Year-in-Remembrance with Writing Therapy List-making

Let me go ahead and apologize for being a little delinquent in getting this blog post out for the week. I assure you it wasn’t because of playing hooky. As a matter of fact, I have a little project of sorts that I’m working on and will let you in on the details if it ends up taking flight. Yes, I was working on this new project and couldn’t get to wonderful you until today.

But, I’m here and back at ‘ya with a little listicle fun.

I love list-making!

There’s just something about list-making that makes me love it. I’m not entirely sure I’ve narrowed in on exactly what that is yet. But, I’m all about the lists. And not just lists of to-dos, but lists of remembrance, as well.

So, I thought I’d take today’s post and do a half-a-year-in-review-style summary (a list of remembrance) of what we’ve covered thus far in our Writing Therapy journey, here at Degrees of Maternity. I’ll re-introduce you to each post in the Writing Therapy series by pulling out a pivotal quote from within it.

And, here we go . . .

READ THIS! I’ve Cracked the Code for My 2023 Online Outlook (posted 1/3/23) – And, the one golden nugget of info I can safely give you today (without any reservations) is to tell you that the online mothering I plan on doing in 2023 has everything to do with WRITING THERAPY and its healing properties, leading toward healthy and more quality communication with self and others.

Incentivizing You to Write in 2023 (posted 1/5/23) – ASSIGNMENT: I need for you to contact 2 to 3 people you know who can benefit from a little writing therapy to improve his or her relationship with self and others and invite those individuals to check out this exciting new journey we’ll all be going on together, here at Degrees of Maternity.

Why Writing Therapy? (posted 1/10/23) – The motivation behind writing therapy? Well, quite simply, it’s YOU — and me.

What is Writing Therapy in 25 Sentences? (posted 1/12/23) – Writing therapy is a form of expressive writing, where you write down your thoughts, feelings, and emotions associated with problematic and even traumatic situations you’ve experienced in life.

Writing as a Communication Enhancer (posted 1/17/23) – Furthermore, I’m a firm believer that writing is a communication enhancer. And when thoughts, feelings, and emotions are hard to verbalize, or don’t come out right when verbalized, or can’t be verbalized, they can still be communicated through the written word.

Write to Communicate to Yourself (posted 1/19/23) – The saying, “be true to yourself,” is what I want you to build up in your mental framework for what we’ll be doing in the start of our writing therapy journey. And being truthful with what you write is the only way to truly heal in this writing therapy process.

Creating Your Writing Therapy Environment (posted 1/24/23) – Can we just agree to make our writing therapy environment as cozy and inviting as possible? I mean . . . we’re talking about an optimal set up that makes expressively writing our thoughts, feelings, and emotions as easy as  . . . a-b-c, 1-2-3, doe-ray-me.

The Psychology Behind Therapeutic Writing . . . (posted 1/26/23) – But, do we really want to put up residence in that unforgiving land, where the problematic elephants in the room are never quite tamed? They just take over, endlessly roaming around and stomping out any hope of true solution resolution.

About Guided (Prompted) Writing (posted 1/31/23) – Let’s just discuss in some detail about different ways to utilize writing therapy in your day-to-day. And, YOU decide where to GUIDE your own writing, based on YOUR unique set of situations to work through, circumstances to take into consideration, and level of participation in which you want to proceed.

Writing Therapy Starts With Problem Recognition (posted 2/2/23) – Let’s talk about problem recognition, shall we? I mean . . . the very initial stage of working on healing your relationship with yourself is getting to what it is that needs healing.

Problem Recognition: Let the List Making Continue (posted 2/7/23) – “What identity do I want to assume?” A question I want you to contemplate, but not in the way incorrigible, identity-thieving individuals do. I want you to think of the question in the sense of what tendencies in my personal makeup do I need to get rid of, add, or work out to bring about the kind of person who has experienced the personal healing necessary to move forward (positively) in all areas of life.

Uncovering Identity in Personal Writing (posted 2/9/23) – All I can say is that the lists we’ve created (over the last two weeks) are telling about who we are, but they’re also telling us who we need to be to move forward to bigger and better things that are waiting for us in life.

Identity Placement in Writing Therapy (posted 2/14/23) – . . . a crossroads experience can lead to a displacement or a misplacement, where you have irreconcilable differences between what you’re meant to do versus what you’re actually doing. The struggle is real and it can present itself in any area where your skill sets are not being fully utilized. There’s a gap . . . a void that only a rightful placement can fulfill.

Deception in Perception: A Therapeutic Writing Case Study (posted 2/16/23) – You know . . . therapeutic writing will do that for you. Sharing one’s mistakes with others and taking ownership of those mistakes provides such a mental and physical release of burden. It’s like you free yourself from holding yourself hostage when you do that. You should try it some time.

How Do You Write Your Success Story? (posted 2/23/23) – So, here’s the thing. I want you to take all those areas that you’ve identified need some improvement when it comes to your personal makeup (from where you are now in your identity journey to where you want to be in that particular area of your life) — and I want you to reflect on the matter (research if you have to) and write out the steps that will fill in the blanks/fill in the gaps/connect the dots.

10 Questions to Consider When Writing Your Identity Needs (posted 3/1/23) – So, let me leave you with these 10 questions to consider. My hope is that they’ll assist you in parsing out the action items you’ll need to complete in order to do better and get better with your personal makeup (the inner YOU that makes up YOU).

What’s Next with the Steps: A Writing Therapy Reflection? (posted 3/7/23) – But, the process of self-refinement doesn’t stop there — with the recognition. It’s what you do with what you know that makes all the difference in your personal world (and professional, too).

The Bee-Attitudes of Closing the Gap (posted 3/9/23) – We need to get into a mindset shift of being super-conscious of what we’re doing while working on ourselves. It’s a work-in-progress process. So, we have to continuously look for ways to move that goal post forward as we’re closing the gap.

“Write What’s on Your Heart” Day – (posted 3/14/23) – You let the writing FLY. Let it go where the mind (heart) takes the fingers to write or type. And then, you get to not only go back and read your masterpiece of the heart, but you get to experience the aftermath of feel-goods that come your way simply by putting down some words on a page — as you think (feel) them.

Well, I’m petering out here. You probably are too. I, initially thought I would catch you up with all the blog posts in the Writing Therapy series — all the way through June 2023. But, I think this post is quite long enough. So, I’ve given you 19 items in the list today; and then, I’ll come back next time with the continuation of the remaining 19 items on the list.

How does that sound?

Oh, and I don’t just want you to read the quotes listed and throw up the deuces. No, I want you to pick a few blog posts to read through, especially if you didn’t catch them the first time around.

Okay, I think I’m done here for the day. I’ll be checking in with you next time with some more listicle flashbacks. Until then . . .