How to Write a New Life for Yourself: Narrative therapy and the writing solution

by Dr Jim Byrne

Daily journal writing can raise your personal awareness in a “nearly magical way”, as well as reducing the hectic pace of life and making it “more balanced and manageable”.

In my book on expressive writing, I have included more than twenty exercises for dealing with a broad range of problems and goals.  The first two deal with daily planning and reflection.  The third deals with a start of the day system of ‘stream of consciousness’ writing.

I began using a daily journal somewhere in the mid-1990’s, and I’ve found it to be a wonderful help in digesting my day-to-day stresses and frustrations; generating solutions to my practical and emotional problems; and coming up with creative ideas for blogs, article, books, and business innovations.

However, I have noticed a recent resistance in myself to the writing of ‘stream of consciousness’ in my journal – which means, writing whatever comes into my head. Sometimes I do it.  And sometime I resist doing it.  I seem to prefer doing some of the more structured writing activities from my book; such as exercises designed to achieve a particular goal; or to manage my emotions; to plan my time; or to produce a particular piece of work-based writing.

On the other hand, Julia Cameron (in her book, ‘The Artist’s Way’) advocates stream of consciousness writing on a daily basis – every morning.  And this is mainly a form of open-ended, self-reflective writing, as opposed to specific goal-directed writing – (although goal setting and review can come out of it).

About six weeks ago, I was reading something by Dr Jim Loehr – in Timothy Ferriss’ book, ‘Tribe of Mentors’ (which Renata was reading at that time) – and I tripped over something which reminded me of the importance and value of self-reflective writing as such:

“The daily ritual of self-reflected writing has produced priceless personal insights in my life”, writes Loehr.  “For me, daily writing heightens my personal awareness in a nearly magical way.  I see, feel and experience things so much more vividly as a consequence of the writing.  The hectic pace of life becomes more balanced and manageable when I intentionally set aside time for self-reflection.  I am able to be more in the present in everything I do, and, for whatever reason, more accepting of my flaws”.

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I found this statement to be very motivating, and so I have been doing stream of consciousness writing every morning since that day; and it has paid huge dividends.  I have produced some wonderfully creative ideas; resolved some significant problems; and I discovered that my life was being strained by two psychological drivers, or insistent injunctions: “Hurry Up”, and “Be Perfect”.  Because of becoming aware of those drivers, I decided to work against them; to defuse them; and to rewire myself for a significantly less stressful life.  I now write an affirmation every morning that says I do not have to hurry up, and I do not have to be perfect, and this has had a hugely calming effect upon my life.

I also use some of my own exercises, from my book, How to Write a New Life for Yourself; and I and getting a lot of value from this daily journal-writing activity.

So, if you want to develop a cumulative collection of personal insights; creative ideas; personal growth gains; and greater self-acceptance; the thing to do is to make sure you write at least a couple of pages of ‘stream of consciousness’, or personal reflections, every morning, before the commencement of your working day.

Three pages would be even better; and this is a great way to process stressful life events; and to produce creative ideas; and to solve your practical and emotional problems.

This stream of consciousness process is just one of the more than 20 writing processes described in my book, How to Write a New Life for Yourself.  There is a writing process for most of your likely personal and professional development needs included in the main text.

For more on this subject, please click the following link: https://abc-counselling.org/how-to-write-a-new-life-for-yourself/

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