How Writing My Story Healed My Life
Guest Blog Post By Ingrid Ricks
It was my own struggle with the pain from my childhood—followed by my decision to write and share my story—that made me understand the life-changing power of personal narrative.
I’d tried to write Hippie Boy for more than a decade. But the emotions bottled inside me were so painful that I cried every time I opened my computer to write and decided it was easier just to keep the hurt safely tucked away. Then, in late January 2004, I was diagnosed with an incurable blinding eye disease. In my desperate quest to save my vision, I sought treatment from a doctor in San Francisco who focuses on whole body health. He kicked off my appointment by asking me to tell him about my childhood. Within minutes, I was sobbing. That’s when he said two life-changing things to me.
He said, “Do you realize that you are carrying a huge negative energy charge inside of you over something that has happened more than twenty years ago and you’re still giving your former stepdad and those circumstances your power?”
The idea that I was still letting my ex-stepfather take my power and voice all these years later was troubling. But that was nothing compared to the doctor’s next words. He said, “If you don’t think that carrying this inside of you is impacting your physical health, you’re crazy.”
The doctor then told me about a groundbreaking study that had been done called ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences), which documents a direct correlation between emotional trauma in adolescence and disease in adults. He also talked about epigenetics — environmental factors such as emotional trauma and stress which turn on genes that trigger disease.
When it hit me that holding onto the anguish from all those years ago could actually be causing me to go blind, it was a huge wake up call. It was hard, but I finally sat down and wrote my story and it was so transformational it was like a magic potion:
It helped me unshackle the chains that had been holding me down, completely liberating me from my past.
It enabled me to process my trauma and flip my internal narrative from victim to victor.
It connected me with others who had experienced similar trauma and made me realize I wasn’t alone.
It healed my relationship with my mom. Our connection was strained and full of pain emanating from my childhood. But whenever I broached the subject, she shut me down. By writing my story, she was able to access it on her own terms at a time when she was ready. Three years after my book was out, she called crying and apologized for the past. We were able to talk it out and move on and we are now bright lights in each other’s lives.
In the thirteen years since writing my story, I’ve had the gift of helping thousands of people of every age find healing and empowerment by writing and sharing the deeply personal stories they’ve needed to tell. I know for certain that it’s the key to healing, empowerment, connection, and self-love.
If you could use this healing magic for yourself, I hope you will join Joanie and me for our intimate five-week Write Your Story workshop this March. You can sign up here.
New York Times bestselling author, memoir coach, and inspirational speaker