Truthful Blogging

I am new to blogging, but it hasn't been until recently that I've enjoyed showing up to the screen to record my feelings at a moment in time. Years ago, I worked through the Artist Way by Julia Cameron and started writing my morning pages. It was a great relief to clear my head and heart of people and things that ailed me so that I was able to have a productive day.

My blog isn't highly-trafficked, so I've never been concerned about people reading and commenting upon my reflections, recommendations, and rants.

The morning pages helped me back then, but the yellow legal pad pages accumulated after a period of time, and I promised myself that I'd set about transcribing them on the computer to refer to if and when old feelings cropped up again. I've not started that process, and don't know if I want to. There's something about the handwritten word, each curl and stroke of the pen offering an insight to my mood at that time. Some entries are more legible than others.

There are those who believe personal thoughts and criticisms should remain in traditional journals and the province of a therapist's office. Fortunately, I'm not one of them. One of the potential advantages is reaching out and connecting with others with similar experiences.

I know there are other writing group moderators in the world who have gone through or will go through the pains of organizing, moderating, and participating in a structured workshop. Why then should I be secretive and keep my thoughts to myself? Every solution isn't applicable for every challenge.

The question of what to include, and how honest to be doesn't haunt me as it might other bloggers. I am not out to slander or cause anyone harm with my entries.

Words can carry weight, but anyone who takes away that I'm vicious or malicious doesn't grasp why I try to commit to regular postings. It's painstaking for me, too, to figure out how deep I should go in any entry. When the question of honesty comes up, I try to err on the side of total honesty when writing about real people and events. I do, however, have the decency to never use real names, change venues, genders, and/or dates to prevent any unnecessary embarrassment.

I don't blog to pass judgment. It's my goal to better understand myself and the world in which I live. I don't post entries to belittle, but to see myself on a local and global stage. I often wonder if my experiences are as monumental as I might think, or are (some of them) mere drops in a bottomless pit.

I don't like when others read my blog and pass judgment because an entry offends and unnerves them. Last time I checked, America was a free country, and my freedom of speech was protected by the government.

I don't write to stir anyone but myself. I'd rather have troubling thoughts outside rather than inside, and if others can benefit or guide me toward healing or better understanding, I'm all for it.

I'm not against traditional therapy and therapists, but my blog never closes and is free of charge. Why should I censor myself because some uptight or prudish person swoons on the verge of fainting?

Everyone has a path to follow, and I feel it's rude for another to tell me what I can or cannot post in my blog.