Make Discouragement Stand in the Light

What happens when you get discouraged? Do you know to continue writing? Expressing your thoughts in words can help bring the light back to a situation. It's difficult at times to keep moving; even getting up can be a pain. But words keep coming anyway, even if they're just in your head. Keep bringing them out so you can take a look at them. Write. Put your ideas on paper and see how creativity is struggling to come out of your head and land on paper. Take control of discouragement by making it stand in the light.

Wellness Always a Concern

I'm really ticked that I don't seem to get my blood pressure under control. I became concerned about High Blood Pressure when my husband started having problems with his. I nagged him about what he was eating, his exercise routine and getting enough fresh air and rest. My mom even had a problem until l started tending to her.

Now, the only one in the house with High blood pressure (HBP) is ME! And I'm really ticked. I take joy in my health. I've always known that you can do nothing without good health. So I'm getting serious now. Too much sitting and not enough exercise that gets the heart rate up is one problem. I don't have any excuses with a certification in nutrition and wellness as well as a fitness certification. So you're going to start seeing a lot about the wellness aspects of writing and living on this blog. It might even transition to recipes and healthier wellness tips. But we can still write about that too.

Any suggestions for healthier HBP that you want to share?

New Year

Time moves so quickly sometimes. Christmas took forever to arrive when we were young. The older people used to complain about how fast it came around but that didn't make sense --- until now.

Christmas seems to arrive every few weeks now. Then the next thing you know, it's a new year. Thank God for a new year. When situations get bad it seems like the new year may not arrive at times. And 2006 truly presented some hairy times. The world situation, the loss of 3000 lives (that we hear about) for a war, natural disasters that don't even get a mention anymore.

Yet, the good times help to smooth over the bad. Writing about emotions is a good way to face and heal them. This would be a good time to put your emotions on paper, look at them, then decide if you should hang on to them or throw them out with the past year and bring in new hopes for the new year.

Write how you felt about 2006 and what you hope for 2007.

Way to Keep Focused

What is your color story? Have you ever written a story about a color and how it affected you? I wrote about yellow in my memoir writing time. I used to get sick from the color of yellow when I was young. It sounded strange but when I posted my essay on a memoir writing site, others chimed in about how a color used to affect them. It was nice to know I wasn't the only one with this odd reaction to a color.

Write about a color and it's affect on your life? Jot notes to write about other memories on your favorite colors, colors you don't like, or colors you can't live without.

By the way, now I enjoy the color yellow in my life. Perhaps I outgrew my negative reaction to it or the reaction served it's purpose.

Already December

Do you remember the Y2K phenomenon when so many people thought the world would end? Now we are one month away from being seven years into the new Millennium. It's not the technology that we have to worry about so much anymore as major areas of unrest in the world like Iraq, Iran, North Korea. Situations can change fast, that's for sure.

As the end of the year approaches, reflect on how your year changed? Is your situation different from what you expected at the beginning of the year? Is it better or worse? How are you going to use what you learned this year to make next year better?

Why Danny DeVito's Mouth was Trouble

Did you hear about the segment on the television show "The View" with Danny DeVito? It's all the buzz in the news today. Guess Danny D. had a little too much to drink with his pal, Actor George Clooney the night before and was drunk when he was on the show as a guest in the morning. Seems he talked, and talked, and talked. Now he's in the apologizing phase. The "talk too much now apologize" cycle is getting to be old hat with celebrities, elected officials and other public figures.

Why did Danny DeVito's mouth get him into trouble? Well, simply, he talked too much. A great thing about being a writer is that you don't have to talk so much. You can use your time putting your thoughts on paper. Then you have an opportunity to look at your writing and think about it before you let it go public. You even have the chance to erase (tear up, delete) all of the writing without letting anyone ever see it.

You can write anything you want in private as you practice your writing. Write about your thoughts on the President and the Iraq war. Write about why you're angry with Congress or another politician. It's all up to you.

I think you'll find that you feel so much better afterwards. You get your opinion off your chest. Putting it on paper makes it real and alive so it doesn't bother you as much anymore. Yet, after venting in written words, you probably won't have to vent in spoken words.

Don't do what Danny D. did. Instead of talking out loud, write in silence. Take 20 minutes and write about something you feel strongly about in the news today.

When Tom and Kat Got Married

Did you watch the hoopla about the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes? I tried to watch but couldn't learn anything. To much secrecy made the coverage boring. How many times can you hear that they wore Armani without seeing the pictures? Overall, I love weddings. I often think that if I had started a type of retail store, it would have been to sell wedding dresses. Nothing is as beautiful as a wedding dress. I even look at wedding magazines just to see the new weddings styles. Another fun show on wedding are the ones like Bridezilla and Whose Wedding is it Anyway? Do you enjoy these types of shows? Don't you just love to see the finished show at the end?

What do you think about weddings? Do you get excited about celebrity weddings and make them your focus of attention? Do you find wedding exciting or boring? Write about that for a while. If you're married and loving it, write about that too.

Some Can Be Seen, Some Cannot

How many times do you sit with a friend or family member and say “do you remember when ---?” Remembering what has occurred in your life is an important thing to do. When you write or verbally recall the past, it preserve a foundation for the future. Memoirs are important to build a legacy, pass wisdom to others, and let others know you as a person.

As a writer, which you are, you have to find that memory that matters to you. Writing about your life helps to form the habit of writing more. You learn to write deeper when you remember the past in detailed ways. Writing a memoir gives you great flexibility. A memoir can be short. A phrase can comprise the memoir piece. Write the phrase and the thought can be over. You may not have anything else to say about that memory.

On the other hand, you might write a lengthy multiple page essay. A memory might come up that keeps you writing on and on. Words just keep flowing out of your mind, through your hand, and onto the paper or keyboard.

As with every memoir, some pieces of writing are so personal that you have to decide if they will go further than your personal journal. Writing is therapeutic. Some of what you write in an autobiography or memoir will never see the light of day. Will you want your favorite aunt to know that you hated her perfume that seemed to cling to you when she gave you a hug? Do you want to put in writing the actions you did when you were a teenager that until now, no one else knew about but you?

Take the responsibility of putting those memoirs in sections of your journal or computer file that are for you alone. When you do this, you can let the wings of your mind take off.