Happy Writing Marathon #1 "Why do you write?"

It has been 10 months since I created my note account, and I have had zero posts.
Why did I finally decide to make my first post this time?

It is because I encountered Ken Honda's YouTube channel. That is where I learned about the Happy Writing Marathon project. I felt like it gave me the spark to try writing in a fun way.

"This marathon is not a place to work hard, but a place to enjoy writing. By writing, your life will gently change."
"If you keep writing, your life will start to move."
With such gentle messages from Ken, I felt I could finally start moving my hands.

When I had a vague sense of anxiety about what I should do from here on out, a video titled "An Urgent Message from Ken Honda to Those Whose Luck is Down" appeared. I listened to the talk in that video over and over again, and it helped lift my spirits.

At the same time, having lost sight of where I was going, I was in the middle of desperately searching for what I could lose track of time doing, in order to find what I really wanted to do. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't even remember what I liked in my childhood.
When I asked my mother, she said, "You didn't have anything you excelled at, but you didn't have anything you couldn't do either. You managed things reasonably well, you were busy every day with lessons, and I don't remember you being obsessed with anything."

Looking back, as the eldest of my siblings, I feel like I acted like a "good child" who didn't step out of line, so as not to cause trouble for my parents who were busy taking care of my younger sisters and brother. Even after I got married, supporting my husband's dreams became my own dream. I feel like I never really had the sense that I was living for myself.

So, when I saw Ken's project, I felt drawn to it, and I found myself thinking that I wanted to try it. A little while ago, I started to get the feeling that I might like conveying things and teaching, so I thought I would try this to see if that was true. I have a bit of excitement, and as I write this now, I am feeling emotions that I cannot quite put into words.

The theme for the first Happy Writing Marathon is
Why do you write?

Because I can get absorbed in it

As I write this while thinking, I found myself immersed in it, forgetting the time. It occurred to me that this might be exactly the "thing I can lose track of time doing" that I had been searching for all this time. Which means, the answer that emerged was because writing is something I can get absorbed in.

I had been searching and searching for something I could do with passion, and I was suffering because I couldn't find it, but once I joined the Happy Writing Marathon, I found it in no time. But honestly, there is still a part of me that isn't quite convinced yet.

Because I want to convey things to people

Furthermore, looking back into the past, when I was in college, every time I traveled abroad, for some reason I would send postcards from my travel destinations to the people who had helped me. I remember my mother being impressed, saying I was very thoughtful. When I wondered why I did that, I realized it might have been because I wanted to convey what I had experienced and felt. I want to convey something to people through writing, perhaps that was the thought I had.

To face my own feelings

And one more thing. I think it was also to record and then confirm my own feelings and emotions at the time. And not just happy feelings, but negative emotions like sadness or frustration.

There have been many times in my life when I have felt down, but the period when I was writing my emotions in a notebook the most was when my husband left home and I had to raise my two-year-old child alone.

At that time, I was writing and recording everything because I wanted a counselor to understand my feelings, but as I write this now, I can positively think that it was a very good exercise to accept my negative feelings and free myself from the pain, even if just a little.

After that, I had the opportunity to study the heart, and I learned that facing, accepting, and acknowledging your own emotions is very important. Telling yourself, "You're sad, aren't you? You're in pain, aren't you? You're frustrated, aren't you?" I suddenly realized that I was doing that work unconsciously back then, and I wanted to praise myself, thinking that I was doing something good.

The moment I realized that, I thought I would like to face fun, happy, and exciting emotions from now on and write about them.

Thank you for reading.😊

#HappyWritingMarathon
#KenHonda