The Floral Facade

Why I’m Ditching The Comfort Zone After Lockdown

This past year I’ve pretty much been in hibernation, I used lockdown as an excuse to hide away from my anxiety but it wasn’t all bad – I did make huge strides in my recovery from mental illness. I’ve been working so hard on improving my mental health through journaling, improving my diet, exercising, meditation, practising gratitude, deep introspection and yoga.

I’m pleased to say I’m back on track now and I’m thinking more towards the future and how I want to go about building a life for myself that I’m happy with. I’m not saying the key to happiness is solely built on preparing for the future, no, I personally think it’s about finding that balance between happiness, joy and contentment in the now and excitement for what’s to come. I’ve learnt that a lot through my gratitude practises as the only moment we truly exist in is the present; if you haven’t read my post yet on how & why you should practise gratitude you can do so here.

This year, after lockdown’s over, I’ve decided to ditch my comfort zone and here’s why:

We exist in three zones at any one time – our comfort zone, our stretch zone and our panic zone. Our comfort zone is where we feel comfortable and secure, our stretch zone is where we’re able to learn and build and grow through experience and action and our panic zone is where we feel overwhelmed, insecure or unsafe.

The comfort zone limits personal growth:

Our comfort zone is either a literal place or a set of experiences and actions that we’re most comfortable with. Therefore, not a lot of personal growth happens in our comfort zone. My goal is to spend as much time in the stretch zone as possible after lockdown, I want to really push myself to live more, grow more and experience more of what life has to offer.

It’s boring:

Living your life in the comfort zone tends to become stagnant after a while, so I’m adding in little steps to expand my comfort zone/spend more time in the stretch zone this Summer. That’s not to say the comfort zone isn’t important or serves it’s purpose, but spending all your time in the limits of your comfort zone can become quite boring.

There’s exciting and new experiences to be had in the stretch zone:

If there’s one things that lockdown has taught me it’s what I’m comfortable with and what I’m uncomfortable with in terms of going places and being out and about and what not. What I’m doing to work on this is slowly introducing new experiences into my daily life. I’ve been doing this for the past month or so and already I’m experiencing a lot of personal growth, a reduction in my anxiety levels and improvement in my overall happiness with life.

So, that’s why I’m ditching the comfort zone after lockdown. I hope this post has left you with a little more understanding about the comfort zone and maybe has inspired you to leave it behind sometimes too and lastly, wherever you are on your journey – I wish you all the best.

Until next time,

Beth. x

4 Ways Yoga Helps Me

A few months ago, I bought a yoga mat from Amazon. I thought, well, I’ve tried meditation and that’s helping, so why not try something else that’s often recommended as a way to boost your mental wellbeing? That’s when I began to practise yoga. Sure, I wasn’t very knowledgeable about yoga, I mean, I knew a couple of poses from when I used to do it years ago, but that’s besides the point.. Practising yoga in a mindful way has helped me so much. This, along with other changes to my lifestyle such as the food I eat, my meditation practises and journaling and practising gratitude has helped boost my overall wellbeing so much.

Anyway, here’s how yoga helps me:

Improves my sleep:

I’ve noticed an actual improvement in my quality of sleep lately, and although there are other factors that come into play not just the fact I’ve been doing yoga, I believe yoga has been a huge help in this.

It resets my anxious mind, making me feel less stressed:

Taking the time to get in tune with myself, similar to meditation, helps reset my mind when I’m anxious. It gently pulls me back to the present moment and makes me feel less stressed.

Gives me more energy:

I find that yoga makes me want to work out. I don’t know why, it just does. I usually start and end my work-outs with yoga practises. It gives me more energy in general.

I’m better at looking after myself:

Yoga is brilliant at connecting the mind, soul and body and I’ve found that since I started practising yoga I’m better at looking after myself and doing my self-care routine for example.

It’s still early days on my yoga journey and I’m reading lots of blog posts at the moment to fully understand the different poses and what not and how to incorporate it into my spiritual practises – like meditation, journaling and stuff but I’m optimistic that yoga will continue to help me and improve my mental health.

May 2021 Goals

I posted my four goals for 2021 a few months ago and I’m pleased to say I’ve already achieved two of these goals. So, today I thought I’d set myself some monthly goals to help keep me on track in life. I’ve split these goals into blogging and personal goals just to make things a little bit easier for me. When it comes to ticking things off this month, there’s a lot I want to achieve. I’m optimistic that this new chapter in my life will be so beneficial for my personal growth and my main goal is to just move forward in life and really give it my all.

It can be difficult with an anxiety disorder at times, as it can really work against me sometimes, but it’s time to let that go and just live my life how I want to. It’s not going to be easy, but it might be easier than I think it’s going to be. You get me?

Anyway, here’s my May 2021 Goals:

Blogging and Social Media Goals:

My blog is a huge sense of purpose for me and without it I feel a bit lost, so I’ve set some goals to help build my audience and improve engagement.

Reach 2000 pageviews:

I’ve only got about 600 views left to go before I reach this milestone and I’d be so happy if I managed to achieve this. In order to reach this goal I’m going to publish blog posts regularly and of course promote them! Twitter is my best source of traffic so I’m going to focus a lot on that this month.

Reply & Return All Comments:

I love receiving blog comments, but I’m not always the best at responding to them. Of course I read and appreciate every single one of them, but I often leave them until later. This needs to change if I’m going to keep up with all the comments. In order to achieve this goal I’m going to try my best to reply to comments on my blog posts and return the comments on other people’s as and when they occur.

Write and Post 3 Poems On My Instagram:

I’ve paused writing poetry recently as I’ve been so busy and my mood has been really good so I don’t feel the need to express myself creatively as much. However, over the past few days I’ve found the inspiration has come back in a completely different way than it has done before. I’m seeing everything from a different perspective and I’m finding it’s an interesting angle to write poetry from. I’m hoping to share some of my work again on my Instagram soon and I’d love it if you could follow along in my poetry journey.

Personal Goals:

These are the goals that are more personal to me and are away from all things blogging and social media. These are the goals that really focus on improving my day to day life.

Start an online course:

I’ve been meaning to start an online course for quite a while and it finally feels like the right time to do just that. In order to achieve this goal I’m going to have a browse around different distance learning websites and find the course that’s right for me. Having something to work towards will really help boost my mood levels and general happiness in life.

Get out for some Photography:

I feel like I haven’t used my camera outdoors enough since I bought it way back in 2019. I do a lot of indoor blog photography, so basically notebooks and pretty things on a marble tray, but I haven’t done a lot of nature photography, especially recently, so I’d love to get back to doing that. I used to notice all the colours and shapes in nature and it was a brilliant exercise for grounding and I think it’d really help improve my mental health as hobbies are so important.

Get out for a walk:

I’d love to take my morning coffee and just walk to the shop or something. Small steps though, I’ll get there.

Practise Gratitude Daily For 31 Days:

I’ll be honest, gratitude is a practise I slip in and out of doing, but I want to see results and in order to do so I’ve got to be consistent with practising gratitude. Who knows? In 31 days I might look back and be glad I did it as I’d be happier in general. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’ve written a blog post all about how to practise gratitude and you can read that here.

Meditate more regularly:

I find meditation just resets my anxious mind, and it’s such a helpful tool so I’ll be trying to incorporate more meditation into my month.

So those are my goals for May 2021. What are you hoping to achieve this month?

April 2021 Reading Wrap-Up

A stack of books on a marble tray — You can buy all of these books from Amazon.

This month was definitely a reading month for me. I don’t think I’ve read as many books this month as I have done in any other month before, hence why I decided to make this blog post. I’ve made a definite dent in my Spring 2021 TBR pile and I wanted to share with you guys today about all the books I’ve been reading this month.

Women Don’t Owe You Pretty by Florence Given:

I’ve seen a few people post this on their Instagram’s and I’d also read a few reviews on blogs before I decided to purchase it. This book definitely opened up a door to me to non-fiction books and I’ve since purchased more non-fiction. I really enjoyed reading this book despite not being used to reading informational books. I’d definitely recommend this book as it covers such important topics such as feminism, lbgtq+, along with privilege and so much more.

Notes On A Nervous Planet by Matt Haig:

I’d read Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig and I really liked that book so it made sense for me to purchase Notes on A Nervous Planet and I’m glad I did. The short, to-the-point chapters made it an easy read and I really liked what it had to say about topics such as anxiety in the modern world.

Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King:

Another book that I’d seen a lot of people talk highly of was Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King. As an introduction to self-help it’s key reading and it covers topics such as self-love, the law of attraction, raising your vibration and so much more. I’ve reviewed this book on my blog if you want to take a look at it.

Healing Is The New High by Vex King:

Vex King’s latest release is all about overcoming emotional turmoil and I found it extremely helpful. It’s full of information on how to best help yourself as well as practices delving into your limiting beliefs and where they come from as well as meditation practices. I didn’t do all the practises as, personally, I’m not yet ready for them. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and it left me feeling more motivated to make positive changes in my life. I especially enjoyed the visualisation exercise found in one of the later chapters.

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think by Brianna Wiest:

I’m still currently reading this book, but I know I’ll finish it within the next few days so I’ve included it anyway. I’m really enjoying this book so far as it’s definitely giving me stuff to think about. I really enjoy the format of the book being short chapters as it makes it great to just pick up, read a bit, get your thoughts going and then put down for a little while.

Onto poetry:

The Mermaid’s Voice Return In This One by Amanda Lovelace:

Not my favourite poetry book I’ve ever read, but I enjoy reading different types of poetry to see how other people go about expressing themselves. I love the concept behind this collection of books – the princess saves herself in this one, the witch doesn’t burn in this one and the mermaid’s voice returns in this one, but it’s not my favourite poetry.

Pillow Thoughts 2: Healing The Heart by Courtney Peppernell:

I‘d actually reviewed the Pillow Thoughts book series before and then I realised a few weeks ago when I was looking at my goodreads that I hadn’t actually finished the 2nd book in the collection. I really enjoyed this book series as the poetry is so relatable and warming. I definitely recommend adding it to your TBR if you’re into poetry.

The Moon Will Shine For Us Too by Jennae Cecelia:

I’ve read a lot of Jennae Cecelia’s work over the past few months and I enjoyed them all, some more than others sure, but this is one of my favourites by Jennae Cecelia. I finished this book in about 20 minutes, I only wish it was a longer book.

So those are the books I read in April. If you have any recommendations for poetry books please let me know in the comments below as I can’t find any I like on Amazon that I haven’t already read.

Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King Book Review

So I’m back with another book review today after reviewing the Pillow Thoughts Poetry book series a couple of weeks ago. Today I’m reviewing a recent read by Vex King titled ‘Good Vibes, Good Life’. As an introduction into self-help and self-growth books it definitely serves it purpose. I’m new to reading this type of non-fiction and I’ve got to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Book on a marble flatlay — You can purchase this book for £7.99 from Amazon *Not affiliated*

Split into seven sections with small, easy to read chapters. I’d normally look at a non-fiction book of this size and think ‘nah, it’s not worth my time’ and I frequently have, but the smaller chapters definitely helped matters and I finished this book within 3-4 days, half an hour each day.

The book covers a range of topics from the law of attraction and the law of vibration to manifestation. It’s great as an introduction into these topics as it explains them so clearly. I had some previous knowledge of these topics from social media and through reading blog posts, but having it all in one clear to read book was definitely helpful.

The book left me feeling motivated and keen to make changes in the way I go about my life while also giving me the info on how to do just that.

I feel like, from reading this book and using and applying the inspirational information found within the 250 or so pages, I am one step closer to living my best life and if a book can do that I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who may feel as though they’re stagnant or stuck in a negative frame of mind.

Anyway, I am now onto reading ‘Healing Is The New High’ also by Vex King. I feel like Good Vibes, Good Life has definitely opened up a door in terms of what genres I’m now open to reading, which is great.

Self-Care Routine For When You’re Having A Bad Day

As a continuation of my last post, 6 things to do if you’re having a bad day, I thought I’d share a self-care routine with you all, perfect for when you’re not feeling your best.

If you’re having a bad day, then try your best to remember it’s just a bad day not a bad life, but I hope these tips help you out. If you do the whole routine, or just pick and choose a few things that will suit you – I hope you feel better soon.

notebook, nail polish, aromatherapy rollerballs and a face mask on a marble overlay — Pursuing blogging is often a form of self-care for me.

So, here’s my self-care routine for when you’re having a bad day:

Fresh Bedding:

It might seem like a lot of effort, and you might not feel up to it, but you’ll thank yourself later when you’re feeling all cosy.

Light Some Candles or Incense:

It’s a fairly obvious one, but working on improving your environment in a way that takes minimal effort is a sure-fire way to feel better.

Meditate:

I always recommend meditating on your negative feelings. While distraction may seem tempting, it’s always good to sit and observe your thoughts for a little while and let them pass, if that’s possible, if not distraction is a good method too.

Rollerball Aromatherapy:

I’ve found these rollerballs so helpful and they smell so nice. There’s three in this product, happy vibes, total de-stress and sleep better. They’re only £12 from Amazon and I’d definitely recommend them. *Not affiliated* I use the happy vibes before I go out for the day, total de-stress if I’m feeling anxious or stressed and sleep better before bed.

Feel-Good Playlist:

After I’ve meditated, I then put on my feel-good playlist ready for the next stage in my self-care routine.

Skincare Routine:

I have quite a simple skincare routine, just a bamboo face wash that I picked up really cheap from BeautyBay *Not affiliated* and a Simple Moisturiser, but I find when my skin is looking and feeling good it makes me feel that little bit better which is why I recommend if you’re having a rough day do your skincare routine.

Face Mask:

Linking in with the skincare routine is using a face mask. Taking a bit of time out of your day to just relax and pop on a face mask can do the world of good. I recommend to do it after your meditation as otherwise your thoughts might be racing while your waiting for your face mask to do it’s thing and it’s always better to feel peaceful.

Bubble Bath:

Add some bath bombs/fizzers in there for good measure and just relax for a little while. I’ve got so many bath bombs at the moment, I just keep buying them when I’m out and about.

Fresh PJs/Loungewear:

Wearing fresh pyjamas/loungewear is always a good thing as feeling comfortable promotes a feeling of safety and security.

Paint Your Nails:

It’s a relaxing activity and it can make you feel good, so why not paint your nails?

Pursue your hobby:

Whether that’s painting or poetry, take an hour out of your day/evening to do something you really enjoy. It could even be cooking. Creativity is proven to help boost mood levels and decrease the stress hormone cortisol.

Netflix/Amazon Prime/Now TV/Disney+

Spend an hour or so watching your favourite TV show, it could be a new series you’ve started watching or your favourite movie. Just cosy up and watch something you like; recently I’ve been watching The Bold Type.

Practise Gratitude/Journaling:

Get it all out of your system in a healthy way and by practising gratitude, you can read my post all about that here, you can learn to appreciate the here and now a little bit more.

So that’s my self-care routine for when I’m having a bad day and it really does help me loads so I’d recommend it. Even if it’s not all your cup of tea, there’s bound to be something on this list that’ll help you feel a little bit better.

All the best,

Beth. x

6 Things To Do When You’re Having A Bad Day

Bad days happen to all of us at some point and it can be hard to remember that it’s just a bad day, not a bad life. So today I’ve compiled a list of 6 things to do when you’re having a bad day in the hopes that if you’re reading this and you are having a bad day, you’ll be able to turn it round and feel relaxed and at ease.

So here’s 6 things to do when you’re having a bad day:

Don’t feel guilty about it:

It’s easier said than done, but try not to feel guilty about your own emotions. I personally do feel guilty about my emotions quite regularly, I feel they’re not valid enough , but it’s important to remember that your emotions are valid and you can feel whatever you need to feel.

Practise self-care, however that looks to you:

It seems self-care is an idea that’s being drilled into us, but it’s so important. Whether that takes the form of a face mask and a bubble bath or pursuing your favourite hobby. Self-care looks different to everybody, but putting yourself first is so important because you can’t expect to be at your best or feel your best if you don’t treat yourself like you’re the best.

Listen to some feel-good music:

I find if I’m having a bad day it can either go one or two ways, I can turn it around with the music I listen to, or I can make myself feel worse with the music I listen to. Make a conscious effort to turn your own mood around by listening to some feel-good music.

Journaling:

If you haven’t read it yet, my 8 mental health benefits of journaling blog post explains this point in so much more detail, but long story short, having a creative release can really help turn your mood around, it can make you feel heard and it can help you work through your feelings.

Socialise:

Something I don’t do often enough, but socialising can really help turn your mood around. It can be tempting when we’re having a bad day to just shut the world out and spend all day in bed, but spending time in the company of others is proven to boost mood levels.

Practise Gratitude:

You can read my post on how to practise gratitude here, but it’s a simple exercise that might only take five to ten minutes whereby you can recall what you feel grateful for in life. I also mention why it’s so beneficial for our wellbeing in this post, but in short it helps us by making us appreciate what we have and realise that we are already complete within ourselves.

So those are my six ways to turn your day around.

Until next time,

Beth

4 Things I’ve Learnt In Setting Up A New Blog

At the start of this year I made the decision to delete my old blog, Quirks and Queries. It had been a great six -seven years, I’d had so many fun collaborations, but I felt like I needed a change. My blogging journey sure wasn’t over, but I felt Quirks and Queries no longer fitted with me personally. After all a lot changes from ages 16-23 and I didn’t feel as though the blog gelled with who I was anymore and I was ready for a change. That and I wanted to switch over from Blogger to WordPress and had no idea how to migrate my site, but oh well.

desk area with pink chair — Photo by Andrijana Bozic on Unsplash

I took a few weeks out for me as my mental health wasn’t great at the time either, as you may’ve seen on my Instagram, but when I started to feel better mid-February I decided to set up a new blog and begin a new blogging venture.

That’s when I decided to set up The Floral Facade, a new blogging project that would merge all my interests in writing, beauty, lifestyle, self care and spirituality into one place. It’s been two months now since I first made my WordPress account and there’s a couple of things I’ve learnt in that time, some things were just solidified to me that I already knew from starting a blog in 2014 and some things that were new to me.

So here’s 4 things I’ve learnt in setting up a new blog:

Building an audience takes time:

I half expected to be getting the same amount of views on The Floral Facade as I did on my old blog because all my social media channels were still the same, but oh how wrong was I?! Building an audience on any website takes time and while having my previous following on Twitter for example has definitely helped with the transition, I’ve still struggled a bit to get my blog on it’s feet, so to speak and I know it may be another year or so before my views are back up to what they used to be on my previous blog.

Every website needs it’s own identity:

This is where website branding comes in, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s that your website needs branding if it’s going to take off and while I’ll always be slightly annoyed that you need to have a business plan on WordPress to be able to install a custom theme, if only I’d known that before I probably would’ve stuck with blogger, having a firm and strong identity for your website is crucial in enabling it to resonate with your readers as being your website.

Pageviews aren’t everything:

I used to be very caught up on how many pageviews I got each day when I was working on my previous project, but I’ve since learnt that engagement is far more important and even though my audience is smaller than it used to be, I now just view it as being more concentrated. I’m receiving a hell of a lot more comments than I ever did on my previous blog, and maybe that’s because commenting on The Floral Facade is much easier than it was on Quirks and Queries, I don’t know, but my readers seem to be more engaged now than they used to. For example, in the six and a half years I was running my old blog I received 700 comments (including replies I sent) whereas The Floral Facade has received over 250 comments from other people in just two months.

Blogging is really what I’m best suited to:

Everyone has their thing in life and it just turns out that blogging is mine. When I went six weeks without having a blog to write, I felt empty and although I needed that time to recuperate and work on getting better, I still felt as though my life had no purpose. Without it, I didn’t feel like me. But having something like The Floral Facade to work on, even if I’m only posting twice a week, makes me feel a whole lot better about myself and I’m hopeful that I’ll keep going with this blog for quite a while. Who knows where it’ll take me?

So those are 4 things I’ve learnt in two months setting up a new blog.

Until next time,

Beth x

Springtime Make Up Routine

So for today’s post I wanted to do something that pushes me out of my comfort zone a little bit and is a bit more fun than some of my more reflective blog posts as of late. Today’s post is going to be my springtime make up routine.

make up on a marble overlay — Here’s some of the products I’ve been using for my Springtime make up routine.

Base:

To start with I applied my base. I’ve tried a couple of different foundations this year, the NYX Can’t Stop Won’t Stop left me with dry patches of skin, though that could’ve been because I was experiencing a lot of stress at the time, then I tried the Revlon Colorstay but I found the coverage just wasn’t enough and I was applying two layers of it. Lastly, and thankfully I’ve found a foundation that works for me and that’s the e.l.f Flawless Finish Foundation and I absolutely love it. It gives just enough coverage and I’m really enjoying incorporating it as part of my springtime make up routine.

Next is the powder and for that I use a recent purchase which is Milani’s Conceal + Perfect Shine-Proof Powder in 01 Fair. I’m really enjoying this as it compliments the golden undertones in the e.lf foundation really beautifully.

I personally don’t use any setting spray as I’ve found that it just makes my skin look pore-y whenever I use it. So I just opt to go without.

For my blush I use the Revolution Ultra Blush Palette in Sugar & Spice *not pictured*. Some days I wear blush, some days I don’t. It just depends how I’m feeling.

For my highlight, I use the Illamasqua Beyond Powder Highlighter in Deity as I just love how it looks alongside my blush. You can read my review of this highlighter here.

Eyes:

I know some people prefer to do their eyes before their foundation but I find it so much easier if I use the foundation as a base for my eyeshadow as it provides something for the eyeshadow to stick to. I know that’s what an eyeshadow primer is for, but I figure there’s nothing wrong with cutting corners in my make up routine to make it as simple and as quick to do as possible.

For my eyes, especially during Springtime I love to add a pop of colour to my face and for this I’ve been using the B.H Cosmetics Trendy In Tokyo palette, which is a gorgeous 16 pan eyeshadow palette with a range of mattes and shimmers and it’s just so darn pretty. I like to go for one colour on my lid, because I’m not the best at eyeshadow and don’t want to bother with all that cut-crease stuff, which I love the look of but can’t do very well. To make things interesting I usually pick a different colour to go on the bottom lid just to add that bit of colour to my day.

I then opt for my Barry M Eyeliner Pencil in white to add onto the bottom waterline in order to make my eyes look a bit bigger and add some definition to the look.

Then it’s time for the Rimmel London Black Waterproof eyeliner to put on my lid and depending on how I feel is how big the wing is.

I also use the Loreal Paris Air Volume Mega Mascara, I’ve only had this a week and I’m already loving how it lifts my lashes.

Lips:

Sometimes I go for a matte lip paint, but given the fact we need to wear masks lately I haven’t really been bothered too much to do my lips. If I do, I usually go for a Barry M Liquid Lip, these are my favourite by far as they are quick-drying, long-lasting and don’t dry your lips out. And they’re inexpensive too, which is great as it means I can collect them all.

And here’s the finished look:

a selfie — I don’t usually upload selfies onto my blog, but oh well.

So, that’s it for my Springtime make up routine. I hope someone somewhere out there enjoyed reading this, but if not hey ho at least I enjoyed writing it and it changes up my content a little bit.

Until next time,

Beth. x

8 Mental Health Benefits Of Journaling

I wanted to talk a little bit today about journaling and all it’s positive mental health benefits. I’m a huge fan of journaling in general and expressive writing so a post like this is right up my street. Journaling is a great hobby as it’s so inexpensive, all you need is your mind, your imagination, a cheap notebook and a pen. Journaling can also lead to great things, I often find inspiration for poems and prose when I’m writing about my thoughts and feelings in my journal, but it’s great as a standalone thing as well, especially for our mental wellbeing.

So, how does journaling improve our mental health? Here’s 8 way it does just that.

Improves your memory:

When we’re suffering from a mental illness, like depression or anxiety for example, our memory can often suffer. Journaling helps with the memory process and can help us process and ‘soak in’ the events of our day.

Offers a place to express our emotions:

Journaling offers a safe space for us to express our most inner thoughts, feelings and emotions. It’s a healthy coping mechanism and a brilliant habit to build up.

Offers a place to practise gratitude:

I know I preach a lot about practising gratitude but it really has worked wonders for me, I’ve done a blog post all about how to practise it and why it’s so important if you fancy reading more but long story short, it helps us improve our general wellness by learning to appreciate the present moment and what we have more.

You can track your symptoms day by day:

Say if you experience anxiety one day, hallucinations the next and depression throughout, it enables you to keep track of these symptoms in order to show your therapist for example. Tracking your symptoms in this way can be great, you can get really creative by it by doing charts, colour-coding and ranking your mood out of ten and so much more.

It increases self-awareness:

Expressive writing in this way can help boost your own awareness of your thoughts, feelings and emotions, or even any symptoms your experiencing of a mental illness. It enables you to explore your own experiences and increase your own awareness about them.

Helps you to identify negative self-talk and practise positive self-talk instead:

Through journaling we can learn to identify where we’re talking to ourselves in a negative way, or beating ourselves up over something. Then, we can learn to replace these thought processes with positive ones through positive self-talk and affirmations.

Reduces Stress:

Journaling is proven to reduce stress levels by offering an emotional release. If I’m having a particularly stressful day I find that by writing about it I decrease the power the stress has over me and I feel so much more relaxed afterwards.

Creativity helps to improve mental health as a whole:

As with any creative endeavour there’s a certain level of emotional release that it provides. Creativity, such as expressive writing or journaling, is a proven way to help boost mental wellbeing.

So those were 8 benefits that journaling has to your mental health as a whole. I hope this has inspired you to pick up that pen and your notebook and get writing.

Until next time,

Beth. x