How To Journal For Mental Health (Talk)

Writing is liberating,

It is therapeutic and is the gateway to your thoughts.

Welcome to this talk on how to journal for mental health,

In which I want to give you an idea of how important journaling is and how beneficial it can be to supporting you in life,

Particularly if you're dealing with anxiety,

Trauma,

Depression,

Confidence issues,

Overwhelm,

Anger,

Any mental health issues.

I'm Chantal,

I'm a psychotherapist and a Cachic Record Reader and I've found writing to be such a powerful tool to support you through really tough times.

And the wonderful thing is that once you're through the tough times,

You can still keep writing to support you in how you are in life,

To give gratitude and joy and just writing things down,

Because we're always going to have something that's going to be bothering us or we want to share,

We want to feel excited about,

So your journal becomes your sacred place.

Your sacred place where you can write things down,

Some of that feels safe and that is yours and you express yourself the way you want to feel.

But initially that can seem incredibly daunting.

Where do I start?

What do I do?

And this is what I want to show you and how to help you create your own way of doing this.

Now just remember,

Writing is a powerful tool to support you through tough times as mentioned,

But it's not a quick fix.

And it's really important to do it your own way.

Otherwise,

You either won't get started or you give up as you don't do it,

Or you can't relate to what you've been told or suggested to do.

So where do you start?

How?

When and where?

And you may be sitting here thinking,

What on earth am I going to say?

You think you actually have nothing to write about.

And that is when your critique comes out to play as you look at the blank page with all the reasons why you shouldn't or can't.

Like,

I'm not good enough.

I can't write.

I'm not a writer.

I'm not good at grammar.

I can't do this.

What's the point?

This feels stupid.

This is silly.

Does this all sound familiar?

When I first started writing,

I'd read a wonderful book by Julia Cameron,

The Artist's Way,

And what she calls them is the morning writing.

That you just start and you write until you've completed and filled out three A4 pages.

I never thought I was able to do that.

So what she suggests is,

And I would do the same of course,

Is simply sit down each morning and if you don't know what to say,

Is just start with your name and write it over and over again.

Or even just write,

I don't know what to write.

You can write about your day,

Such as that you got up in the morning,

I had a shower,

I got dressed,

What you're going to eat and what you're going to do.

Because what you'll find is you may be surprised at how this can unleash what is actually on your mind and how you're feeling.

And this is actually a safe place to get you started because writing about your deep inner thoughts can be scary and crack you wide open.

And as mentioned before,

What you can do is write about that you do feel silly.

I can't.

Because what you're doing is starting to pour out your words.

You're starting to get things down on paper and that is what's important.

It's like when an artist stands in front of a blank page or a blank canvas.

They don't know where to start.

What do they do?

They just pick up the paintbrush,

Put some paint on it,

Might be a crayon,

Whatever it is,

And they get started.

And this is what you're basically doing.

You're picking up your pen and writing in your journal.

Now you can type it all out on your laptop or phone,

But there's something really powerful about writing,

Using your favourite pen and having a special notebook.

It just somehow seems to anchor it in more.

Try it out and see what works best for you.

So all you need to do is just become aware of what comes up as you write,

Because what you'll find is what you're doing at this macro level,

At this really at this basic level,

Is you're actually showing you where you are and what you're doing in the rest of your life.

Where are you holding yourself back?

Where are you not feeling enough?

Are you comparing yourself to others?

Where are you feeling disloyal about writing?

Because that can also come up too.

How dare I write about this?

You feel guilty.

I can't do that.

I can't say that.

Because as you start writing,

You might write things about your family members,

Friends,

The community,

Anything that comes up that's happened for you in your life,

Whether it be childhood,

You might have gone through grief,

You might have been experiencing depression,

PTSD,

Stress,

All these things can come up and you feel guilty about writing them.

You feel guilty about saying horrible things about people who hurt you.

But this is why it's called your journal in your sacred space.

It's a safe place for you to go to.

So make sure that's how you feel about it.

You might even put somewhere private and make sure no one can read it.

There's nothing worse than feeling someone might read it.

And if they do,

It's really broken of trust and promise.

For me,

It was about starting working through my childhood experiences and then the unexpected death of my father when I was 36.

And I just kept writing.

I just kept writing and writing.

Then it became very powerful when I had a car accident that truly triggered me into PTSD in my early 40s.

Because initially after I had that accident,

I actually couldn't put anything into words.

I didn't know how to do it.

I didn't know what to say,

What to do,

How to word it,

Despite having lots of therapy and a lot of support from my GP.

And slowly through that,

I was able to come back to writing.

Because when you write,

It helps you to start make sense of things.

It starts to help you put words to what you're experiencing.

Because when you've never been through something like that,

Something that's really turned your life upside down,

How do you put it into words?

Because often we don't talk about things,

Not even often,

We don't talk about things that are painful.

We don't know how.

We don't know how to be around someone.

So this journal,

This writing becomes yours.

It becomes your own words,

Your own experience,

How you're feeling.

Because what you'll find is when you've gone through something really powerful,

You can feel shame.

You can feel embarrassed.

You feel you should have it all together.

Because that's how I felt a lot.

How's it going to get out into life?

I've been strong independent.

How's it going to run a business?

Would anyone trust me?

When all I wanted to do was hide,

Curl up and actually I wanted to die.

All I wanted to do was stay in bed,

The duvet over my head and not show my face to anyone.

And this is where writing comes in as another form of support.

So what does writing actually do?

As already mentioned,

It starts putting words into what you've experienced.

You start pouring things out onto paper.

But at first it can seem scary because it's the unknown.

You don't know what's going to come up,

How you're going to handle it.

What does it all mean?

Now always remember,

This is your own personal experience,

Your own personal words,

Your own personal writing.

So remember to find a lovely sacred space where you can feel safe.

If you can't do that,

Just find somewhere where you can write anyhow.

I've found that I write on planes.

I write when I visit my mum in hospital,

When I'm on the bus,

I write in the garden.

So just make sure there's somewhere you can at least do something at some point.

Because this way you can then really share from your heart.

Now you have a safe place and somewhere you can go and write.

Make sure you've purchased a notebook or a journal,

One that you love,

One that makes you feel special.

I know I didn't at first and I used to use a black pen because in those days I was angry and full of resentment.

And now I look back and look at,

Wow,

What did that mean about me?

I didn't know how to spend money on myself.

I didn't think it was worth it.

So go out and enjoy buying a beautiful journal.

Look at what coloured pens you want to use.

You may wish to light a candle.

You may wish to use oracle cards,

Crystals,

Work on your chakras.

There's so many ways you can do it and you might not just write.

You might also doodle,

Write poems,

Do artwork,

Add in quotes,

Photos.

There's so many different ways you can do this.

So don't hold yourself back.

But if it's just to get yourself started,

Keep it simple and simply start writing.

Now,

What I suggest you do is you actually time yourself because sometimes you sit down.

Not only is it daunting to write,

As mentioned,

You might think,

Oh,

My God,

I have to write for hours.

All you need to do is just say I'm going to write for five minutes or 10 minutes,

Because this takes the pressure off you to have to do it,

Do it perfectly.

You just do 10 minutes and that is it.

And what you'll find is you'll start building it up.

Keep going,

Even if you feel like you have nothing to say,

Even if you feel like you're stuck and saying the same thing again and again.

Because what will happen is you will start it'll start to change.

This is what's called expressive writing,

Where you just write 20 minutes a day.

It could be even only two or three times a week.

You just simply write.

That's it.

That's all you need to do,

Because what you're doing is you're creating structure.

And when you've been through something really challenging,

You no longer have structure and you feel all over the place and everything feels messy.

It feels confusing.

But when you sit down and create this structure,

This is something that you can do for yourself.

And ironically,

You don't need to worry about structure when you're writing.

You don't need to worry about grammar,

Spelling,

Dotting the I's,

Crossing the T's.

Just simply write because no one is watching you.

So as I mentioned,

The structure is just sitting down and doing it.

But when you're writing,

No structure.

You're not going to be writing a novel.

You're not going to be putting something out there.

So get that real sense of freedom.

Really get to understand this is a powerful tool and it can really have ramifications in all the rest of your life.

Because it'll start to identify for you what is causing your issues,

Whether it be of anxiety,

Fear,

Depression,

Sadness or loneliness.

As you keep going,

You'll find that the words will start changing.

Slowly,

You'll find that you're actually no longer feeling that way or not to that extent.

You'll start to get excited because you start exploring different words,

New words to how you're feeling.

That brings joy in a wonderful sense of freedom.

As I said,

This is the gateway to your thoughts.

You can change your thoughts.

So you begin to realize you no longer need to stay there.

This is no longer your story.

You no longer need to live in the pain because why would you want to?

So this is what journaling can do to support you.

Releasing,

Identifying patterns,

Identifying triggers,

Exploring your uncharted thoughts.

You begin to make sense of your trauma.

You learn how to clear your mind because what it's doing is by putting it all onto paper.

You're creating an emptiness in your mind.

Now,

Initially,

It won't feel empty.

But what you'll find is you'll start unfolding.

You'll find you'll start getting this real sense of freedom.

That life is changing.

Your thoughts are changing.

The way you see yourself is changing.

You begin to connect to this inner strength because what you're doing is,

It's actually connecting to your inner wisdom.

And in that,

You'll find there's such beauty,

Joy,

Peace.

And why wouldn't you want that in life?

Remember to be honest when you write.

Be honest with yourself and be real.

Now,

That can initially be really hard,

You know,

And I wanted it to be perfect.

I didn't want to scribble and cross things out.

But you know what?

This is what it's all about.

This is what life is all about.

It's not about being perfect.

It's about being real,

Feeling liberated,

Feeling free and just simply being yourself.

And once you come through that darkness,

You'll find that you'll want to write things that are more exciting and joyful.

Feeling your book full of gratitudes and whatever it is you want to experience and feel.

I'm going to wrap this talk up with some of the reasons why journaling could help you.

It helps process your emotions.

It helps to reflect and become self-aware.

It provides a healthy outlet for emotions.

It can improve your physical health.

Writing provides a moment of stillness.

It's like meditation.

So remember to bring meditation when you feel ready.

And it's a low cost activity that all is required is a pen and paper.

Then allow your imagination to flow.

Thank you for listening.

Any comments you'd like to share.

Do you already journal?

What do you love about journaling?

I'd love to hear.

Namaste.