We are in a new mini-series on coping skills to calm your nerves and retrain your brain. In the last episode, I introduced the concept of bilateral stimulation to calm your nervous system and reign in the runaway brain. Please go back and listen if you missed it because I will reference that more throughout this series.

This week I want to bring up the most underrated coping skill - verbal and written processing.

Why processing through journaling or talking is powerful:

• It gets it up and out. If you can’t talk about it, it owns you.
• When we stuff emotions, they find their way out somewhere.
• Bottling up your emotions can drain your physical energy. Your organs, tissues, muscles, endocrine glands, and skin are receptive to your emotional experiences, causing memories to be stored in your brain and your body.
• It helps you spot inaccurate thoughts. Sometimes just saying or writing it, we recognize it’s not true.
• It lets God and trusted loved ones into our struggle.
• It grows our faith to look back on old journal entries and see how God took what the enemy meant for evil and turn it for good.

Here are 3 ways you can healthily process thoughts and emotions, plus a practical tip to implement each:

• Pray. In other words, talk to God. Practical tip: Talk to God throughout your day. In the car, showering, walking, cooking, or folding laundry.
• Seek wise counsel (a counselor or a trusted friend who won’t judge)  Practical tip: How to be someone a friend can process with in a healthy way:
  • Ask, “do you want me to listen or give feedback?”
  • Be slow to give advice. Most people just need a listening ear and a hug.
  • Keep their information safe. The quickest way to break a relationship is to reveal information that isn’t yours to share.
• Expressive writing - AKA JournalPractical tip: Try bullet point journaling, writing a note on your phone, put it in a Word document, add dates to reflect, use a coloring book that makes you happy and write shorthand notes on the sheets, or use a journaling Bible.

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