03/26/2018

Can Writing a List Change Your Life?

How the simple act of writing a list can open doors to personal discovery, spirituality

When you make a list, you open a space in which things can bubble up from where they’ve lain trapped in pockets under the surface of consciousness. Fears, especially, often go unnamed because they’re hard to face and easy to hide behind the false comfort of denial. Guilt and regret also get pushed underground, and anxieties about others’ lives that we can’t do much about, and discontents that seem a little dangerous to explore. So, for example, my current list of concerns might look something like this:

The dying of a dear one
Information overload

Climate change and carbon footprints
A friend’s divorce

My spouse’s discouragements
And my own

How to find time for what I treasure
And silence enough to renew my spirit

When I look at my own list of concerns, I see more clearly how the tectonic shifts in American public life affect my personal life, directly and daily, as I decide how much of the Times to read, whether I have a whole hour for Democracy Now!, how many petitions to sign or phone calls to make to my senators, when to write an op-ed piece and when to let it all go, look around, be local, be humbly, simply present and lean into the sun so I can bloom where I’m planted.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Thrive Global.