Mental Health Self Care

If you’re struggling with emotional issues but can’t find the right path to help, there are successful ways to self-help.

Mara Schiavetti
3 min readJun 26, 2022

For many years I have struggled with anxiety, so I looked at various ways and methodologies for help. I bought many books, went to therapy, did copious yoga classes, dance classes, exercised etc. etc. They all worked for the short term, and I am grateful to all the teachers and instructors that turned up every day to give of themselves, but ultimately if I didn’t spend money on these things I would bounce back into depression or sadness. So now we are in post covid, more or less, at least we are not looking at endless lockdowns, but we are emerging slowly like bears after hibernating to confront ourselves amid public life. Going to concerts, theatre shows, and even shopping malls are a relief to visit, but how are our interactions? Is there a slight readjustment to connecting with other humans again? Do we feel a slight discomfort with small talk? And what if you are recovering from Covid and your energy level is not what it once was? There are so many things that have changed and shifted in a post-Covid world.

The process of going to therapy never really worked for me. Lying on a couch and waiting through long silences while struggling to voice my inner thoughts amounted to emptying my bank account and feeling no more happier than I had a year prior. Recently I was listening to Mathew McConaughey as he spoke about journaling. He was passionate about it, saying it helped with his mental health and also as a diary. I have written in diaries since I was a teenager and still have all of them, they are my treasures, so I thought why not put more effort into writing in a journal every day, but I found the task arduous and I didn’t feel that it was profoundly benefiting me. I tried writing with my favourite pencil, then typing with auto correct which I thought would help, but no there was something about the task that did not extract feelings that I would have liked to process until I found transcribing.

Transcribing my thoughts, verbally onto a page was the step that allowed my voice to explain to the page exactly what I was going through. I listened to myself while my heart and body responded to the words. Emotionally I was experiencing my thoughts throughout my body and that was the therapy I was looking for. For the same reason I love acting, which allows me to experience emotions that we usually keep at bay, dictation through honesty and truth allowed me to exorcize any anguish, confusion or excitement onto a page. As if the daily thoughts would be locked away as a capsule of treasured emotions to be archived or revisited.

I still need to exercise, do yoga, dance classes and so on for my body and mind, but that added self-therapy session I have every day has completed the circle of wellbeing I was looking for. I don’t want to preach and say that this is the answer to everyone’s problems, I just wanted to share this in case it’s something that appeals to you because it has worked for me. For me, it’s a way to hear myself think in three-D, as I’m speaking into the microphone I can tell whether I’m being authentic or if I’m talking through a veil of illusion or programming. It works the same way as expressing oneself in a conversation, an argument, or debate, your emotions will appear at any moment depending on the subject, and that process is cathartical. In essence I become my own therapist drawing on my past and present circumstances to evaluate my state of mind. It’s not unlike looking in the mirror to see your real self in private and with no judgment. Like I said this may not be for you, so if you have your way that works please share here for the benefit of all.

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