April is National Poetry Month, to celebrate let’s talk about how you can use writing as a tool to help with your brain aneurysm journey.

What better way to celebrate than by using poetry to help inspire, heal and tell your story, how using words to express yourself and how you are feeling, can be especially helpful while going through the healing process such as a brain aneurysm.

You can start off slowly by jotting down a few words or phrases each day, start a journal, or if you already keep a journal, you can take bits and pieces from the pages, phrases and thoughts that mean something special or important to you, and weave them together into a poem. Poetry can help to express emotions and feelings that are hard to put into words verbally or, if it is hard to try and explain how you are feeling and what emotions you are going through once you start your healing journey.

It can also be a way of communicating with family and friends when they don’t fully understand what a survivor is going through or how they can help, or even just for yourself to help sort out the range of emotions that you are experiencing after such a life altering event.

Words are so powerful, whether through the spoken word or the written word, it is a positive way to help express how you are feeling, especially when you feel alone or lost.

Poetry can also be a way to lift people up. Use your journey in a positive way to help someone else who is going through recovery to show hope and resilience. Help remind them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and how words can be used to help them heal.

There are no rules when it comes to poetry, take whatever words and put them in whatever form you feel best to help express your thoughts or what you are trying to convey to the reader. You can even use a string of poems to help start your book, memoir or book of essays. We will explore this more during National Novel Writing Month in November, as well as introduce you to TBF Ambassadors who have written books to help with their own journeys.

Look for follow-up articles on:

•  How to get your writing started before National Novel Writing month.
• National Novel Writing Month and the writing journey with TBF Ambassadors