Are you thinking about starting a journaling habit but feeling lost about how to start? Or, are you looking to change the way you journal to focus more on mental wellbeing self-development? Journaling doesn’t have to be confusing and it doesn’t have to be perfect. All you need is a willingness to begin and keenness to experiment. Read on for my tips on what to write, how to start, and which journaling methods to use.
I can’t imagine not keeping a journal. Daily journal writing regularly is something I have done for as long as I can remember. I have all manner of journals, notebooks, and diaries, going back years. Journaling has always played a part in my mental wellbeing, although that wasn’t the reason I started. It was only in later years that I came to realize the benefits that journaling has for mental health. In this blog, I will share some of the ways I feel that journaling benefits our mental health and wellbeing.
It has been a year now since my mum passed away. It’s hard to believe it has been that long because it feels like only yesterday. I don’t feel like I have processed the loss at all. I feel in many ways still very much in limbo with my mum’s passing. The intensity of the grief has decreased, but the weight of it remains the same. Now, it is all about managing grief.
The festive season is that time of year when overindulging on alcohol seems to be completely justified. Christmas and the holiday season can, therefore, be difficult to cope with when you are in recovery, or even just trying to limit your intake. I have been sober since 2010, and although the holiday season isn’t as tough as it once was, I still must be vigilant and look after my recovery. In this blog, I will share my tips on how to stay sober during the holiday season and protect your recovery.
Self-care is not just for Christmas! Seriously, self-care is something we all need to do more of. Lives are busy and stressful, and taking time out to care for ourselves is vital. Self-care means different things to different people, but essentially, its spending quality time taking care of our mind and body. One of the nicest gifts you can give someone (and yourself!) is something that promotes self-care. In this blog, I share some of my favourite self-care gifts to give and to receive*. In here you will find something for every budget and for any gender.
In today’s blog, I want to share my top favourite self-development books with you. Whether you call them self-help, self-improvement or self-development books, these are always my favourite genre of books to read. I love these types of books because every time I read one, I learn something new about myself and the way I interact with the world, and I grow from the experience.
I am incredibly passionate about change and share about my own changes often. I have changed my entire life, in a relatively short space of time. From addiction to recovery, from living as female to transitioning to male, from being held back by poor mental health to learning to live my life around it. These profound changes have made me passionate about helping and inspiring others to make changes in their own lives. Often, when I talk with people about change, the common response is, ‘How did you change your life? I don’t know how to begin’. Therefore, in this blog, I want to answer that question. Whilst I would love to offer you a magic ingredient, it is not in my power! Instead, I can share the things that I have found helpful in my change journey. I hope you find them helpful too.
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and I want to talk about why I began to share my mental health story. I also want to talk about why I think it is still important that I continue to do so. This blog has been written in support of the This Is Me campaign, which aims to raise awareness and change attitudes about mental health, by the sharing of personal stories.
Over the years since I began my recovery, I have been consciously invested in my self-growth. I love that feeling of shifting and changing and learning new things about myself. Sometimes, I will experience a sudden shift, seemingly out of the blue. A sudden shift is what appears to be happening to me at the moment, and I feel it is time to do some spring cleaning of my life.
Stress is problematic for us all. Left unchecked, stress can lead to increased anxiety and low mood. However, when you have existing mental health challenges, being mindful of stress becomes even more critical. In my mental health journey, I have learned that I must deal with stress quickly, to avoid any negative impact on my wellbeing. To do this, I created the acronym R.E.D.U.C.E to remind myself what I need to do to take care of myself as soon as I notice I am feeling stressed.
I feel compelled to write this blog to share some incredible news with you all. This week, I received the official confirmation, that I am to be a TEDx Open University speaker! This news comes at a poignant time for me, because this week, I also celebrate nine years clean and sober. Being given such an incredible opportunity stands as a testament to how far I have come. And to think, I worried that my sober life would be boring!
Distraction techniques are an incredibly valuable tool in our mental health wellness kit, to help us to deal with overwhelming emotions and situations. For example, anxiety can feel impossible to sit with. Urges to harm ourselves can feel overwhelming. A low mood can mean our head is full of negative thoughts. Heightened emotions can feel so distressing that it becomes tempting to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol. I have had to manage all of these challenges in my own mental health journey and I understand how exhausting and difficult it can be. However, I have found that by learning to use distraction techniques, I have been able to find healthy ways to manage the most overwhelming of feelings.
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