How writing heals mental health: Screenwriter Bhavna Kher says try journaling, metaphor therapy and memory excavation

For many of us, writing is a ability tied to high school essays, work experiences, or the occasional social media publish. However for some, writing is a follow of launch and reflection. Bhavna Kher, a co-writer of Netflix’s Dabba Cartel, is one such believer. Her journey with phrases, she says, has formed her emotional resilience, and he or she really believes within the energy of writing as a wellness ritual. Writing and storytelling can heal your thoughts. Bhavna’s relationship with writing started within the high-pressure world of promoting and later, in screenwriting. In an interview with Well being Photographs, Bhavna says: “All alongside whereas I used to be shaping narratives for manufacturers or display – there was all the time a extra personal follow of writing that I held near myself. I’d write vignettes, morning pages, reflections – items that weren’t meant for anybody else’s eyes. They have been merely a approach for me to really feel higher, to let loose what I used to be carrying. In that sense, writing has been my ritual of launch and wellness, one thing natural that I turned to repeatedly.” That is how she got here up with the concept of sharing the virtues of writing and serving to others to faucet into the therapeutic energy of storytelling. “What are our lives if not nice tales, proper?” Bhavna asks. “The difficulty begins once we suppress feelings – once we maintain them in, internalise them, and allow them to harden into mounted patterns,” she provides. In response to her, emotional therapeutic turns into attainable once we discover methods to precise these tales. “By turning our lived experiences into narrative, our private tales might be rewritten and reframed. We will truly change our narrative.” Bhavna just lately hosted a 4-day Writing Retreat within the serene environs of Gir forest. Members have been guided by practices like narrative journaling, intuitive storytelling, narrative remedy, metaphor remedy, reminiscence excavation, letter writing – interwoven with yoga, meditation, sound therapeutic, forest walks, and riverside experiences. Such experiences each now and again permit individuals to decelerate of their rushed lives, and are available again to themselves. She says: “For me, writing clears the thoughts. Yoga jogs my memory I dwell in a physique, not simply in my ideas. Meditation deepens that sense of consciousness. I’ve felt this myself on days after I begin with a number of stretches, sit in silence, after which put pen to paper. What comes out could be very totally different – softer, more true.” Bhavna Kher shares easy practices that anybody can undertake:Narrative Journaling: This sort of journaling is admittedly nearly sitting down together with your pocket book and letting your self write about your day, your feelings or no matter’s in your thoughts. It may be every day or everytime you really feel the necessity.Metaphor Remedy: Generally it’s onerous to write down about our experiences instantly. Metaphors make it simpler. For instance, as a substitute of writing “I felt caught”, you would possibly write a few chook in a cage. Reframing our tales on this approach helps us see them in another way, soften them, and generally even uncover new meanings. It’s a mild approach of working by feelings.Reminiscence Excavation and Letter Writing: That is about revisiting reminiscences – digging into the tales that formed us. Letter writing can develop out of this – letters to ourselves, to somebody from the previous, and even to our future self. You don’t should ship them. The act of writing can itself carry launch, closure or a way of peace with issues left unsaid.