One of my earliest memories is of me trying to write my own novel. Someone, I’m guessing my mum, had bought me a notebook packed with pages and stickers to use as chapter breaks. I fell in love with it. And I thought I was amazing for writing my own story. 

Now you can imagine how awful the story really was. And those that followed in the few years afterwards. But I always took that love of writing with me. 

When I was a teenager, I started to secretly write fan fiction. I was obsessed with a few boy bands and wanted to get my love for them down on paper and manifest my love for them. 

Not only did it keep my creativity alive in my teenage years of temptation, but it gave me something to work towards and goals to set ahead of me. I enjoyed writing the chapters and planning the story ahead. 

Discovering Writing to Heal

I remember the first time I started to write about my emotions seriously. None of this fan fiction nonsense. I was seventeen and had just broken up with my first boyfriend. He’d hurt me a lot and I hadn’t felt so unwanted in a long time. 

Life still went on and I knew I had to cope with it somehow. I spent the next day moping around in the sixth form art studio and in this time, I discovered poetry. Not that I knew what it actually was that I was writing at the time. 

I just started writing. 

And writing and writing. 

I got all of my emotions down on the page. The things he’d said and done. And all the things he didn’t say and didn’t do. How I was disappointed once again. But glad I hadn’t opened up enough to feel any deeper.

Every day for a few weeks following, I kept writing. Anything that popped into my head came pouring out. I’d be doodling on my worksheets in class or writing in my favourite notebook in the middle of the night. 

Writing helped me to heal from this. Even if it was from a meaningless teenage relationship. At least that time helped me to discover what writing could really do for me. I know I always have my writing to turn back to in times of need and in times of overwhelming emotion. 

Practising Writing Seriously

When I went to university to study creative writing, I hadn’t known myself to struggle getting the words down on paper ever in my life before. As much as I loved it, there were moments where I questioned why I was studying creative writing and why I hadn’t kept it as just a hobby.

In my third year, I was really struggling with my mental health and the last thing I wanted to do was write my uni assignments. 

I took a couple of weeks off as my deadlines had been extended and I took that time to rediscover the true meaning of writing. I began writing like I used to, free writing and getting it all down, my head felt much clearer and I remembered why I was there. 

I started journaling again, not every day but most days. I bought myself a nice new notebook to scribble all my thoughts in and I slowly felt like I was becoming me again. 

I know now that I’ll never abandon writing again because I understand the importance of it in my life and how it’s always been by my side as that hidden coping mechanism. 

Before I started this blog, I did a lot of research into this as I was curious to find out how writing had such a big effect on my mental health. And I discovered so much content out there on the healing benefits of writing. 

Some of which were:

• Creating a fluid outlet for our emotions
• Helping to identify the root of our problems and how they came about
• Finding your own solutions to these problems, giving yourself a self esteem boost in turn
• Providing a fantastic coping mechanism
• Making time to reflect on your experiences and feelings
• Physically manages intrusive thoughts and stress
• Taking some time to care for yourself

Different Methods of Writing to Heal

There were so many different writing methods that I use to help me to heal in different ways. 

I’m a big dreamer. I want the most out of my life and I tend to imagine a number of futures I could have. I would dream of moving to spontaneous places and starting my own life, of finding the perfect man (before I met my amazing boyfriend that I have now) and finding my dream job that financially covers everything I want in life. 

I add an unbelievable amount of pins to my vision board on Pinterest for inspiration on the type of house I want to eventually live in and the life I want to live.  

I often express a lot of these dreams in my writing. It’s why I continue to write fiction even now that I’ve graduated. Creating characters that I can hand these dreams to allows me to live that life through them. I can get lost in puppeteering the characters in living all the things that I dream of. I can escape from the reality where I’m maybe not very close to getting to any of those desires. 

Like I mentioned earlier, poetry often really helps me to express myself in the best way. My chosen method is actually free verse poetry where I can put together strings of words that make physical sense of my emotions and where I’m at with my life right then. 

I usually feel a lot more satisfied and relieved after I’ve let myself write some poetry and I feel more free from the negativity that I was holding onto before. 

However sometimes, mostly when I’m angry or I’ve got some conflicting thoughts in my head, I choose journaling as my method of writing to heal. Most of my journal entries are full of rants and rambles about my problems. But this method works so well for me. It gets my anger out in a healthy way, instead of screaming at somebody or myself and I usually feel much calmer afterwards. 

When I’ve got a problem that I can’t figure out and I’m not ready to or feel too stupid talking about it with someone, then I turn to journaling. That’s usually when there’s a moral dilemma on my hands and I need to write down all of the pros and cons of the possible decisions. 

So I’ll leave you to think about how writing could help you and what it could mean to your mental health. Whatever you’re writing to heal from, as minor or temporary you may feel it is, there’s a method out there for you to try. If you’ve experienced something life changing that you’re struggling to heal from or you need to find a new way to express yourself, have a look at my new Writing to Heal course, currently available for free here!