Stories have Power

I sit here and write this as rain pelts my apartment’s windows, it’s coats them with moisture and I’m reminded of the days when I used to sit at home in my room at my parents house and lie on my bed listening to the rain, thinking about the places I could be, of all of the lives I could live and the people I could be. Even as a kid, I remember I had a big imagination. I would always dream of being somewhere else, of having someone by my side and all of the places I could do.

Stories have power. Writing has power. It’s been said before. I’ve said it before but there is a true power in the feeling of your fingers flying over the keyboard as you furiously tap out the images that are taking your brain hostage. It’s hard to really do much else.

Writing should consume you when it’s done right.

It should be all you think about it, even when you’re at your day job or you’re shopping or maybe even driving to and from work. You should be lost in it. That’s the way it should work.

With the busyness of life and my retail job I forgot how much I loved telling a story. At how much I missed having it consume my life entirely. I love waking up and my head being right there. I love sitting in my chair and putting on a song and just go for it.

I’d forgotten how much writing made me happy and how much it helped soothe my anxiety. I need it to feel normal. Without it something inside me withered away.

So how does someone forget what feeling good feels like? How do they start walking through life without knowing how to centre themselves and free their anxiety?

The question should be why do we forget?

We get busy, we try to do more of what we should be doing rather what we WANT to be doing and that’s not okay. It’s something that I’m learning and slowly I’m getting back there, I’m finding my way back.

And I’m doing it by MAKING the time to add it into my life.

100 words of creativity is better than zero. It’s step up. Add more vegetables to you dinner is making steps towards a healthier you. Getting up and going for a walk when you can’t get to a gym makes your head clearer.

We get wrapped up in making the big changes, in the ones that seem to take us up high, but we forget about the little wins. About the small victories that step us towards our big wins. So this is a reminder to you. Work on the smaller wins. Aim to write 100 words today and then maybe when you’ve done that, try for 100 more.

Get out. Go for a walk. Take the time to put yourself first. I know that for me it’s working. I’m taking care of myself and getting back to writing, which is beautiful. It’s nice to be consumed in something that I know I love and adore.

So this is me calling myself out. I invite you to call yourself out too and get back to what you love doing.

What have you been slacking off on doing? What’s been stopping? What are you changing? Let me know in the comments.