Therapy...

I just finished reading an article about ‘writing’ as therapy. The author was positing that it can be very helpful in reducing stress and in aiding one in coping with the elevated anxiety that inescapably accompanies the ‘most wonderful time of the year’. I thought I would put that premise to the test… The results at first appeared to have been inconclusive, to say the least.

Immediately, I suppose, that theory had a validation handicap when it comes to this intrepid wanderer, because there is almost no stress in my life whatsoever… this time of year or any other. I mean, it must be nearly impossible to measure any reduction in ‘none’, right? Undaunted, I pressed on with the test…

The author was making a point that all ‘regular’ folks have increased levels of stress during this particular holiday, and that this malady falls disproportionately upon women. Like with so many things in the lives of modern members of our culture, I’ve observed, the fairer gender of our species does bear a disproportionate burden…

The author (she) didn’t turn her piece into some sort of treatise on any evil conclusions about gender inequities, and for that I am grateful. I don’t dispute the truth of such a premise, I’m just looking elsewhere for dragons to slay at the moment… Anyway…

It seems that writing down one’s true feelings can be beneficial. She went on to say that writing down about tensions felt in various parts of the body can also be helpful. It does seem sensible to yours truly that focusing carefully on various body parts and what’s going on has to be helpful with getting ‘in touch’ with ourselves, and with exploring aspects of ourselves that we wouldn’t normally consider. Writing about those observations, I already knew, is helpful in really boring-in on anything we wish to study in detail, and to burning lessons and conclusions drawn into our memories.

I won’t recount all she put forward here, but I will just say that all she had to offer, it seems to me, would be helpful to anyone who might need a method of coping with… all that holiday stress jazz… But, like I said, I don’t happen to be one of those ‘regular folks’… Still, I didn’t want to abandon the experiment just yet…

What about writing as a tool for working through uncertainty, considering difficult choices, lessening the confusion of balancing priorities, or living with and overcoming mistakes? Yeah! Especially that last one! See, I’m needing to come to terms with a conscious choice I recently made, and I also need to overcome the burden of knowing I didn’t do the right thing… At least in terms of not making the choice common sense tells me I should have…

I had recently concluded a ‘scrapping exercise’… I’d been out wearing the tread down, scrapping off some miles, sufficiently to appease the ‘frugal’ sensibilities of this genetically predisposed miserly descendant of the thrifty Scots; all that, so replacing the tires on ALI would not appear to be overly extravagant or wasteful… I’d needed to scrape off a couple of thousand more miles, and we reached that ‘satisfactory zone’ in Gatesville, TX… west, southwest of Waco. I made the necessary arrangements with Troutdude, then proceeded to his wrenching den…

With that accomplished, I then paid a long overdue visit to my ex-brother-in-law, and that went very well. From there, it was time to go towards Montgomery, AL, for some scheduled routine doctor visits. On that particular leg of recent travels, winter complications began to insert themselves into the mix of physical, psychological, and logistical aspects of the life of this gypsy trekker.

I wound-up spending eight days hunkered down in a motel room to avoid having to ride in rain and/or snow. Yes, cabin fever had set in, and I’m certain that little episode played a role in my decision-making a little later on… when the cumulative effects of weather, logic, responsibility, and personal weakness all collided.

A visit to Nohead City, NC, had to be postponed due to romantic interests on the other end, so that left me with a week or so to kill before I had to return for a couple more doctor visits… See, my GP wanted me to get an echocardiogram and a colonoscopy done… I’ve had previous ‘peek-a-booty’ exams, so nothing new there… No problems indicated, but it was just time for that again, as it had been a few years since the last one.

I was unable to wander far because of those appointments looming just over the horizon… Weather was threatening to settle-in and make a nasty period of riding-less boredom a reality for another week or two! On top of all that, the holidays were right around the corner!!! Hey, looks like I may have a bit of holiday stress to confront after all! I mean, if I’m in the neighborhood, then family obligations carry with them certain duties and expectations, right?

I went ‘home’ and fell into my usual routine… for a week! Eating, sleeping, napping in the recliner in-between sporadic TV viewing… Dang! Another week of that, and… I shudder to think! To make matters even worse, ugly weather had reared its diabolical head again, and it appeared I would have to make the next run to Bama in my car!

Well, right about now it has occurred to me, and perhaps to you as well, that my so-called stress-free life… ain’t! Not entirely, anyway! It also appears that writing about it has proven to be most useful indeed! At least helpful in identifying the existence of a problem and its cause, and indicating a possible direction out of the morass… Not so fast there, buckaroo… With all of this I’d found myself in conflict with stress relief on the one hand, and common sense on the other… I chose the former…

I know, I should have stayed the course and made those doctor appointments, even if it had meant driving back up there in the car. But, I didn’t. Nope, I called and cancelled the tests, loaded ‘our girl’ and proceeded to head west. I’ll call and re-make those appointments in a while, but for now… I’m spending the holidays out on the road… all alone… Very therapeutic!!! And, what’s more, all the conflict I was feeling regarding all of this has dissipated, too… I’m thinking the author who submitted that article may be on to something after all!!!

DDT