Write to heal: 2019 manifesto

This new year, we’ve been playing games, walking the beach and hanging with new and old friends. 

A thought that has been rolling my mind lately about how we hold space for one another. 

Yesterday was not all wonderful, I encountered some online trolling. Good old fashion judgement served with a side of righteousness.

In the midst of this online conversation, I had this impresssion I needed to hold space.

What does it mean to “hold space” for someone?

It means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they’re on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control.

The first part of my manifesto this year is to write to heal. I have always believed that transformation and healing can happen through creativity. That is why I give so much of myself to these online spaces and my books.

This year however, I want to remind myself to come back to journaling and writing to heal myself.

We cannot heal others. We can only heal ourselves. And if you like me believe in a greater power, I believe transformation comes through the awakening that we are not alone in this journey and their is someone else, one who stands in the gap between, who stands with us in the fire.

This year I am going to hold space for myself as much as I hold space for others. Finding ways to come back to my own writing for no other reason than to let go myself.

There are deep places in me that continually need to find release. A balm of peace digging a deep well reminding my future that everything will be okay.

I need to forgive people that don’t even know they hold a battle in my heart. I have kept them captive there and they don’t even know they are in the dark recesses of my hearts prison.

As I write, healing flows.

As I remember, the undoing begins.

As I release, peace reigns.

My word for 2019 is peaceful. Not just peace, but a life that is overflowing where peace leads and guides me. A fullness of peace that it trickles beyond my own home and transformative. A practical, life giving peace that leads me towards a greater tomorrow.

What is your intention for this year?

We all can write to heal. We don’t need to identify as a writer per say. You can journal and reflect, read and respond, journal and recover.

It begins with a little piece of a blank page.

And to my online warrior, trolling, keyboard friends who write online to condemn and judge others, maybe if you began with a piece of paper and a pen and begun to unpack the hurt within your own story, you may just write to heal yourself also.

Peaceful New Year everyone

Amanda