Therapeutic in Half-baked musings

I think we all need therapeutic solutions of some form.

Not just my family and friends and people who are experiencing similar struggles.

Everyone. Every human on the planet needs a way to transform the emotional energy and tangled thoughts that build inside of them into something they can express and hear back.

Yesterday I was part of a meeting where uncomfortable truths were spoken and difficult questions were asked. For a while it got tense. But somehow, we managed to finally break through to get across that we're trying to help, not judge or punish. Once the penny dropped, it was like a revelation. Not when we said it, but when they said it back to themselves. It was like therapy.

This journal is currently my therapy. I've switched from exploring a single thought weekly, to mindfully journalling my thoughts every day. It helps, a lot.

Singing helps too. Belting out relevant or escapist lyrics in full voice gives me a real sense of having deeply expressed myself, it does something to my brain.

I wonder if we're the only nation that says "sorry" the second we start to cry, as if our pain is a burden to others. Yet we argue and get angry without an upfront apology, even though our wrath is much more damaging than our vulnerability.

I suppose it's cultural. I fully admire the "carry on" spirit of the generations before us, for their ability to go on despite all of the trauma they faced. I understand it was a survival mechanism and I guess they must have found some small ways to express themselves too, to prevent it all becoming too much.

I realise too that my experience might be different to that of others. I grew up in a male dominated household in a military family, so perhaps real emotions were expressed less in our home than in other peoples. 

But outside of survival mode, it's not healthy to push on and on and bury your emotions, so I'm glad we now live in a time where mindfulness is heavily promoted, therapeutic solutions are normalised, and pain is something we can start to express without apologising.


#justgettingby