Why Write? Clarity 4

WRITING THROUGH TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY clarifies perspective and strengthens decision-making skills.

We all have times of change in our lives, times when we don’t know what’s going to happen next, when the future seems to be engulfed by a vague, gray fog, inaccessible and maddeningly disconcerting. When confusion seems to reign, and you aren’t sure of a direction in which to move or have difficulty choosing between two or more options, writing can help you clarify and organize your thinking. It supports you as you sort through confusion to find clarity and purpose. By exploring the feelings surrounding each possible solution or direction, you gain self knowledge which helps you make difficult decisions and move forward. When you write about your life, you shed light on your reasons for traveling in a particular direction and, when you are in doubt, it helps you suss out the underlying sources of any confusion.

Even more challenging, there are times when we feel out of control of the direction that life is taking, times when there is no choice to be made, when the uncertainty is all there is and we have to wait for what comes next.  When there seems to be nothing to do but sit in middle of all that uncertainty.

I am the kind of person that deals with stress by taking action, and I think that there is almost nothing more difficult than feeling out of control and having to wait for something to happen or an opportunity to present itself. Writing, however, is something I can control. It’s an action I can take each day, no matter what else is happening in my life.

Writing is like making a quilt depicting your life. Each day’s entry in your journal or notebook is a square, a design of your own making, upon which you can put anything you like, using any colors and threads you choose. Over time, looking at the different squares you have created, you begin to see patterns and trends in your life and understand your way of thinking. You begin to form a vision of the overall design you want our quilt to have and, with more clarity and conscious intent, create new designs and stories.

There is no wrong or right, no artistic or non-artistic aspect to your quilt. Every square in your life-writing quilt is perfect and simply a record of your inner and outer world. How is your life-writing quilt shaping up? What (or which) story do you want today’s square to tell?