How Freewriting Helped Me Escape the Shoulds

You Should Read This

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In 2015, I started freewriting to fill a lonely year abroad in Saudi. 3 pages of stream of consciousness text every day.

After a few weeks, I noticed a pattern. I’d think of something in my life that I wasn’t happy with (there were many), tense up, then write “I should…”.

I should …

be somehow better.

Multiple times a page, in endless forms.

Freewriting helped me break free from the shoulds because it showed that they were there. I hadn’t realized that I was running away from who I was.

I’m still on this journey but since then, I’ve gone from “I should”s to “I want”s to a few “I am”s.

I am happy to be writing. I needed to overcome my shoulds to get here. What shoulds are holding you back?