Tag Archives: healing
Steven Handel, in his article, “The Power of Dark Humor: The Healing Effects of Joking About Death, Illness, and Depression,” makes this observation: “One big aspect of mental health is that we must give ourselves permission to be negative every now and then, and learning to channel our dark side in a healthy way is important for becoming a fully developed human being.”1 The focus of the article, as the title suggests, is how allowing trauma’s darkness to be expressed…..
I am sure that we all have daydreamed or reminisced about events from our past or our current attitudes towards current events and situations. At such time, I often wander through the dimly lit hallways, attics, and cellars of my mind, poking at crumpled piles of refuse on the floor, opening long abandoned closets and crawl spaces, and leafing through stacks of weathered books and documents. What I find sometimes uncovers pleasant memories, and sometimes not-so pleasant ones. Past events…..
Roger Kemenetz in his piece, “Dreams and the Poetic Imagination,” wrote that Wordsworth, one of literature’s great poets, found value in “restorative images” for healing the “impaired imagination” through contemplation of historical dramatic events that Wordsworth referred to as “spots of time.”1 What Wordsworth learned was born out, I believe, through a study conducted at the University of Birmingham that demonstrated that intentionally recalling memories can lead to forgetting other experiences. In other words, the study suggested that the recall…..
Words have the power to hurt or to heal. This is a truth acknowledged by philosophers, psychologists, religious figures, and the common man or woman throughout the world since the beginning of time. The Buddha is quoted as saying, “Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change the world.” Contemporary Christian music artist Toby Mac in his song, “Speak Life,” says, “Mountains crumble with every syllable, hope can…..
In my last blog post, I talked about why I had decided to organize Reborn and Other Versifications into three parts: Lost in the Dark, Through the Twilight, and Emerge in the Light. In that blog post, I described, in short, how writing poetry was integral to my healing process. In this blog post, I want to go into more detail about how writing poetry facilitated that healing process. I may not get through this in one post. So, please…..
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would one day be so bold as to publish a collection of poems. Over the span of my life, I was guilty of writing a poem now and then, usually sitting alone in some bar, pen in hand, scribbling away on a napkin. Such poems were inspired by the moment and not given too much thought. A couple were gems that I held on to; but, most were destined for…..