Dec 10, 2023Liked by Laura Oldfield, Lindsay Johnstone
Beautiful! Thank you Lindsay. I always feel more connected when I journal, and it always opens up a doorway to creativity... but I do fall away from it at times and then when I return I remember just how powerful it is!
It's so very hard sometimes to do the things that we know help, precisely because we are in need of them.
I saw a brilliant cartoon recently which listed a whole team of things we know benefit our mental health... Journalling, sleep, good nutrition and so on, followed by a list of all the things we can't bring ourselves to do when our mental health has taken a dip... Journalling, prioritising sleep, eating well! It rang so true for me. But breaking the cycle, if at all we can, is the thing. Even in a small way.
this is exactly it! I'm trying to teach my daughter that all these skills are mood/life-savers and tryng to model them myself, so this couldn't have come at a better time! xx
Dec 10, 2023Liked by Laura Oldfield, Lindsay Johnstone
Absolutely! It’s taking that first step to make a pattern disrupt that often feels so hard. I did it recently in a low time and made myself return to my nighttime gratitude practice and it totally changed perspectives. It doesn’t have to be drastic! Z
yes my daughter and I both did the "3 things" gratitude practice yesterday and it really did help us both acknowledge and then detach from our current feelings of frustration xx
I absolutely love this phrase: "Find words for the emotions that have threatened to overwhelm." This is a soul-changing piece for those who are learning to better deal with their emotions. I remember in my early twenties it was so tough, but what helped is to let them in, not keep them away, for sure.
This is so interesting, because it's making me think about that stage of life and how perhaps we oberlook the seismic psychological shifts that are happening then. We focus a lot on the teen mind when we discuss mental health as though if you emerge from that time without incident, you are likely to be fine. However, my sense is that our twenties are far more dicey. I want to think more on this, Nadia. Let's keep this chat going.
Teenage years are definitely destabilizing. Young adulthood, like you said, is dicey too. I would say I was able to have better grasp of my emotions after I turned 30. Was it the case for you?
Took a bit longer for me! I think I got there only in the last few years. I turned 40 last year and had not long before that reached the end of the three year intensive therapy journey that prompted me starto this Substack. It's a long old road, but I hope my experience helps equip me to stand beside my own daughters as they grow up and face their own challenges.x
This is so beautiful. I absolutely loved this part: Where previously, an irrational superstition would have stopped me from allowing these thoughts into the actual world, now I see the diffusing power of giving them their place. It’s an evolution of my therapy experience, where for three years I was offered safe harbour, meted out in 50-minute chunks, to say anything. Anything. And I’ve come to know I can tell myself anything, too. Whatever I need to hear. Doing so doesn’t make any of it true. It doesn’t foretell disaster. In fact, it takes the power these beliefs may have had when constrained in my mind and thoroughly disarms them.
I used to describe journalling as a tool that saved my life (from around 2016-2021) now it’s a tool that helps me level up in all areas of my life ! 🙏🩵
Beautiful! Thank you Lindsay. I always feel more connected when I journal, and it always opens up a doorway to creativity... but I do fall away from it at times and then when I return I remember just how powerful it is!
It's so very hard sometimes to do the things that we know help, precisely because we are in need of them.
I saw a brilliant cartoon recently which listed a whole team of things we know benefit our mental health... Journalling, sleep, good nutrition and so on, followed by a list of all the things we can't bring ourselves to do when our mental health has taken a dip... Journalling, prioritising sleep, eating well! It rang so true for me. But breaking the cycle, if at all we can, is the thing. Even in a small way.
this is exactly it! I'm trying to teach my daughter that all these skills are mood/life-savers and tryng to model them myself, so this couldn't have come at a better time! xx
Absolutely! It’s taking that first step to make a pattern disrupt that often feels so hard. I did it recently in a low time and made myself return to my nighttime gratitude practice and it totally changed perspectives. It doesn’t have to be drastic! Z
yes my daughter and I both did the "3 things" gratitude practice yesterday and it really did help us both acknowledge and then detach from our current feelings of frustration xx
I absolutely love this phrase: "Find words for the emotions that have threatened to overwhelm." This is a soul-changing piece for those who are learning to better deal with their emotions. I remember in my early twenties it was so tough, but what helped is to let them in, not keep them away, for sure.
This is so interesting, because it's making me think about that stage of life and how perhaps we oberlook the seismic psychological shifts that are happening then. We focus a lot on the teen mind when we discuss mental health as though if you emerge from that time without incident, you are likely to be fine. However, my sense is that our twenties are far more dicey. I want to think more on this, Nadia. Let's keep this chat going.
Teenage years are definitely destabilizing. Young adulthood, like you said, is dicey too. I would say I was able to have better grasp of my emotions after I turned 30. Was it the case for you?
Took a bit longer for me! I think I got there only in the last few years. I turned 40 last year and had not long before that reached the end of the three year intensive therapy journey that prompted me starto this Substack. It's a long old road, but I hope my experience helps equip me to stand beside my own daughters as they grow up and face their own challenges.x
You got there, and that's what matters the most. And thank you for helping others be better equipped with their own struggles.
This is so beautiful. I absolutely loved this part: Where previously, an irrational superstition would have stopped me from allowing these thoughts into the actual world, now I see the diffusing power of giving them their place. It’s an evolution of my therapy experience, where for three years I was offered safe harbour, meted out in 50-minute chunks, to say anything. Anything. And I’ve come to know I can tell myself anything, too. Whatever I need to hear. Doing so doesn’t make any of it true. It doesn’t foretell disaster. In fact, it takes the power these beliefs may have had when constrained in my mind and thoroughly disarms them.
Thank you so much, Grace. It's such a delight to know that these words resonate.x
I used to describe journalling as a tool that saved my life (from around 2016-2021) now it’s a tool that helps me level up in all areas of my life ! 🙏🩵
Absolutely, Amber! This speaks to me. I have a stack of journals that contain the words that saved me, too. X