Almost nine years ago, I learned a valuable technique for dealing with emotional baggage. June Hunt, host of the Hope For The Heart and Hope In The Night radio shows, advised that I write down the name of everybody who wounded me. Then I must forgive those folks one by one, placing them (along with the painful incidents), in the hands of Christ. She also said I should do this as often as I feel upset about things in my past.Nine months after I called Hope In The Night, I thought of a new way to deal with my mental anguish. From my upcoming How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity memoir, here is how I used my writing to purge myself of these painful memories.
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In February of 2004, the heavenly Father led me to another effective technique of dealing with my bitterness. I found an ad on the Writers Weekly site that offered lessons on how to write an autobiography. I completed the course but I didn't publish my lengthy life's story in its original form. Instead, I wrote When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies), a memoir of my life with house rabbits, in 2006. Writing that paperback taught me much about the writing craft.
A year later, I published Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School). God used this memoir to heal many emotional wounds I had received as a child. Each time I encountered painful memories of being exiled five-hundred miles from home for months at a stretch, I poured out my heart to the Lord and handed over the pain to him. Writing and publishing that paperback also eased the pain of tormenting memories from my time at that institution. I had fewer nightmares about Jericho too.
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In addition to being a member of InScribe, I've self-published When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies) and Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School). I hope to have How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity in print some time in 2012. Read more about them here. You're also welcome to contact me directly for more information.
I'm a firm believer that writing - like any form of art - can and should be therapeutic... as long as that isn't all it is ... :) At some point we need to look outside ourselves to our audience, too. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI'm a firm believer that writing - like any form of art - can and should be therapeutic... as long as that isn't all it is a habit.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck,hugs form Abercrombie UK.