{"id":6730,"date":"2017-08-16T01:00:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T08:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=6730"},"modified":"2017-08-15T09:31:54","modified_gmt":"2017-08-15T16:31:54","slug":"rewrite-your-past-prompt-327","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/rewrite-your-past-prompt-327\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewrite your past.\u00a0 Prompt #327"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s writing prompt is inspired by something Susan Hagen <\/a>wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA seminal moment in my life occurred when I was barely three years old. I remember sitting on the kitchen counter, pouring chocolate chips into Mom\u2019s cookie dough. In a nod to\u00a0our teamwork,\u00a0my very pregnant mother said, \u2018Two heads are better than one.\u2019<\/p>\n

A\u00a0few months later, she gave birth to twins. All I could see was that they had two heads, and\u00a0she had told me that \u2018two heads are better than one.\u2019 So instead of being happy that I\u2019d gotten a baby sister AND a baby brother, I set myself on a lifelong mission to prove that my one head was as good as their two.<\/em> That showed up as a double major in college, having two jobs throughout most of my life, and constantly battling an inner voice that said \u2018you\u2019re not good enough\u2019<\/em> (because I only had one head).<\/p>\n

Then I began to rewrite my childhood.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing I did was rewrite\u00a0that memory with one simple change: as I poured the chocolate chips into the cookie dough, my mother said, \u2018I love doing things with you. You are so smart and helpful. You will make a great big sister.\u2019 And when I wrote it, I felt it.<\/em> When I read it out loud to my writing circle,\u00a0it became my truth<\/em>. And since then, I\u2019ve been\u00a0remembering more and more of my childhood as being happy.<\/p>\n

Your mind doesn’t know the difference between what actually happened and what you imagine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s why this works. Rewriting your story from a different perspective\u00a0<\/em>lays down new memories in your brain. When you read that story aloud in a safe, supportive circle of listeners, and we witness it and mirror it back to you, the new story gets installed in your memory and felt in your body as a different, more pleasant experience<\/em>. You also get to see (and feel) things you couldn’t before. I promise you, there are a lot of surprises. Like compassion. Gratitude. And love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Susan Hagen<\/a><\/p>\n

Suggested Writing Prompt From Marlene<\/h4>\n

Did a scene from your childhood pop into your head as you read Susan Hagen’s story? If yes, write about what happened as you remember it. Then, write the same story with whatever changes suit you.<\/p>\n

If a childhood vision didn\u2019t emerge, recall a time when you felt put down, frowned upon, scowled at, belittled. . . remember a time when you felt bad because of something someone did or said. Write what happened as you remember it. Then rewrite with tweaks that suit you.<\/p>\n

Susan Hagen is a past contributor to The Write Spot Blog: \u201cWhat I Want To Tell You<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is co-author of Woman At Ground Zero<\/em>: Stories of Compassion and Courage<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s writing prompt is inspired by something Susan Hagen wrote. \u201cA seminal moment in my life occurred when I was barely three years old. I remember sitting on the kitchen counter, pouring chocolate chips into Mom\u2019s cookie dough. In a nod to\u00a0our teamwork,\u00a0my very pregnant mother said, \u2018Two heads are better than one.\u2019 A\u00a0few months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,105,250,251,10,11],"class_list":["post-6730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prompts","tag-freewrites","tag-just-write","tag-susan-hagen","tag-women-at-ground-zero","tag-writing-freely","tag-writing-prompts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-1Ky","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6734,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6730\/revisions\/6734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}