Regardless of whether we have had a stroke or not, or any other kind of trauma, I do believe we would all benefit from reflecting on the conditions of our minds, bodies and emotions, in order to better understand ourselves and therefore, make more useful decisions on how we want to move forward.
Absolutely! This is very much like meditation. Although meditation is often thought of as simply practicing "not thinking", the more we practice it the more it becomes "observing our mind" in a objective way and seeing how it works, how it responds to things, how we react to it when we learn that we are not the mind in a very real sense. And as someone who has meditated for 20+ minutes everyday for the past 25 years, I am a big proponent of everyone doing it at least a little.
I wonder what the result would be for couples if before an emotional argument, each went away and wrote about it all first. Would the relationship be better, or worse?
Isn't this basically what couple therapy does, forcing each person to think carefully about their emotional response and how it affects the other? That in mind, I think nearly all couples would benefit from it.
I have a magical (dark magic) ability after the stroke to "not think" on command, as that is my passive state. To think, I have to activate my mind - it is weird. I have used my writing as a form of meditation for sure - it gives me a chance to slow my thoughts enough to observe them and because I am trying to make them visual for others, I have to look from different perspectives. It is great!
Perhaps. But, why would we need therapy then? ;)