When you hear the word alignment, thoughts of spines, skulls and chiropractors may come to mind. Alignment also refers to finding whole-body alignment, which includes the state of your mind and heart.

According to Mental Health America, “Over half of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment, totaling over 27 million adults in the U.S. who are going untreated.” Imagine what that implies for the millions of people who are walking around untreated and unaligned. Our bodies must be aligned with our hearts; otherwise, we are crooked—literally and physically.

When one seeks alignment through talking to others, they may find themselves trusting others without trusting themselves to go into the world alone as their authentic self. If one is haunted by nagging thoughts of the past, often the choice is to self-distract with substance abuse, workaholism, religion, extreme exercise or family obligations.

There is a way to break through the past. The well-kept secret of writing as a panacea does not get its well-deserved attention. Writing helps us get to the truth. It helps us identify uncomfortable feelings and frees us to wrestle with them in the privacy of our souls. Writing is an intimate entanglement and begs for us to get involved.