As a functioning member of society, we are supposed to be cool in our day-to-day interaction and subordinate our feelings to the task at hand. When we talk with someone with whom we do not feel completely safe, our social editor jumps in our full alert and our guard is up. In Germany, on Monday night, 18 July 2016, a teen boy, identified as a seventeen-year-old Afghan refugee, who was armed with an ax and a knife, injured at least four people on a train in Bavaria, Germany. Just a few weeks ago, the teenage boy had also recently moved in with a foster family, and out of a house for unaccompanied refugee children. The suspect’s motives were unclear, he allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar,” which means God (Allah) is great. Islamic State group claims responsibility for this recent train attack in Germany. The young man was supposedly an Islamic State’s soldier, who carried out the attack, in response to calls to target nationals of countries that take part in the coalition fighting ISIS. I want to make it clear that there are other ways to access your inner World of feelings. One of the most effective is through writing. Most of us have poured out our hearts and souls in angry, accusatory, plaintive, or sad letters after people have betrayed or abandoned us. Doing so almost always makes us feel better, even if we never send them. When you write to yourself, you do not have to worry about other people’s judgment—you just listen to your own thoughts and let their flow take over. Later, when you reread what you wrote, you often dis cover surprising truths. Writing is different than talking to people who make you feel uneasy. If you ask your editor to leave you alone for a while, things will come out that you had no idea were there. You are free to go into a sort of trance state in which your pen (or keyboard) seems to channel whatever bubbles up from inside. You can connect those self-observing and narrative parts of your brain without working about the reception you will get.

In the practice called free writing, you can use any object as your own personal test for entering a stream of associations. Simply write the first thing that comes to your mind as you look at the object in from of you, but you may want to keep this information private, and then keep going without stopping, rereading, or crossing out. A wooden spoon on the counter, for instance, may trigger memories of making tomato sauce with your grandmother—or of being beaten in a house for children without family. The teapot that has been passed down for generations may take you meandering to the furthest reaches of your mind to the loved ones you have lost or family holidays that were a mix of love and conflict. Soon, an image will emerge, then a memory, and then a paragraph to record it. Whatever shows up on the paper will be a manifestation of associations that are uniquely yours. My patients often bring in fragments of writing and drawings about memories that they may not yet be ready to discuss. Reading the content out loud would probably overwhelm them, but they want me to be aware of what they are wrestling with. I tell them how much I appreciate their courage in allowing themselves to explore hitherto hidden parts of themselves and in entrusting me with them. These tentative communications guide my treatment plan—for instance, by helping me to decide whether to add somatic processing, neurofeedback, or prayer to our current work. Keeping things to yourself is viewed as the glue of civilization; however, people pay a price for trying to suppress being aware of their pain. You are required to release deeply personal experiences that you find very stressful or traumatic. Write about what is currently going on in your life; the details of the traumatic or stressful event; and recount the facts of the experience, your feelings, and emotions about it, and what impact you think this event had on your life.

To prevent from having a violent burst of emotions, I am telling you to write and keep your information private so you can release whatever you are feeling and start to recover. If it is something you do not want anyone to read or know about, then delete the document or shred the paper after so you can have your information protected. Spent fifteen minutes, on four consecutive days, while sitting alone in a small room expressing yourself. Some people will reveal secrets they have never told anyone. Many people will cry as they write. Most people write about the death of a family member being the most traumatic event they ever experienced, but 22 percent of women and 10 percent of men reported sexual trauma prior to the age of seventeen. I have heard many cry out against sin in the pulpit who yet can abide it well enough in the heart, house, and conversation. People who abuse you have a cloak of hypocrisy always ready to cover the dirty stable. Both religion and virtue have received ore real discredit from hypocrites than the wittiest profligates or infidels could ever cast upon them. It is also interesting to point out that these students reported histories of major and minor health problems: cancer, high blood pressure, ulcers, flu, headaches, and ear aches. Those who reported a traumatic sexual experience in childhood had been hospitalized an average of 1.7 days in the previous year—almost twice the rate of the other. People who wrote about their trauma had a 50 percent decrease in doctor’s visits, compared with others who did not. Writing about one’s deepest thoughts and feelings about traumas will improve your mood, and will result in a more optimistic attitude and better physical healthy over the long run because it will help you think about what you felt during those times and realize how it affected you. Thinking helps people to resolve past experiences and will provide a peace of mind, it will help you understand how you felt and why. Seek forgiveness of your LORD (Allah, God, Jehovah, Djevel) and He will let you enjoy a good provision for a specified term and give every doer of favor their favor. However, if you turn away, then indeed, I fear for you the punishment of the great day.