Everyone can write something. You can too!
In 1972 my friend Tamara at UCSC suggested I write to become my own best as I shared with her how lonely I was being 3,000 miles away from family and friends. I started out writing feelings and thoughts then about life plans. I wrote my dreams and desires, wrote horrible poems and stories and kept writing. I loved the full feeling of solitude I experienced when I wrote and I haven’t stopped writing in all these years. Writing is definitely a creative process, however, its benefits far exceed just creativity. Writing is a healing journey and allows us to see what the mind thinks. How do we use words? They matter. The words we choose tell us what perspective lens we are looking through. Our bodies align with the energy and effectiveness of words because words are our energetic language. I encourage writing as a tool for deeper understanding of who we are.
Writing is an expression that will:
1) decrease symptoms of physical health,
2) discover, recover and uncover hidden aspects of the self,
3) redirect a life’s focus,
4) allow creativity and play,
5) encourage healthy thinking, and
6) bring the mind/body/spirit into balance.
This blog is designed to help the person who desires to write but needs encouragement and inspiration to sit and do so. I will post entries a couple of times a month until those reading these want more. Please let me know your desire and stuck places in picking up your pen.
Bio
I studied philosophy at the University of California/Santa Cruz and became fascinated with the complexities of the mind and its effects on a life. Writing allowed me to explore my life in deeper ways than anything else I tried. I learned that writing was a way to design new paths for my life.
As a psychotherapist I use therapeutic writing for healing and still practice daily journal writing. I studied with poet Ellen Bass, Natalie Goldberg, Tom Parker, Tad Wojnicki, Kathleen Roundtree, and others. I attended up to four book readings a week for two decades to acquaint myself with authors and to find interesting books to read. The writing process is not the exact same for everyone.
As a writer I find it invaluable to read a lot. I read one to three books a month, depending on its size and my schedule, because reading the mind of another writer is how you help find your own voice. Eventually I began to write books: fiction, memoir, self-help, children’s books and poetry. To date, I have written over a hundred daily journals and had dozens of articles published in local newspapers. My poems, short stories, essays, and articles have been published online and in print journals such as Down in the Dirt magazine, Page & Spine, IndianaVoiceJournal.com, LadyInkMagazine.com, American Behavioral Health Newsletter, and more . I have self-published twenty-six books. If I can write, you can too. I certainly didn’t start out thinking I’d get published. But like anything we do, it evolves.
I am a licensed clinical social worker counseling families, couples and individuals and worked in corporations helping companies bring unity among their employees. I help my clients address issues of PTSD, addiction, marital conflicts, life transitions, and other life situations and my clients willing to write usually navigate through their issues in a more effective way.
And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin.
The Mindful Writer, Still the Mind, Free the Pen won the Story Circle Network’s Editor’s Choice Award for 2014.
Never Too Late won the Story Circle Network’s Editor’s Choice Award for 2017.
Jan Marquart - author 