Why I went to therapy

I went to my first therapist when I was 27.

To say it was love at first sight would be an understatement! I loved having an hour to talk about exactly what was on my mind to someone who was (almost) unbiased.

For the curious, one of the reasons I was going to therapy was stress management. My mind was often a whirlwind of repeating thoughts and worries. I was the Queen of What-Ifs…

And the more I tried to think about and solve my problems, the more cyclical they felt. Even when I could push the thoughts away, they often felt like they were humming around in the background, never giving me a break.

One of the solutions for me? Journaling.

My therapist suggested I start keeping a journal. And when I felt myself worrying about what-ifs, I wrote.

And when I felt myself in a spiral of thoughts and emotions that I couldn’t see a way out of, I wrote.

And when I was beating myself and feeling low for too long, I wrote.

I quickly learned that the jumble of thoughts in my brain - the kind that could ruin a whole day - were actually the same 2-3 thoughts with 25 different variations. By writing the thoughts down, instead of letting my brain just think about them, I was able to stop the “spin cycle.”

Finally, relief!

So if you are someone who finds themselves all up in their head, try getting your thoughts on paper!

It doesn’t need to take long…often less than 5 minutes. Just dump your brain on paper and give the thoughts a rest! And when your brain wants to start whirling around again, remind it that you don’t need to think those thoughts, you’ve already captured them in your journal.

And for those of you that didn’t catch my IG video on the first steps of change, you can catch it here.

And while you’re there, follow me for more conversation!