DBT & Amy teach that opposite action is the key to reaching the goal of getting out of hell. I'm not going to feel like doing something until I'm in the act of doing it. So far, I've used opposite action to get myself to work and various social groups.
Now that my reading comprehension and writing ability are back as well as a little sprouting of self-love, I'm more ready than ever to write my memoir. The key to writing a book about intense emotions is going to be mood-independent behavior, the cornerstone of which is opposite action.
This means writing when I feel least like writing, believing my words matter when I feel the smallest and loneliest.
This blog is not my book, published chapter by chapter. Rather, it is it's own story. This blog is a diary of writing a memoir. Check in with me, sit with me, as I write day by day until my memoir is published.
It may seem counterintuitive - writing twice as much as necessary - 1x a day for my book and 1x a day for this blog. But, we all do double work. We sweep at our job and then in the kitchen at home. We make phone calls and send emails for work, and then do the same in our personal time. Writing for my book is writing for my job, and writing for this blog is writing in my personal time, like writing for my health. Like how we exercise or go for a jog and then spend all day on our feet at work.
There are two benefits I see: the first is to hold myself accountable, and the second is to get used to the act of publishing. Putting my authentic self out into the world, little by little, is a new muscle of its own. My measuring of this journey are simply: 1) write for 30 min on each project 5 out of 7 days, and 2) publish for my blog whatever happens that day, as little or big as it is.
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