's motd Tuesday July 8, 2008

[Guest guest]

SO-O-O...VENT!

Tuesday, 08 July 2008

Boy, some of you write me some real doosies of an E-mail. No, seriously. You tell me about everything that is going wrong in your lives...and that's okay.You tell me that you can't lose weight because of all the obstacles you face in your lives. And in much detail, you also tell me about those obstacles. And do you know what? I read them, all about them.

I mean, even if your E-mails equal five pages long, I still read every word. And when they do get especially long, they often end with the same words, "Well, , I've taken up enough of your time and I'm so sorry for venting!"You're "sorry," really? Well hey, I've got to tell you, I really think it's okay to vent! That's right, I think it's okay to write down your feelings and talk about what you've been going through. But you should not just be writing down those words and venting for me, you should be venting for yourself, too! This is where journaling comes in. We were first introduced to the idea of journaling in those very early movies from years ago. Even if you're young, you may have seen one of them late at night on one of the cable stations. In them, we may see a young girl run up the stairs to her bedroom and take out this dainty little key to unlock a book she had hidden in a secret place. It was her very private diary. And in it were her most personal thoughts and experiences from her life.After she finished adding some new thoughts to her diary, she'd lock it and return it to its secret place. She had to keep it hidden because no one was allowed to see what she had written but...herself, of course.

Now I was a writer myself, from a very early age. I loved to write my own little short stories and even dabbled in a little poetry writing. But one thing I never wrote down, really, were my feelings.But later on in life, I did begin keeping a journal. When I began traveling a lot, I always took my journal with me. And on those long airplane rides, I'd have the time to write down my feelings and yes...I would vent in those personal writings of mine, too.You see, I think that when you hold things inside yourself for too long, well, you can just about explode inside. It's just not good for you! That's why it's so important for you to let it out! And that's why I told you that I don't mind your venting when you write to me. It's good to let those feelings out.But who else do you vent to? Do you vent to your husband, your children, your friends and coworkers? Just be very careful who you vent to, though. You don't want too many people knowing about your inner thoughts and feelings, if you know what I mean.

Now venting is the first step. But silencing the issues you feel the need to vent about in the first place is the next. What I'm saying is that you have to fix what you're venting about. And the best way to do that is, after you've written down your feelings, to look at those words you've written down. And the next words you write down should be the plan you come up with to help fix those issues that have caused you so much frustration.I know people who've been venting for too many years to count. And they've done nothing about those things they've been venting about, either. I don't want you to be one of those people. If you haven't begun a journal, I'd say it's time for you to start one today. Vent in that journal, yes. But...start working on the solutions to the problems that are causing you to vent in the first place.Love,