“Why do I write?”
People write for a variety of reasons. For some, it is a career; for others, a hobby. Some write because it helps them sort out their feelings, get what is on their mind in the open. Some people write to share stories, to express love or hatred, they wish to touch someone. Some people write in diaries to record history, to imagine the future or to tell things that they don’t want other people to know.
Why do I write, even though chances are that no one will ever read my words? What is it that makes me want to slave over a handwritten letter or a blog post? Why do I want to share my thoughts?
In my case the correct question to ask would be. “Why do I need to write?”
All my life, I’ve been writing something: poems, letters, statuses, tweets, stories. I have so many post its, enveloppes, notebooks, diaries (I still regret burning those my ex-husband read and used to hurt me, I lost so many years of thoughts and memories to the flames).
I write to exorcise my thoughts. I drive them out like a priest drives out a demon. I write because it’s therapy. Sometimes writing hurts, most times it helps me see things a bit different, from a safer distance.
I write to experience my feelings even more fully and because sometimes I don’t know how to handle them.
I write to remember so I can let go and forget.
I write to create good feelings out of sad memories.
I write when my soul aches so I can remember that no matter how painful the situation, my heart won’t break.
I write when life is so beautiful the moment has to be captured on a piece of paper.
I write because I love words.
I write to sort pros and cons.
I write because it is how I know that I exist.
I write because when I am face to face with my words, I can close the rest of the world outside.
I write because someday I will not remember anymore, and I don’t want to forget the things I have not yet told my children.
There are many theories for how we become right or left-handed, from sun positioning to location of our liver. I learned to write and read when I was four years old. When I started school, the nuns forced me to change hand and write with my right one. I’ve ended up ambidextrous, which is practical. But I got used to considering my right hand as the strong one so I have to focus more with everything I do with my left hand. If I’m in a rush I use my right one. I wonder if I would have developped different sides of my personality if I had not been trained to change hand?
Regardless of which hand we use, our preferred hand is hooked up to the opposite side of our brain. Our right hand is connected to our left brain – the rational side responsible for language, judgment and intellect. Our left side is connected to our right brain, the source of creativity, perception and empathy. If, as science says, our hands are connected to our brains, this should mean that we can stimulate our brains by stimulating our hands. In my coaching sessions, I sometimes use “hand change” as a way to help my clients shift perspective.
If we worked together, I could for example suggest that you focused on your problem, took a pen and moved it to your “wrong” hand. I would then ask you to think of a solution to your situation and draw a symbol for that solution. I’ve had a lot of “aha” results with this method.
In general, I find it very interesting to observe what happens in a person when she is being asked to do things “the other way”. Try brushing your teeth, writing, eating with your other hand. Try putting on your shoes with the other foot first. How does it feel? What happens with your thoughts?
In a longer perspective, ”the other way” could be an excellent exercise to learn to be in someone else’s shoes, walking their path and carrying their rucksack of memories. Maybe we would understand why they do things the way they do. Why we are different but equal.
When we are no longer able to change a situation,
we are challenged to change ourselves.
~ Victor Frankl
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