Susan Wingert
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susanwingert.bsky.social
Susan Wingert
@susanwingert.bsky.social
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Health sociologist, writer, editor, Amherst Writers & Artists-certified facilitator
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susanwingert.bsky.social
I love this quote from Naomi Shihab Nye about the transformative power of #writing. I see this so often in workshops. Writing about it allows people to release things they are holding, see it anew, and begin crafting a narrative understanding of it.
One thing l've tried to say to groups over the years, groups of all ages, is that writing things down, whatever you're writing down, even if you're writing something sad or hard, usually you feel better after you do it. Somehow, you're given a sense of, "OK, this mood, this sorrow I'm feeling, this trouble I'm in, l've given it shape. It's got a shape on the page now. So l can stand back, I can look at it, I can think about it a little differently. What do I do now?" Very rarely do you hear anyone say they write things down and feel worse. They always say, "I wrote things down. This isn't quite finished. I need to work on it." But they agree that it helped them sort of see their experience, see what they were living. That's definitely a gift of writing that is above and beyond any sort of vocational - how much somebody publishes. It's an act that helps you, preserves you, energizes you in the very doing of it. Naomi Shihab Nye
January 19, 2025 at 10:57 PM