Amidst an array of high-schoolers, on my way to giving my first big speech, a thought struck me- “What’s the best gift you can give someone?” Matching up my valour and diplomatic mood, a friend responded, “I guess the best gift you can give someone is to empower them.” Her words hit me and lingered in on my mind throughout the speech and the following day. So how do you empower someone? The answer lied explicitly in the very same line that my friend had spoken the other day. Words. Words have the power to empower people, words are the gifts that stay throughout life, words can be a therapy or a curse, words can be everything or nothing at all. But whose words empower the most? The words that come from the within.

Unless you’ve been living under a cave with no internet, it would be safe to say that you must have come across at least two such writings in your entire life, that would have shaken up your entire belief system and tossed your mind back and forth, evolving the labyrinths of your thought. This is what writing does to us, especially when it’s our own. When writing originates from the soul, it often traverses back to it, to heal the scratches and evolve the being. It is like a captain that helps sail a wretched ship smoothly through the tides and tornados of daily life.  You might come to ask whether writing is a skill or a gift. Well, it can be both- a skilled gift or a gifted skill. For some, writing might come off as a necessity, a hunger, a story trying to pour out and break through the cages, whereas for others, writing might be like a serene breeze softly blowing past the valleys of their face.

Buildings crumble, profits stumble and relationships fall apart, but one thing that no one can ever steal from you is your power to write and control your life. Penning down your thoughts is a way of connecting to yourself and calming your demons. It relaxes you and soothes you, only to prep you up to be bolder and stronger when needed. When you scrabble down a day’s happenings on a piece of paper, everything that’s left within you is peace, positivity and power. Trust us when we say that there’s no limit to the kind of power that comes from the within and the extent to which it frees you.

Here’s a simple 4-step guide on how to begin writing and empower yourself through it.

Embrace The Conflict

Listen up all the budding writers out there, conflict is going to be your biggest friend when you’re out there with a pen in your hand and a diary on your desk. Battles, disappointment, conflicts and skirmishes, all these bottle up emotions in our heart, which give rise to an energy. Now it’s in your hand whether you want to displace that energy positively by writing down thoughts or negatively by cribbing around.

Always Carry A Journal

One of the game-changing factors that distinguish creative men from ordinary men is that the former always carry a journal or a diary with them to pen down every thought that strikes their mind. It is like a call from god, sudden and unexpected. Creativity strikes in the oddest of hours, in the most disguised manners and often takes many detours without a warning. It either sneaks in silently under the covers or comes like a thundering knock on the door. And if in those times, you put up excuses like “maybe tomorrow” or “I’m too tired”, creativity treads out and you get stuck up in what’s popularly called as Writer’s block. This block is nothing but an inability to use those empowering hours in which your imagination hits you like a thunderbolt.

Listen To Your Body & Soul

Listen to your body and soul, because they never lie. Make a phone call to yourself as often as you call your friend or your SO. Now you might be wondering how crazy this is, how can one call himself? Well, all I mean to say is, dive into the depths of your true self and try to know the unknown, the things that reside in your subconscious and of which the conscious is unaware. You’re nothing but the values you uphold and the beliefs you embrace, so once in every while, blank out from the materialistic realm and dive in. Get attuned to your inner reality, because that is where peace resides. And when you master the art of talking to yourself, words will come to you like eating or breathing and a diary would become your best friend. This goes both the ways. The more you’re in touch with your inner self, the better you write and the more you write, the better you will be able to know your real self.

Embrace The Positives and Trash the Venting

Let’s accept it, you aren’t always completely optimistic and you can’t always write positive thoughts on a paper. At times, the going gets too much and life becomes overwhelming, you’re filled with some vengeance that you need to get out of your system right away, so do that. Take up a piece of paper and scribble down all your anger passionately, like a hungry lion feasting on a fleshy prey. But once you kick that negativity out of your system, make sure to trash that little piece of paper as well.

On the flip side, when life’s a song and everything’s happy, make sure that you write down all your optimism and save that paper to look back upon every once in a while. This will reinforce optimism and self-worth in you.

This article was originally published by Anjali Lakhi, on Desi Diaries.

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