Therapy In Effort

As a pleasant yet unforeseen side effect, my recent progress has been very therapeutic. This is a good thing! Right? Right? ... Yes, here I go again, questioning it. Silly me. Thankfully, It's easy to identify why I'm questioning this at all. It goes back to my point about feeling that I might need to suffer in some way to write this novel well. I came to terms with that foolishness, but I wasn't expecting positive gains in the realm of personal wellness. This is probably because I see 'non-negatives' as positives, when in reality, they are just 'neutrals'. I may be digressing from the original point, but this strikes me as a more interesting thought exercise. It's easy to assume that anything that needs to be pushed will have an energy cost that slightly exceeds the effort. This is always true, at base, but not everything that draws energy creates a deficit. I can think of a few examples, but I'm trying to avoid being too abstract, because there is a point here that is very easy for me to miss entirely! Creating a cycle in which one can enjoy challenging work and reap therapeutic benefits despite the energy cost is healthy. Loss of energy is not an inherent negative: a vehicle doesn't consume fuel just so it can drive, it does so for the purpose of driving somewhere. And if that destination is worth the cost of the fuel, then the payoff is obvious. There is another part to this as well, but it's a separate point. I'll pick it apart soon. For now, it's good enough to realize this: Putting effort into something I'm enjoying is fulfilling and therapeutic: that's a good enough reason to do it all on its own.