Tags
- compassion
- coping with anxiety
- couples therapy
- creative anxiety
- creative expression
- creative process
- death anxiety
- embracing mortality
- emotional processing
- emotional risk-taking
- encouragement
- expanding emotional capacity
- finding purpose
- friendship in marriage
- healthy relationships
- intentional living
- making meaning
- mental health
- perfectionism
- personal growth
- self-discovery
- shame
- skill-building
Journaling, Part One: A 27-Year Love Affair
Journaling has been my most faithful companion through decades of life's twists and turns. During times of anxiety or grief, my journal offered refuge — a judgment-free space where my raw, unfiltered thoughts could live. I'll never forget the day I found an old black-and-white Composition Book during a painful breakup. As I flipped through the pages filled with my own handwriting, I was stunned. The relationship problems crushing me now were documented there in my own words — five years earlier, during our first months together. Finding that journal became more than an eye-opening moment. It created a through line, connecting present-me with past-me, reestablishing trust in my own inner knowing.