Write. Every. Day.

Alexander Den Heijer once wrote: "You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you."

That for me is writing.  It wasn't always that way.  My journaling days ended somewhere around the 8th grade when I put away my purple, jelly-bean covered diary with a lock that didn't work and didn't start another journal until my 30s.

Words though, words, have been strung together on random scraps of paper, gum wrappers, cut out of magazines and taped to my bedroom walls or hung from my fridge with magnets. Yogi teabag quotes torn off and used as bookmarks, Dove candy wrapper inspirations tucked inside my laptop bag.  My mind seems to wander not in imaginary lands or dreams but in fantastical thoughts and quotes that often provide reassurance or a sense of love.

When I was at my lowest point in life, millions of thoughts and emotions swirling around in my head that I had to expunge from my heart, my mind and soul before I would be lost in them.  

That is when I found the power of pen and paper.
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My journaling started off as frantic, uncontrolled and completely private.  Thoughts and emotions poured onto the paper between tears without even realizing the story they would eventually tell.  All I knew was I had to get what was inside, out before it swallowed me whole.

Some may call it narrative therapy, others automatic writing.  To me, it didn't matter what it was called only that I found after each entry my heart became a little lighter.  I began reading the words on the page and reflecting on the woman who got to that point to write them.

I realized I had lost myself.  Instead of growing into the woman I thought I would be, I grew into a shadow of everything I had hoped to be, to feel, to do.  By external standards I was successful, beautiful, happy, "had it all."  Internally I felt like a fraud.  An actor in some low-budget, rom-com drama.  

It was through my writing that I not only recognized the gap, but also began to fall in love with, the way the "inside me" not only saw the world but felt the world and believed in the world.  Even more so - fell in love with my true self - not the woman everyone wanted or needed me to be.

My writing became my own little fantasy world.  Yet I wasn't writing about far off magical lands of Utopia.  I was writing about moments, experiences, sights and feelings that I was actually experiencing.  

Suddenly ripping a rhododendron wasn't just ripping out a plant from my flower bed, it became incredibly symbolic of my own excavation of the things that were dead, dying and suffocating me in my own life.

Watching the sunrise in the morning transformed from not just a sunrise, rather the feeling of hope, validating my belief that the light will find us even through the darkest of nights.

A sink full of dishes and a mountain of laundry became a blessing that I had clothes to put on my children and the time and food to prepare healthy meals for them.

Writing opened my mind to a new way of perceiving absolutely everything in my life.  It saved me in a moment when I needed saving, and it opened a new doorway to my soul I could have never imagined.

I have seen my writing move grown men to tears, children feel seen, and those grieving feel a moment of nostalgic love.

Yet even with the power I know that exists, I was inconsistent.  Wrapped up in what people would think about my writing, if it would resonate with others, if I would run out of ideas, if it would impact me negatively.

In the days and sometimes weeks, sometimes months, when I stopped writing for one reason or another, life around me seemed to dim.  I found myself tired more, drained, floating like an untethered boat.

Until I attended a content marketing course through Coppyblogger Academy and in one of the videos courses the simple instruction to "write every day" was given.

Yes, of course, that was from a business and growth perspective - but for me it reminded me of Heijer's quote.  

Writing every day, getting my thoughts out every day, fuels my soul.  It replenishes my own well by finding aspects of the normal day life to be utterly grateful for.  Writing keeps me vulnerable.  I want to be vulnerable.  I have done enough relationships where we skirt on the surface of life - that is not me.

For me, it is writing.  For you it may be dancing, singing, sitting outside, laughing, reading, walking, meditating, playing a sport, whatever it is that makes you feel truly alive.  Alive for you.  Not for anyone else around you.  Whatever it is for you - find a way to do that and do it Every. Day.

Watch how your life unfolds, opens up, resonates more, matters more, when you take a few precious moments of these fleeting days to do the one thing that lights your soul up.

And you, beautiful soul, deserve to shine too.

Ready to Write Your Heart Free?