Weekend Funnies: Who's Questioning Who?

Candorville 9-9-09

Friday Free Association Chain

The word is........

THORN.

First commenter free associates with the above word. Second commenter takes the first commenter's word and free associates, and so on.

Remember -- FIRST thing that comes to mind. GO!!

Writer's 12 Step Program

With the advent of a new year, everyone I know is set on making changes. Posts about resolutions have been about the blogosphere, including one of my own. No shock. But how about a tool writers can use to actually reach a healthier place?

Those of you familiar with the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous will appreciate the Writer's Anonymous version that is circling the internet, courtesy of Dr. Stan Williams, whose work I have the highest respect for. Here they are below:

1. I admit that I am powerless to write like I should—that my creative life has become desolate and unmanageable through disuse.
2. I believe that a power greater than myself can restore me to sanity, and get my quota of words written each and every day. 
3. I have decided to turn my will and my life over to the care of God, as I understand Him.
4. I daily search my life and make a fearless moral inventory of my motivations and whatever else has prevented me from applying my butt to a chair and my fingers to the keyboard.
5. I admit to God, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs from the previous step.
6. I am entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character so that I will complete the story that God has set before me.
7. I humbly ask God to remove my shortcomings and expect a completed work in the not too distant future.
8. I have made a list of all persons we I have harmed by not living up to and disciplining my creative potential, and I am willing to make amends to them all.
9. I have made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. I continue to take personal inventory and when I am wrong I promptly admit it.
11. Through prayer and meditation (or medication, depends on how bad off you are) I seek to improve my conscious contact with God praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out in my creative life of writing.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, I will carry this message to other writers, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.

They are based on the actual 12 step program, which I think is way cool. There are other versions that I found on the internet that I found comical and amusing as well. Two of my favorites are versions by Eric Dalen and Susan Sheehey. Be sure to check those out for a laugh.

Let's Analyze: What do you think about the Writer's 12 Step Program? Couldn't we all benefit from a group that uses those steps as their "Big Blue Book" manual?

New for My Blog in 2012

I did a bit of soul-searching about my blog and the direction it was going. Truth be told, I love the focus of my blog. I love doing character assessments and posts on how psychology can improve fiction writing. I'm a therapist. This is what I do in real life.

But I'm also a wife, a mother, daughter, and sister. Psychology and faith works together in my everyday life, and I haven't shared a whole lot of that up until now, and that's what's going to change for 2012.

That, and I'm likely going to start posting three days a week. Not sure about that change yet. 

I came to a conclusion while on my three-week vacation over the holidays. Technology gets in the way of relationships. At one point, I was sitting in the living room with my entire family, and we were all on our lap tops at the same time. One family member even texted me from another room. Seriously!

Where's the connection in that? I made a resolution to spend less time on the computer and more time visiting, TALKING. To do so, I found the best vehicle in the world to facilitate this between family members: a jigsaw puzzle.

I had bought one of these puzzle caddies for my parents a while back (which is just a piece of felt that you wrap around a cardboard tube) that enables you to use table space while you are still in the assembly process. It was gold!

My parents, my husband, my brothers--we all sat around the table and put together two different 1000-piece puzzles together in about a week. The jigsaw caddy worked great.

But the big change was that the television was set off, the computers were left charging, and relationships were nurtured with communication, laughter, and good-natured ribbing when one person found the missing edge piece ahead of another. Not to mention the feeling of accomplishment of a job well done. (Did you SEE how hard these two puzzles were?)

In truth, when the mind if occupied with a seemingly "mindless" activity like putting together a puzzle, coloring, playing with playdoh, etc., the tongue loosens. I do it all the time in therapy, so I tried it with my family. The result was tons of communication about topics that hadn't been brought up in years, if at all. It was wonderful!

True, I was waaaaay behind checking my email and watching my television programs (that I watch online after my child goes to sleep), but so much the better for it. Everyone was in agreement too.  So next time you're around family members, give it a try!

Let's Analyze: How many of you are jigsaw puzzle people? Do you own one of those nifty caddies?

Bonus: And for those of you who only post 3 days a week, what do you feel you lose from not posting 5 days a week? (I don't have to ask what you gain: TIME!)

Weekend Funnies: Hangover Remedies

Not sure how many of my readers like a drink or two or three to bring in the New Year...but regardless, in a therapist's world, that's funny stuff!

Friday Free Association Chain

The word is........

RESOLUTION.

First commenter free associates with the above word. Second commenter takes the first commenter's word and free associates, and so on.

Remember -- FIRST thing that comes to mind. GO!!

Making Resolutions: To Err Is Human

Hopefully you brought in the New Year with some thoughtful consideration to how you want 2012 to be different from 2011. Even if your 2011 was wonderful, there should always be room for improvement, whether personally, professionally, or spiritually.

In that vein, I wrote my column this month on resolutions. I give several tips from a therapist's perspective on how to improve your chances of success, so check it out here.

See you back here Friday for Free Association, as I'm still on vacation. I took a lovely, long 3-weeks off from work and have enjoyed every minute with my family, who lives so far away.