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The ABC's of Healing

I have neglected my blog. I have not exactly neglected writing, though lately it has become more personal and at this point fairly raw. In other words, I am not ready to make it public – perhaps someday, but not this day. But, I do believe I need to continue practicing the art of writing and sharing my thoughts and ruminations with others.

Lately I am pondering what authentic healing looks like. More specifically, what do I know about the healing journey as a fellow traveler and a therapist? I think I know a few things.

I am facilitating a group discussion of the book, Living Your Strengths. For those of you unfamiliar with the book, it was published by Gallup and is a Christian spin-off of the original book, Now, Discover Your Strengths. Aside from the brilliant marketing that does not permit book sharing, each book comes with a code to take the online strengthsfinder test and discover what your top five (out of thirty-four) signature strengths are.

I was slightly surprised by my strengths. Input (storing of ideas), intellection (I like to think), learner (I like to learn), deliberative (I privately think about choices and consequences), and achiever (I want to accomplish something every single day.

I should clarify my surprise. The test highlighted my nerdiness, and long ago I embraced my inner nerd. But I was surprised by the degree of the privatization of these strengths – I could live completely alone in a cabin tucked away in the woods and find contentment. My strengths do not necessarily include people, though I would argue they are wonderful tools as a therapist. Shocking I am doing the work I love and my strengths line up with it.

This private nature that I carry about got me thinking. I can hoard all my ideas and musings to myself, or I can begin to share them. So, I challenged myself to step out of my brain and be more intentional about putting some of these thoughts on paper (or the electronic version of paper.)

Between now and December 9th, I have a goal of writing about healing using the alphabet. Or to say it better, I want to use 26 thematic (and alphabetical) words to write about healing. The goal of December 9th is not magical, liturgical, or anything special. I am having surgery on December 12th and will be out of commission for a few weeks. The goal is therefore practical. Stay in rhythm without having a large gap to distance me from the thoughts and discipline of writing.

The next entry will focus on the letter “A”. “A” as in acceptance. Can you tell I have preschoolers in my house?

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Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 4, 2011 at 11:52 AM

    Grateful.

    And...can't resist the urge:
    strategic
    --ideation
    ----empathy
    ------connectedness
    --------developer

    ReplyDelete
  2. LisaNovember 25, 2011 at 12:17 PM

    Just now getting on board. Thankful I can take time to read them.

    Connectedness, Responsibility, Empathy, Belief, Relator

    ReplyDelete

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