What I Have Learned After Two Years Of Blogging

I started this blog on June the 14th, 2012, and in two short years it has grown quite a bit, according to my stats, increasing by almost 1000%.  There were two main reasons why I wanted to blog, one spiritual and one personal, which I will entail later.

After two years and 183 articles, I don’t know if I have accomplished all that I set out to do, but at least it has been a learning process for me and there have been some benefits , which were never in my mind in the first place.

My primary reason for starting this blog was a spiritual one.  To those of you who know me personally, or have been faithful readers from the start, that is not a surprise.

I have had many blessings in my life, and besides my children and grandchildren, have been lucky enough to enjoy one of the most beautiful professions in the world, at least in my opinion!

Being a therapist/healer is very nourishing for me spiritually because to be able to help someone suffering in pain, confusion, fear, grief, etc gives me great joy and has been my life purpose.

I consider my patients as some of the most beautiful persons in the world who had the courage to reach out for help.   Helping someone on a one to one basis is wonderful, but I wanted to give back to the universe by offering whatever knowledge I have to reach and help those in need, that I will never know.

The first months of the blog offered more mental health topics and inspirational ones, but I learned that readers were seemingly also very interested in my experiences, thoughts, discoveries and perspectives of  living here in Paris and France, so I started to incorporate more of those in the blog.

Surprisingly, the two most sought out articles have been Thrill Seekers and Death On Mont Blanc and France Welcomes Bare Breasted Femen Protestor, which I can’t understand.  Perhaps thanks to Google, which mysteriously governs the digital world, and whose algorithms are totally beyond my intellectual capacities.

I can only hope that a few people have become more cautious before they consider hiking around the dangerous slopes of Mont Blanc.  The Femen article needs an update as their demonstrations in Paris has turned to acts of violence and desecration.

Rue Saint Denis, A Haven For Street Walkers and A Slice Old Paris comes in third, again surprising to me.  I do love that seedy old street and  neighborhood and find myself in the area to get my monthly supplies of greek yogurt, feta and now some Turkish stuff at my favorite Kurdish grocery.

I went there last week, and can report that the street walkers are still out in force, and some were as outlandishly dressed as ever.    Business must have been slow, as one even tried to pick me up!

Marie Curie, Catherine de Medici and Camille Claudel have so far drawn the most interest of the historical persons that I have written about . I like to use them as examples or models to elicit understanding of how mental health issues can affect our lives.

Erotomania Delusional Love,  Anger, Danger Ahead and Alexithymia and Mr Spock have been the most popular mental health articles.  The Anger post I can understand, but again surprised by the others, as fortunately they are much more rare.

Besides learning that I am practically clueless in predicting any article’s popularity, I have learned that writing is very difficult.  I am a therapist who blogs, but I find it much more easy to express myself verbally than using the written word!

Therefore, I have gained tremendous respect for professional writers who have a spent their entire life dedicated to this art.   I have met a few in Paris and they are certainly in another stratosphere.

My only other serious experiences in creative writing was back when I was in graduate school and the first year of my practice.   I was a restaurant review critic for a mid size city magazine.  My pen name was La Gourmande Romantique, which was necessary to eat out incognito and at least I got paid somewhat by having my meals reimbursed.

Frankly it was fairly easy to  write about food, which to this day is one of my passions, as I am known to sneak in a few of my culinary escapades and  delights every so often.  It was then that I learned one of the most helpful writing tips from a patient, whose husband was a journalist.

Knowing I had an article due in to my editor the next morning, she told me to just start writing as badly as I could, not worrying about words or anything.  It worked like a charm and I still use it when the words don’t flow, which happens more often than I like.

The easiest articles for me to write are on mental health issues and inspirational ones.  The most difficult are the historical analyses portraying how the personalities of  famous people were shaped by their childhood and the mental problems they suffered.

Those posts take several days research and many cross checking of biographical data, a lot in French to make sure the facts are correct and that I get a good feel of their lives.   I enjoy investigating them, but sometimes feel disappointed, after investing so much time in writing them, when they do not seem to attract as much attention, at least initially.

I have learned that I can adhere to some degree of discipline and organization in sitting down to write for the blog,  neither of which I am gifted in.  I am disciplined about writing clinical notes and organised in my practice and in the kitchen, but resist both in other aspects of my life.

Being a very sensitive person, I have always sought out harmony and peaceful contacts with others, so I have skillfully avoiding getting into any real controversial issues with anybody, preferring to keep quiet and keep my own opinions to myself.

On very few occasions, I have ventured out of my safety zone to write about issues I feel strongly about.  I have learned that all it takes is one post, such as I did expressing my concern about the lack of gun control in American, for some people to come out of the woodwork with aggressive comments on Facebook, though not on my blog.

This reinforces my position that I am not cut out to  deal with certain issues that can be considered divisive.  Aggression and anger from others makes me run the other way. I came into this world to help build understanding of each other and to cross bridges of healing.

Nevertheless, I have learned that  expressing myself is good for me.   In being the therapist, the focus is on the patient, as it should be in order to help them understand themselves and heal.

The blog has allowed me to connect with some interesting and talented people from all corners of the world, that I would have never known about before.   It has also been very helpful in keeping me immersed in my maternal language, which all expats can understand, when we suffer from occasional lapses of words, substituting the foreign words from our adopted countries.

My original personal reason for starting this blog was to provide a digital chronicle of my life for my grandchildren,  who live in the states and I can’t see them as often as I would like.  We all have stories to tell, and although they are still too young to even remember or care that I have a blog,  I hope someday they might enjoy reading what their Mimi did here on planet earth.

 I would like to thank all my faithful readers and especially those who have shared my posts on Facebook and other social media, and have taken the time to comment! 

Since all my posts are written from the heart and take at least 6 to 8 hours or more to write, your comments on the blog are my only tokens of your appreciation!

I hope I can continue to share, inform, help, interest, amuse or entertain you!  I would love to hear from you about what type of posts you prefer or have enjoyed in the past. Hugs to all!