this is total number six from Thought Box Thread, expressive writing. In addition to the information provided below, MMJ patients could benefit from including MMJ related information such as strain and effects in a journal as advised in this post

the following is from therapy for chronic pain by Beverly E. Thorn:

practice the expressive writing exercise for 10 minutes each day, for a minimum of three consecutive days during the coming week. Write about your deepest thoughts and feelings about your chronic pain condition. You might tie your thoughts and feelings regarding your pain condition to other aspects of your life--to changes that you may not have discussed in greater detail with others; two-year childhood; tear Loveland; or to your concept of self and who you won't be. You can write either in longhand or on a computer. If you can't write, you can talk into a tape recorder. You can choose to write about the same thing every day, or you can write about a different aspect of your pain condition on each date. The goal is to express deepest thoughts and feelings about your pain condition, and to write continuously for 10 minutes for at least three consecutive days. If you run out of things to say before 10 minutes are up, you can just repeat what you have sai. If you find yourself getting extremely upset about what you are writing, simply switch topics. Don't worry about grammar, or erasing, or cross outs. The goal is just write.

Your writing is meant for you and you alone. It is up to you whether you keep what you have written or throw it away. Some people choose to keep whatever so they can can look back over their writing and see how there thoughts and feelings change over time. Other people make a ceremony out of destroying their samples--by burning them; by tearing them up into little pieces and "offering" them to a lake are ocean{I would NOT recommend this for environmental reasons}; or running them through a paper shredder. The choice is yours.

I'm going to continue to post things I feel are beneficial to this community. I encourage you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences, especially if you have been in this community a long time. You maybe able to help someone in need.

[SanDiegoGirl]

Originally Posted by dismalqueen

I'm going to continue to post things I feel are beneficial to this community. I encourage you to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences, especially if you have been in this community a long time. You maybe able to help someone in need.

I think this is very valuable to the community.

Writing is what gives voice to that voicelessness that many of us feel after we have been repressed, suppressed, discriminated against or made to feel as though our thoughts and feelings are unimportant.

It is good to be reminded of the theraputic value of writing and once again, I thank you Dismalqueen, for being the one to remind us of it's benefit.

[Yogi]

More good ideas from Dismal Queen, thanks!

Google "morning pages" and you'll find lots of discussion, how to and testimonials for Julia Cameron, her book The Artist's Way, and the journaling technique she recommends. Toughest part of her method (for some) is she says do it first (take a leak, but no breakfast bathing or medication beforehand). You want to tap that head while the subconscious (your dream studio) is closest to the surface, before your normal interior monologue has beaten it into submission.

Sorry to admit I'm not writing everyday, but I practiced long enough to tell everyone else THEY should, lol.

It's like brainstorming, stream of consciousness, automatic writing...whatever. At first you're writing dribble (I was) and griping how boring this writing is, you have better stuff to do, and damn that neighbor lady is hot! You find yourself repeating stuff (I can't find a job, my back never stops hurting, women don't like me). You see patterns, you gain clarity, you get a handle on what's up near the top of your issues (pro and con) and a blueprint emerges. Former vague hurts become the foundation of therapeutic habits: instead of griping over folks who did you wrong, you start creating chances to do others right. The morning pages are the cauldron in which you cook up delicious Law of Attraction recipes...

Journaling helps you make choices, see choices (when you thought there were none), and decide if a choice is even necessary.

More good ideas from Dismal Queen, thanks!

you're welcome. And thank you for being a valuable member of this community by contributing wonderful information.

I thank you Dismalqueen, for being the one to remind us of it's benefit.

you're welcome also. And thank you for all your encouragement and support.I'm at a loss for words at expressing my gratitude towards you.

Here's yet another reason to write daily, provided by the book, The Einstein Factor

compulsive scribblers

in the 1920s, researcher, Catherine Cox studied 300 geniuses from history, such as Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson, and Johan Sebastian Bach. Her exhaustive survey of available biographies revealed a pattern of strikingly Similar habits and personality traits among these top achievers.

One sign of genius, Cox noted, was a penchant for eloquently recording thoughts and feelings in diaries, poems, and letters to friends and family, starting from an early age. Cox observed this tendency, not only in leading writers, but in generals, statesman, and scientists.

the 1 percenter

a casual trip to the library will confirm Cox's findings. It has been estimated that fewer than 1% of the population habitually engage in writing out Their thoughts, experiences, and perceptions, whether in journals, diaries, letters or books. But, with startling consistency, the world's top achievers seem to fall into that critical 1%

at the library, you will notice the vastly disproportionate amount of autobiographer material written and published by history's most gifted men and women down to the centuries, among them. Benjamin Franklin's famous autobiography, Einstein's autobiographical notes and Leonardo da Vinci's volume is no books, filled with sketches, diagrams, and cryptic writing. Thomas Edison produced over 3 million pages of notes and letters before he died in 1931. The question is does genius lead to scribbling, or does scribbling lead to genius?

Why did these gifted men and women start keeping diaries in the first place, was it because they knew in advance that they would someday be famous and wanted to leave behind a record for the future historians? Was the writing simply and irrelevant by-product of a highly expressive mind--or a highly inflated ego?or--this is the point I will argue--was the scribbling, in and of itself, and mechanism by which people who were not born geniuses unconsciously nurtured and achieved is pure intellect?

Be the genius you have the potential to be.

With warmth,
DQ