Blogging your way through Anxiety

Blogging can be extremely beneficial when you suffer from Anxiety and Stress. I have been blogging for over 10 years, detailing my journey as a single mum, a therapist and life’s ups and downs. There’s nothing better than going through those pages, looking at how I navigated difficult situations during life’s transitions.

Why is blogging beneficial to our health?

1. It serves as a way to talk to ourselves, to give us a hearing, supportive platform we can confide in.

Of course, we may have supportive people in our lives that we can confide in. But when we go through difficult times (and the pandemic was certainly one of those times), it provides different type of release. Here, we can say it how it truly feels; we can use words that may only make sense to us; and we can say things we wouldn’t say to other people.

2. It reminds us that even though we may be going through difficult times right now, we can draw on our memories from the happier times and gather valuable resources from them.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I have been blogging for over 10 years now. As I struggled with Social Anxiety myself in the past, it is so refreshing to go back to my younger years and read page after page of salsa dancing, meeting with friends and living life to full. A gentle reminder that if you were able to do that once, you will be able to do that again- you just need a gentle push in the right direction.

3. We are able to see ‘patterns’ that we follow, whether it’s to do with professional or personal life.

If you truly get into the habit of blogging regularly, interesting patterns about yourself, and your habits, will emerge. You may notice a ‘theme’ to your life; you may notice you’re drawn to similar people, similar partners or jobs, even though it’s not something you want. Looking through how you navigate life over the years can be extremely beneficial.

4. It provides relief from anxiety and stress, whilst serving as a reminder we’re able to deal with things that are tough.

Anxiety is worrying about the future. Having it written down helps looking at our problems more objectively. Better still, reading through our words a day or a few days later may show us we worried unnecessarily.

Yesterday, I was looking through my blog from years ago. I still have that same Anxiety pattern going, generally worrying about the same things. Looking at it now, and seeing how well it turned out in the end gives me so much support and confidence.

5. It serves as a reminder of what we’ve been through, life’s transitions, special events and much more.

I think the best thing about blogging is that you get to remember what you’ve been through. It’s different to Facebook or Instagram; here are detailed events that truly happened. This way, you get to remember, and remind yourself of what is important.

6. And it’s really relaxing.

Blogging can easily be counted as a ‘mindfulness’ resource. You write about yourself, but it’s relaxing because it feels like you’re writing about someone else. You can get ‘lost’ in it, think of the words, how to express yourself.

So how do you start blogging?

It’s very simple- just head over to wordpress.com (or google ‘blogging platforms’ to find what you truly like) and start your first blogging site. Name it whatever you like.

If you need extra help setting up your first blogging site, head over to YouTube for truly wonderful, educational videos on how to start blogging.

If you don’t like writing about yourself, write about other things:

Cooking, Baking, Gardening- the world is your oyster.

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