The Map Of Your Life - Do You Know Where You Are Going?
Writing Your Life's Story
If you could travel backwards in time, what would you tell yourself? What would you do differently? What would you change if given the chance? Learning to write your life's story is a powerful practice that many people find valuable. It can be used to uncover hidden aspects of yourself. This can also help with understanding your past and present, as well as insight into how to create future goals or dreams. The map of your life is the story of where you have been and what it has taught you about being alive.
This blog post will guide through steps for writing this map of where I am now, who I am now, and how I want my future to feel like. This is a simple outline of the process, but the itinerary and writing style will depend on the type of story you want to write about.
Step 1: Write about your experiences and emotions.
Step 2: Write about who you are now. Step 3: Write about what you want your life to feel like in the future.
It's just a set of steps for writing, so feel free to change this as much as you need it. Stick to my plan and do whatever works best for your journey. Just sitting down and getting started is usually the biggest challenge, so focus on that and everything else will follow.
Step 1: Write about your experiences and emotions.
This can include any stories from the past that are important to you. It could be about learning lessons from mistakes, or specific events that impacted you on a deep level. Some people write by talking through their experiences from the past in present tense with complete sentences (I did this). Others write as they think of something in present tense or a future scenario (I did this too). Sometimes writing as thoughts is easier to reflect on when recalling memories, but it can make it harder to read if you don't add some details later. It all comes down to whatever works for you.
The most important part of this step is reflecting on what you learned about yourself from your past experiences. What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about other people or your environment? How did these lessons impact your life, or inspire your future goals? When reading back to reflect on these questions, you can start to write more in depth and understand what feelings were present during the time of these occurrences.
If there are any events or emotions that seem significant to you, it's worth writing about them and seeing what comes up. It can be good or bad, but there is always something to be learned from each experience.
This is also a great way to work through any emotional trauma that happened in your past. Even if you think you don't want to talk about something, or already worked through it, writing can help you clear any lingering emotions left over.
Writing can be used as an emotional release, so that the story can truly be finished without holding on to these emotions. Writing helps us make sense of our memories and reflect on who we have become because of them. This process acts as closure for negative events in your life, and a chance for positive growth from what was learned. If you are going to write about an issue from your past, it is important to have a positive intention for doing so. I wanted to explore why certain negative aspects of my life were still affecting me in the present and how I could let go of this.
You can also just write about what you experienced and what emotions were present at that time. If you don't know why something is significant, this can help reveal underlying meanings. For example, if you experienced a death in your family, that might bring up difficult feelings, and if you don't know why this still affects you, it can be worth exploring.
What you write is up to you, but the point is really to reflect on your life and what feelings remain with you. Write about as much or as little as you want. Some people write a lot, some people write a little, and some people find that one or two words are enough to convey a thought or feeling.
If you are having trouble writing about your emotions, this can be any time consuming activity that takes your mind off of the problem. Sometimes going for a walk or making dinner can help clear the thoughts. Another useful strategy is to turn on an upbeat song and dance for 10-20 minutes (I like to channel my inner Beyonce). I've found that movement like this can help release any pent up emotions just as much as talking about it. Movements like anger or sadness can be released through intense physical activity. This doesn't mean you should beat up a punching bag if you are angry, but this is an example of the kind of release you might get from doing something more constructive.
Opening yourself up to writing about your emotions can be difficult if you've never done it before. It's normal to hold in your feelings until they become overwhelming and force themselves out (which isn't always healthy). By sitting down to write, you are making room for these emotions and experiences to come out when you need them too. This can help you understand what is happening and may make the emotions easier to work through later.
If you are having trouble writing, this can be a great opportunity to get some extra help from a therapist. Sometimes we hold in difficult emotions for longer than we should because we fear acting out in some way (hurting others, acting out of anger, etc). This goes back to the idea that emotions need to be expressed, because they can't be dealt with effectively if they are bottled up inside.
Experiencing emotions without any way to release them is very uncomfortable and painful. It's hard to think clearly when your mind is full of strong emotion signals. Writing can help you make sense of what you are feeling and sort it all out.
Step 2: Reflect on the past to see how it affects your present life choices.
Once you have finished your first draft, it's time to reflect on everything you wrote. This is a great time to revisit thoughts, memories and emotions that were difficult to face while writing them out in the first place. This can be a relaxing process where you revisit the thoughts from your first draft and explore them more deeply in this second draft.
After going through everything and reading back over our previous story, we can start making connections about how our experiences and feelings still affect us today. What lesson did we learn from it? How have these experiences shaped our lives? These are all questions I have been asking myself while writing, because they are relevant to my current situation.
I am currently in counseling and I'm working on healing from the past. I feel like a lot of my thoughts in the past were created to protect myself, and that's not healthy. Writing has helped me gain insight into why this is so, and how I may have contributed to feelings of loneliness or avoidance in the past. I can now go back and reflect on what protected me during these times, or ways I could have dealt with them better.
Conclusion
A lot of our behavior, personality and emotions are created from past experiences. By writing about these experiences, you can get a better understanding of where some of your habits and choices originated. You can also see how these behaviors have changed and grown over time. I've found that knowing where my current thoughts and feelings come from has helped me deal with them more effectively.
I'm going to go back to my first draft now, because I think I left some important things out. These are people or situations that I want to write about, or want to express a different kind of perspective on previously written events.
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