"Author, peshi ischo!"

It turns out that when you write for your own pleasure … It turns out that when you write for your own pleasure, you strengthen your health - both mental and physical. Don't believe me? Try it and see for yourself.

In the beginning was the word

The method of writing therapy has been used more than once in medicine. Surprisingly, it is true: it not only speeds up wound healing and increases the resistance of the immune system, but also allows you to fight diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or bronchial asthma. Not to mention mental problems: depression, insomnia, insoluble conflicts with the boss or with a loved one …

You still haven't figured out what to write about?

• Describe five things that you see in front of you.

• Tell about your day from the point of view of your cat (your boss, your loved one, the bystander who imagines your life). The ability to see someone else's point of view comes in handy when resolving conflicts.

• Make a headline: “10 Things That Don't Make Me Happy” - and start writing them down.

• Describe your favorite activity when you were 5 or 8 years old. • Choose 5 words at random from the first book you see and write them down. Then include these words in a short story, at least two or three sentences. If you like the result, expand this story.

• Describe 25 funny (for you and only you) things.

• What thoughts and feelings did the last book read (watched film, listened to music album) evoke in you.

• Write a love letter to yourself, seal in an envelope and hide so that you can read it 5 years later. • Write an autobiography - all your life from birth to the present. But in one very narrow aspect. "Me and Pickles"; "I'm driving"; "Brunettes in my life"; "Me and Winnie the Pooh" …

• Write in the form of a poem (rhymes and sizes do not matter) the recipe for your signature dish.

Photo: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

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Say that you are unable to write anything but a few lines of your resume? Writing is easier than you think. Of course, it cannot be guaranteed that you will become the leading columnist of a popular newspaper or the second Daria Dontsova, but writing for the soul and health is quite a feasible task.

"How to become a writer?" - asked the hero of one novel. “Just write down a pen and write,” he replied. There is not a bit of coquetry in this advice. True, many fall into a stupor in front of a blank sheet of paper. The internal censor immediately turns on, and nothing comes into my head, except: "Oh, something is not coming out" or "Some nonsense."

For a beginner, the most important thing is to write without evaluating the result in any way. Forget success and readership, you are writing for yourself. Do not be afraid to roll a "carriage of nonsense" - someday in a year or two you will find this text and begin to evaluate it in every possible way. For now, try switching to a relaxed state in which images, feelings, and thoughts come naturally. So you get access to your right-brain thinking, to semi-conscious thoughts, to intuition.

Let's practice:

- Sit down, close your eyes, start breathing freely. Without directing your thoughts, write down whatever comes to mind, no matter how silly it may seem. Devote at least 5-6 minutes to this activity, without thinking about the result. Follow the stream of your thoughts and images wherever it leads you. A similar, only verbally, is performed by the client in a psychoanalyst session, where this is called free associations. Don't stop until the set time runs out. Don't worry about the grammar and rules of the Russian language at all, you don't have to write in sentences. Enjoy the process itself.

- After a few days, reread what happened in the last exercise. Choose one of the most emotionally loaded image (the most incomprehensible, the most unexpected, the most cheerful - in a word, not leaving you indifferent) or a phrase, or one word. Concentrate and write 10 minutes only about this, trying to make your text more complete and detailed.

I am writing to you, what more?

Everyone knows that feelings change when they are expressed. Thousands of therapeutic systems are based on this. Therefore, it is not surprising that the creation of emotional texts changes our experience. Fears, irritation and resentment come within their own framework, gain perspective. Mental pain becomes manageable. In letters and words, you can clothe any experience that disturbs you: unforgiven resentment, loss, mental pain - everything that does not let go. When you write for self-expression, don't be afraid to swear, be impolite, or be overly dramatic. The one who writes for himself does not care at all how others will understand him.

Let's practice again:

- Write a letter: to your unbearable boss, to your ex-husband you haven't spoken to for five years, to yourself at the age of sixteen, or to your bitter fate. In short, address it to the person who hurt you, be it a person or a circumstance. Try to write without stopping and without a ready-made plan. When finished, resist the temptation to send this letter or e-mail to the addressee. It is better to solemnly set on fire what is written on paper - this seemingly pretentious ritual helps to bury the past and live on. Over time, you may use parts of your letter to explain yourself to the person who hurt you. Just don't do it right away!

- If worried thoughts constantly deprive you of sleep, write them down. Regularly, before going to bed, describe the subject of your concerns in a special notebook or file. It may seem stupid, but for many such stupidity helps to leave their problems in their diary and fall asleep peacefully.

- Choose some unpleasant sensation with which you want to work. Let's say you chose a headache (or feeling tired, sad, bored). Ask yourself, if this headache were a person, what would they be? Where would he live, who would he work, how would he spend his time, what would he hide from everyone? Please describe it in as much detail as possible. If your headache is emotional, it may start to subside right in the process of writing. You might as well be able to create a landscape out of your depression, an unknown city, a mysterious animal or a painting in a museum - and describe them.

Life is like a miracle.

Do you think that your life is boring, empty and not rich in interesting events? This is nothing more than an illusion! A fascinating and completely true novel can be written about each person. It all depends on how you look. As you describe your life, you will see it more clearly and notice interesting details. After all, writing about yourself means reading about yourself too. You only read later: when you put an end, in a week, a month … And in the process of reading you see yourself from the right distance, a fuzzy picture emerges from the fog and takes on contours. Moreover, the meaning of your life, your destiny is clearer. You have a clearer understanding of your past and where you need to move on. You can also write for the sake of solving small specific problems: this way you notice new details, feelings and desires, and then find new non-standard solutions in the form of images.

And again exercises:

- Think about what you dislike about N. (which may be both the person and the situation: work, apartment, upcoming weekend). Describe what you are unhappy with and how you feel. Reread after a while - did you find something new in the situation? Decide what needs to be changed (in your behavior, not in the other person).

- Imagine your ideal life in five years. Describe one day in this life: who is next to you, what is your hairstyle, the setting, what you are doing. So you will find the answer to the question of how you need to change today.

- Keep a diary: either one devoted to significant events for you, or several on important topics: "My fears"; "My desires"; "Everything that pisses me off in this life." A diary will help you put things in order in your life, and in ten years you will be provided with a great exciting reading.