Follow Your Feet

I have a little book of writing prompts that M gave me, one of the prompts is: “You have a child and you have written one piece of advice that will be carried in their pocket for life. What is that advice?”

My advice is… Follow your feet, they know the way. It’s about trusting yourself - deep, deep down, to know the way to go. Trust that the missteps are a valuable part of the journey, learn as you go and remember that only you know the way your life is meant to go. So follow your feet and you’ll get there.

Our journeys are not linear; sometimes we need to change direction, retrace our steps, go off the trail we’ve been following and forge a new way for ourselves. I’ve done this before and once again I’m feeling compelled to follow my feet.

I started this blog with the intention of unpacking the boxes I’ve been put into my whole life; boxes I’ve put myself in. Ironically, on my quest to find myself, I put myself in a new box: I labelled myself a “personal blogger” and have made a point of sharing my stories through journal-style writing and personal essays. The thing is, by restricting myself in this way I’ve suffocated my creativity and sucked the joy out of writing.

Week after week I struggle with writing these posts. I get so caught up in word counts and sentence structure and whether my metaphors are clever enough that I lose sight of my purpose for writing in the first place. Instead of being a cathartic truth-telling experience, it’s become an exercise in censorship. I’ve found self-doubt instead of self-trust and confidence.

I enjoy writing personal essays, and I find journaling about my thoughts, feelings and experiences to be very therapeutic. It feels good to share and connect with others, but I spend so much time worrying about whether or not what I have to say is even worthy of sharing that I lose the potential benefits of the sharing.

So, I’m taking my own advice and following my feet. I’m taking a few steps back and changing the direction of my approach to sharing my writing through this blog. I’m unboxing - again.

For me, writing is a way to figure out who I am and learn to better understand myself. It’s a way to try to make sense of life. It’s also a way I express my creativity, though. I also enjoy writing fiction, poetry and other little musings and I want this blog to be a place I can tell all of my stories, not just the ones that fit in a box.

I’m still here, I’m still writing, and I’m still clicking publish; but now, I’m here to tell all my stories. Thank you for hearing them.