Transcribing & journaling for Mental Health

If you're struggling with any kind of mental health issues, this may work for you.

For many years, I have struggled with anxiety, so I looked at various ways and methodologies for help which included self-help books, therapy, yoga classes, dance classes and joined the gym. They all worked for the short term, and I am grateful to all the teachers and instructors who turned up every day to give of themselves, ultimately, I would spiral back into depression or sadness if I were to stop.

In this post Covid era, we are emerging slowly, like bears after hibernation, to confront ourselves in public. Going to concerts, the theatre, even shopping malls is 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?

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 happier than I had been 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 started writing with my favourite pencil, then typing with auto-correct, but there was something about the tasks that did not extract true feelings, until I found transcribing ie. voice recording.

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. In the same way that I love acting, it allows me to experience emotions that we usually keep at bay. Transcribing with honesty and truth allowed me to exorcize any anguish, confusion or excitement onto a page. It felt like my daily thoughts were capsuled in a bottle, with treasured emotions to be archived and revisited.

I still need to exercise, do yoga and dance classes for my body and mind, but therapy through transcribing and journaling for mental health added a new level of relief, completing 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 3D. 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 a debate; your emotions will appear at any moment depending on the subject, and that process is cathartic. In essence, I became my own therapist, drawing on my past and present circumstances evaluating my state of mind.