a route out of the despair, anger, and apathy...

Try writing. I hope it helps.