Since I started taking writing and sensemaking seriously, the quality of my mind has improved drastically. With it - the quality of my life.
There is peace that my thoughts are not bugging me anymore. That I understand the world a bit better. There is insight that some of the thoughts and ideas a brilliant and helpful and should be cherished. There is insight that some of the thoughts and ideas are stupid and selfish and should be discarded. There is freedom from psycho-intellectual constipation.
When I don’t write I lose some of that. Writing is not a given. It is a practice.
It’s also a tool. Like the brush of a painter. It can serve a different purposes.
Sensemaking and navigation
This is essential if you’d like to live a high quality life. Mind is weak and often confused. Thoughts are fleeting. But you need mind, thoughts and emotions in order to navigate the world. Writing them out is a process of disidentifying from them and becoming more self-aware. Creating a stream of consciousness map of a situation that you need to navigate well in life is often creating nuance and insight that are unavailable otherwise. This is essential.
If you combine writing with a level of mindfulness of body & emotions, you may be able to safely process some challenging life-situations in the presence of your page. Self-therapy FTW!
This kind of writing is usually not something that is shared with the world. It’s more of a personal diary (you can even hide and encrypt it with something like VeraCrypt). I’ve lately started using Notion for this and it is awesome!
Sharing Expertise
This happens when you’ve gathered (or gathering) expertise in a specific area and want to share it with the world. You’re showing up as a professional and that matters. You’re establishing credibility and trust. You’re sharing what you’ve discovered, tested and verified. It works. People trust you to guide them and get good results. You’re not waiting for the muse to show up, because you’re not an artist. You’re a professional.
A good example of this is a software development blog. It’s detailed, technical, shows how you problem solve and communicates your ongoing competence. It’s also verifiable - someone who has the same problem can find your blog posts and can solve it following the steps you outlined.
Another good example of this is a coaching website. It’s professional, informative. It shows expertise and it shows you as the expert. It’s about serving your people. It has references to past clients. It has ways of engaging with you - freebies, services, coaching packages. People come to you to solve their issue. They trust you and hire you. They’re happy to pay for your services. You help them get better and they’re happy to recommend you.
Self-expression and Art
Self-expression is a human need that often gets neglected. I didn’t realize it exists or what it was for the first half of my life (even more!). However - it is essential for happiness and a healthy life. Poetry is that kind of writing. Painting is that kind of art.
I have long struggled with needing someone to see the deeper parts of me that were never seen by anyone. Parts that opened up through ecstatic states and cathartic therapies. When the opening is big enough and stable enough, poetry shows up. The best poetry comes out when you’re not writing it, but it is writing you. Whatever “it” is. My good rule of thumb is that, if the poetry doesn’t write itself, don’t write it.
Dancing on the edge
On the border between personal self-expression and the collective unconscious lies another purpose. Naming the unnamable. Dancing on the edge. There is something that wants to get expressed through us. Something that lies at the border of words, the border of mind, the border of concepts and is seducing you into following it into the forest. It shows itself in the courage to say the words that will be too much. It holds the potential to reveal something that you never knew you had in you. But the possibility is not only yours. If you follow that hero’s journey, it will unlock something for you, in you, but in other people as well. It will light the fire of possibility and the smoke and warmth will attract others to come, sit and warm their heart.
Publishing
Writing and publishing are a different things. Can I write without publishing? For sure! What should I publish and what should I keep for myself? What are the consequences of publishing? What are the costs of writing about a specific theme? What are the consequences of not publishing and not writing?
I haven’t figured out the perfect publishing strategy for what I want to write. It’s developing in the back of my mind, but it’s not ripe enough to bud and flower yet.
What is this, then?
This article is in part all of the above. I’ll mostly strive to dance on the edge here. Maybe some self-expression as well. There are themes that are coming up in my process as I do the work. I want to share some of them. The ones that are safe to show up. Mindfulness, therapy, psychedelics, relationships, writing, growth.
Being happy to be alive.
Being seen and being hidden.
Knowing and not knowing.