How to Keep Yourself Safe While Writing About the Hard Stuff 4c3437

In this video, I discuss a dozen concrete steps you can take when you’re approaching tough, traumatic or potentially triggering subject matter in your writing. I discuss the following strategies in depth: * Use timed writings and stop when the predetermined time is over. Knowing there is an ending time can give you permission to dive deeply into your writing. Knowing there is a time to stop builds a natural container. Even ten minutes can be intense and revealing. Open-ended writing time can leave you feeling too raw and overwhelmed. * Explore any issues you may have about writing or keeping a journal. Many people are hesitant to write because their writing was criticized or used against them. Others have had journals read and their privacy violated in the past. Here are some tips to strategize working with these issues. * Determine the best time and conditions in which you will write. It’s good to have time to digest and process what comes up in a writing session. If you’re writing about any difficult material or you think challenging material may come up, don’t sandwich your writing right between activities and obligations. * Create rituals to ease yourself in and out of your writing time. Lighting a candle, playing music, sitting in a special spot, prayer, meditation, yoga, or stating an intention are just a few of the ways to mark the beginning or end of an exploratory writing session. * Consider ways to ensure privacy and lack of interruptions. Privacy is essential. Keeping your notebook in a locked drawer, emailing it to a trusted friend, or writing “This is the private journal of….” are several potential ways to find privacy. * Carefully choose people to share your writing with. It’s easy to share inappropriately, revealing too much to people who are not able to respect your words or respond well to the intimacy of the sharing. * Don’t flood yourself by trying to go too fast or too deep. Keep it simple at first. Try one or two exercises at a time. See how they go. * Start with simple open-ended prompts or ‘safer” prompts before moving on to more challenging ones. Save the most intense prompts or scene writing until you’ve established that you can handle the repercussions. * Create a realistic self-care plan. What will you do if you feel triggered by your writing? Come up with strategies for self-care before you need to use them. * Use writing not just to reveal, but also to ground. Consciously choose to write to prompts that enhance resilience, build strength, and reinforce your capacity for joy. * Re-evaluate the appropriateness of writing as a therapeutic tool if you feel flooded or feel overwhelmed by what you write. Make sure you have the necessary self-nurturing skills and resources in place before proceeding. * Notice topics you continually avoid as well as your obsessions. What someone doesn’t write about can be as revealing as the topics they return to again and again. Subscribers, as always, I invite you to share your responses in the comments. The Writer's Journey with Laura Davis is a reader-ed publication. To receive new posts and my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laurasaridavis.substack.com/subscribe 5s112i