In a world that moves so fast, it is necessary to stop at times and write our history many times to analyze it, reflect on it, review it, tie up loose ends and make sense of it. To give meaning to ourselves ✨.

Stepping away from the computer, picking up a notebook and pencil, dedicated solely and exclusively to reflective writing, is essential for our inner growth.

It is not overnight. The first few days we may find it hard to express what we carry inside and we may sit for several minutes with a blank page. But the secret is not to give up, to try and practice constantly.

I promise you won't regret it!

Mental note:

“Writing saved my life many times.”

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When we use writing as a way to do therapy, we can heal and better ourselves personally. We can unblock many emotions that we have hidden deep in our psyche.

We bring order to the mind by making sense of those experiences that affected us negatively at some point in our lives. I know it may sound cliché, however, most people who say it “doesn't work for them” and that they already know “what the reason for their discomfort is”, haven't really tried it.

It's not about that “perfect writing” when we are drafting an article, a poem or a story, because in those cases we seek to take care of the wording and the creative construction of what we are doing.

Reflective writing, on the other hand, is about expressing our emotions, doubts, internal conflicts, etc. We can even use it as a diary to monitor our state of mind and write lines of gratitude.

Countless times I have felt noticeably better after sitting down to write. I feel my system calm down and my thoughts stop racing through my mind running over each other.

Writing allows us to delve deeper into our personal history to understand and heal it. The more we talk about what happened, the better off we are emotionally. Doing just the opposite, which is to hide it and keep it in a drawer, hurts us even more.

By venting, we develop greater resilience because we learn to cope with those difficult events we went through. We understand that it is not the best idea to “pretend nothing happened” because, at any moment, that experience you are trying to avoid will hit you again in the form of an illness.

It may be days, weeks, months or even years later, but if it comes back to you, it comes back.

Reflective writing can also be accompanied by drawings, and the good news is that you don't have to know how to draw, this is about expressing what we carry inside.

For example, when I was in my worst anxiety stage, it helped me a lot to draw her, to imagine her as a character, although not necessarily evil. I gave her giant eyes and represented her as a shadow that is always present, watching me all the time.

At times when I am uninspired and irritable, I let off steam by making circles on the leaf. Once I vent the frustration, the thoughts become orderly and inspiration returns. I don't know what effect making circles has, but I can say that it does encourage new ideas and concentration.

Drawing emotions and feelings helps us to put them in perspective and look at them from the outside, from a more objective and less visceral angle. On some occasions, it has helped me to realize that some problems are not as big as they seem.

There is no magic formula to start doing this, but I do tell you that you must do it by hand, no phone, computer, tablet, or any other digital media.

Why? Handwriting (among many other benefits) exercises the brain more because it requires us to mentally compose the idea before writing it down. We reach the unconscious better this way 💡.

And remember that...

Mental health is a continuous work! 💪

We can feel that we are making great progress and at other times that we are going backwards and returning to the same starting point. It is not a straight line because we are not perfect, for the human being that is impossible. We can only try to be more conscious every day.

Happy start of the week! I hope this post can be useful to someone who needs it. A hug to the whole community 😘🤗.