Writer

When I learned to think about what I was doing in words, I realized how important words are. They helped me put ideas together in a logical way. They helped me compare what I believed to what I saw and experienced in real life. They helped me infer things that I haven't yet experienced, or hope not to, or might not ever. I realized, too, how important the right words are. People had always told me, "Don't take it personally." I didn't understand that. But I did understand a different way of saying it, "Choose not to be hurt by this." Of course, I hadn't really changed. I was still the same person, likely to respond in the same way to the same stimulus. But I wanted to make different choices. I helped myself do that by saying things to remind me to keep a cool head -- "It's not about me." "There's always a good reason why somebody does something." "Whatever works!" After a while, I started writing it all down. And writing turned out to be an almost magical thing that helped me to think better. Try it, you'll see!