how writing helps navigate difficult situations in life
3 techniques that helped me deal with life by being creative
You mess up.
But you are only human, and I am too.
When we mess up, we can’t beat ourselves up, but we do…
You gotta let that energy out and writing is a key tool to release and realise your worth!
I messed up, but I’m not falling into old patterns of guilt, shame or frustration. Instead, treating myself with grace and knowing what I gotta do to release what no longer serves me (I’ll share with you so you know too!).
You deserve to know how to get through difficult situations easier, better, and quicker.
Today you will work with the three lessons that I have returned to from my own learnings back in 2021 that I shared on Medium.
This past Medium post from 2021, written from inside a mental clinic, garnered a lot of views due to its vulnerability.
That is one of my superpowers to make you feel seen and heard.
After spending time there, I had taken time off writing, doing yoga, (and anything that made me feel good except walking), due to feeling depressed and all the other mental health issues arising.
Now, I realise writing is my tool to get through hard times, and it can help you too.
Unleash your creativity and heal: it can be that easy.
Time and time again, I write to reignite my spirit and release what’s no longer meant for me.
Here is how being a writer helps me deal with difficult situations in life because writing is therapy (you know that by now!).
You will also learn how YOU (yes, you in the back who thinks they aren’t “creative”) can help yourself with writing, observing and listening to get through tricky situations quicker, so you don’t need to be stuck in fear, shame, or guilt!
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Backstory
It’s been a week since I’ve been out of the mental clinic now.
Since November, I spent nearly half a year in and out of the mental clinic, which became a big part of my healing process.
In November, I hadn’t written for a few months and then came January, and I felt so bad because I hadn’t set any goals to write every day as I used to when writing my second self-help book.
It was only in the clinic in January did I realised it didn’t matter where I was; the curiosity and keenness that drove my writing could happen anywhere.
I began to fall in love.
Inspiration flooded me like never before, and I began writing daily again for myself.
Writing keeps me going.
So here are three techniques that help me deal with schizophrenia and hardships in life through writing.
1. Write down every feeling you have and process it this way
“Your feelings are so important to write down, to capture, and to remember because today you’re heartbroken and tomorrow you’re in love again.” — Taylor Swift
When first experiencing signs of schizophrenia, I was overwhelmed, to say the least.
Voices were in my head, and I felt that the only way out was to sleep it off or to attempt suicide.
The writing was far from the path that I was taking at this moment because everything was too much to deal with.
When life is too much to deal with, writing, however, can help.
I wanted to write about my experience, but it was too early for me to word it in any shape or format.
Instead, I wrote down the voices in my head and what they were saying to me.
This was hard.
Often, the voices were telling me to die by suicide or do something bad to myself.
But I found when I wrote it down, it was out, and I couldn’t ponder on the thought for any longer.
I took the pressure off myself to write something sound for other people to read, like now (my mind is in a better state currently), and instead, I decided to write down all my feelings.
I was experiencing millions at the time, from one moment to the next, feelings of shame, guilt, doubt, and all those negative feelings of feeling like shit.
I tried to journal and write every feeling down I was experiencing. Sometimes it helped, sometimes it didn’t.
It was too much for me to cope with at times.
I have written about how journaling is an effective way to release emotions before.
All in all, I managed to process some emotions by writing them down on paper and felt like I could have a better handle on them because I was more aware of them this way.
2. Listen to the people around you and make a story out of it
When I started creeping out of my shell of schizophrenia — which basically looks like isolation — I realised there was so much around me.
Going into a mental clinic made me feel a bit crazy, but it also soothed me to know that other people are going through similar things to me.
One girl I met the first time I entered the Berlin clinic was suffering from something similar to mine.
She inspired me to write a short story about the clinic (which I never published), where I pretty much wrote about all the characters I had met and especially her.
She fascinated me.
She was Indian and had come to Berlin to study.
She was very confident in who she was and told me about how her ex had died by suicide.
She was deeply depressed and, unfortunately, took her life.
She also had another friend who had died, like my best friend too.
We connected, and she shared with me how she saw her friend come back and walk to a graveyard while listening to the voices that told her to sleep there.
It was there that the police got her and took her to the mental clinic.
You see — even in my darkest of days in the mental clinic, to be in with, I mustered up something for myself.
I wrote about my journey in the mental clinic and a typical day, what it was like.
Being a writer helps me deal with difficult situations in life because of my natural state of curiosity.
We all have it; you just have to tap into it.
3. Observe moments of pure bliss or misery and let them inspire you
Similarly to the above, there are bad or good moments that may inspire you when you’re in your most difficult stages in life.
These times, it’s not the people who inspire you but the emotions that may be occurring.
For example, when I first realised something was wrong with me, I couldn't bear to wake up and face the demons pulling me down.
I didn’t know who was talking to me and how to cope with it.
I tried to observe the moments as fleeting (I am a yoga teacher after all!) and attempted to write down what was happening to me in a personal essay format.
I also tried to write letters to myself.
These letters helped distract my mind from what was happening and what I wanted to happen.
The letters allowed me to retake control and gain more understanding of what was happening.
It wasn’t that the misery positively inspired me, but it inspired me to initiate some control over my thoughts through writing.
Writing here enabled me to process the bad and the good moments in different formats depending on how I felt.
Observing became something that led me to deal with difficult times in my life.
Observing the flood of feelings and voices and knowing that they weren’t me, but they were just a part of me.
Observing what was happening and noting it down to deal with it better the next time around.
In conclusion
In every difficult time in life, there is an opportunity for a writer to make it better by channelling a writing format.
There’s no need to bottle up these hard times, but I learned how being a writer helps me deal with difficult situations in life.
We all have a natural tool given to us to get through tough times — what a blessing!
Write down every feeling you have and process it this way
Listen to the people around you and make a story out of it
Observe moments of bliss and misery and write them down
Before you go
Thanks for being here.❤
I help people go from a human doing to a human being.
If you are ready for lasting growth where you still make mistakes (sure, you’re only human), but this time you don’t sink in guilt or shame.
Instead, treat yourself with grace, learning from every lesson that comes your way to grow in confidence, courage, and calmness!
Let’s work together.
Or if you are ready to not face life alone and be part of a loving community to listen and talk about what you are going through:
Join us in the Healing Hearts Hub community, where we heal together, grow in understanding, Substack, and live life to the fullest!
Thanks for being here,
with gratitude
Grace