WRITING THERAPY

Have you ever tried to write to yourself? If yes, what did you write? If you haven't, what would you want to write? Let's say, like next month... what do you need to write to yourself in the next month that is substantial, ... needed? Is there something you want to tell you?

Last Sunday was a blessing to me along with many Filipino overseas workers here in Hong Kong to be able to make it in Ms. Susan Ople's Writing Therapy Workshop held at the Philippine Consulate in Admiralty. The session was free in pursuit to encourage foreign workers to dedicate 15-20 minutes of peace and quiet to writing.

I have been dedicated to the craft since I was young. I have collected a mountain of stationeries of different designs, piled them up according to sizes, sorted them out according to colors and I save the best ones to use in writing to my best friends. There even came a time that I sold stationery sets in high school just for my pen pals to write me letters written on a nice, quality paper. And probably, my classmates felt they needed to reciprocate a special dedication to how I make a big deal out of all of it when I wrote them that's why they bought from me. I had a little business going on there as I enjoyed what I loved doing, writing. Fast forward to the snail mail becoming obsolete and growing up from exchanging letters with friends, I started blogging since 2006.

It started as a hobby but it dawned on me that it's now more of a calling. I write because I have to. I find myself writing non fiction most of the time and I always have dedication to being informative, inspirational and rational. And it had been a fruitful 10 years as it led me to pursuing a career in writing. The title of my blog goes, "Why I Value Life" because initially, it was supposed to be just for me to write about every good thing that happened in my life that makes me value it. As I grew up, experiences had molded me into understanding life's opposites. How sadness makes me realise the true meaning of joy; how despair makes me understand the depth in hoping; and how darkness could actually lead you to something good despite the absence of light, that it's not light alone that helps you find what's most important in life.

With Chief of Staff,
Susan Ople, a politician and an
advocate of Filipino OFW's.

As I was searching my niche in writing, I became in love with the very complexities that make a human being. Its ability to imagine, reason out and dream. Its ability to learn, comprehend and project an idea. I loved its vulnerability, dependence and independence altogether, and its ability to thrive despite that. I love hearing how other people are driven, what they consider hurting, what helps them to survive and most importantly, why they love. And I believe connection is important as far as having something to share, to give and to take part in. I felt compelled to feature them as I take in lessons for my own understanding and wisdom.

While all of these had been cooked up as I journeyed a decade, it came to a point that I want to take it to the next level so I attend every writing workshop there is. With a dream of getting published someday, I seeked and seeked ways for my skills to get sharpened. Facebook is so good in understanding trends that I follow and activities that I engage into. With respect to its programmed algorithms, Susan Ople's Writing Workshop popped up in my news feed. So much so, it was also seconded by a colleague and a friend that I should go for it.

Because Susan Ople is an advocate of helping distressed Filipino OFW's, she aimed to provide a safe and efficient outlet for them (to avoid idle time) by presenting how writing could serve as therapy.

I have learned a lot in just two hours. Some of the important points about writing that she highlighted were:

1. You DON'T need permission from anybody when you write because it's your story to tell. Many people find it hard to start and even harder to end, once you start but an important idea to keep in mind is that, no matter where you are in your life, you could start from anywhere.

2. Writing is healing. It enables you to disclose great emotions. Whether you want others to read it, or just for your personal use, it expresses something that takes a weight off your shoulders. In fact, great motivation to write comes when you're extremely oppressed or extremely in love. 

3. Writing is a way to find clarity. When you write down your goals, your frustrations, your present situation, it makes it all more tangible that it lets you realise a lot of things.

4. Writing helps you to be good communicators. It allows you to express yourself  effectively.

5. Writers need to write as much as they need to read. And this is where the learning process begins.

This is my encouragement to you who doesn't know how to start, when to start and where to start. Write to yourself as soon as you find time or if you have the resources, create a personal blog like this and start by writing to yourself. Send a notice to your email and give it a week or two before opening it. You'll be surprised at how this task could empower you, nurture you or ignite something in you. Because you'll never know, maybe you, yourself can give the answers that you've been looking for from another time zone.

I intend to contribute to the writers' guild globally and I'd like to start by independently establishing a site where I can max out my creativity. It would be a hard leap because here in blogger is where I started so I have to give full on credits to them. If not for it, I don't think I'll be able to move forward when it comes to writing. I believe this is one of the best and most preferred free blogging sites and I'm glad I started here. In January, I will launch my own site: www.ivaluelife.com soon. I hope that all of my followers here will continuously support me there. Notice that I removed the 'why' in the usual "Why I Value Life" in my blog title because I learned that declaring is another good way of making something happen. And that I would want to serve as an inspiration myself to others as I declare this. Moreover, I will feature articles about people, places, things and events that inspire me. It's basically the same niche. Lifestyle. So, see you there in 2017!!!

Related posts:

1. HAPPY HALLOWEEN! - my first ever blog post way back 2006 when it all started.
2. JUST A THOUGHT OF A LONELY GIRL - An excerpt from a novel I read entitled, "Einstein's Dreams" that moved me because of the power of time against all of us.
3. MY FAVORITE COLOR IS BLUE - this is one of the very first sentence prompters I used in writing. Read on and have a little back ground why Facebook had chosen this colour.