Sunday 2nd February 2025

Hello,

Here we are in the second month of the year. January is over and we have a fresh month to fill with our thoughts and feelings.

Processing January

How will you be processing January? Speaking, socialising, journaling, crafting or creating, or playing sports? A blend of some of those or something else? I wonder if you do have a preferred method of offloading and processing what has just gone, in order to move into a new week, or month?

I'm curious because it seems to be something people only speak about in the context of new year's resolutions; as a once a year event. But I see the value in regularly reviewing and reflecting. It keeps me focused and also clear on what I think and feel, and why I think and feel those things. My way of doing this is to 'chunk' a year into weeks and months. 

I have a 'weekly process' (as you probably know haha!). I also make a point to note the end of each calendar month in that weekly process. I like the structure of this, and a yearly review fits nicely into that, as an additional element. To only have a yearly review doesn't make sense to me. It's too long to wait to review and adapt.

We all have our methods of clearing and moving on. I'd love to know what works for you. 

A weekly process: how to 'process'

If you want to try a weekly process writing session, here is a structure that I use, and I have added more specific details about how to 'process' what you have offloaded. I've put together some key prompts that you could use:

OFFLOAD:

1. Set timer for 7 minutes: free-write for those 7 minutes and let yourself dump out onto the page whatever comes up, without judging or querying it.

PROCESS

1. Look back at what you have written. Does anything catch your curiosity as something you want to explore? If yes, go with that. If not, use one of the prompts below.
2. Set your timer for 7 minutes and write using the prompt or whatever you are curios about. Keep writing even past the point where you feel like you want to stop. If you get stuck use one of the prompts.

LIST OF PROMPTS:

Look back over the free-write. 

• Circle any "I am" or "I am not" statements. Explore these. Are they still true, what is the current evidence.
• Notice any critical thoughts, or judgments. Write about those. What impact does this thought have on you and is it helpful now.
• Circle any 'doing' or 'thinking' phrases. Eg, "I have been doing a lot of .....", "I have been thinking about....." Write about these and ask yourself questions as you write.
• Notice if you are avoiding something that you would like to do. Question this and explore if you would like to overcome it.
• Notice 'what if' thinking or worse case scenario thinking. Use the worry tree to help you to explore this.
• Notice if there are any of these unhelpful thinking patterns. This is a link to my blog post where I have a download of unhelpful thinking patterns.

In my weekly process writing session today I am going to be offloading and processing January. What will you be reflecting on today?

For now, have a great rest of the weekend and I hope that you go into Monday feeling rested and clear of intention.

Until next Sunday,

Donna

Expressive Writing & CBT: An online, self-paced course to help you get to heart of what is upsetting you, and write about thoughts & feelings safely.

This course combines the transformative practice of free-writing, with the structure of therapeutic expressive writing.

I have also added CBT strategies for managing feelings, a module on writing about traumatic events and a bonus section on therapeutic sound for processing. 

It is  designed to help you not only offload/journal your thoughts and feelings, but reflect, process and manage the feelings that come up for you whilst writing. 

Contents:

- 29 videos with over 5 hours of content

- A detailed 50-page course workbook

- Resources and handouts

- A carefully curated therapeutic music playlist

You can buy the course outright, or pay £7 a month to access it and then cancel this subscription anytime.

One-time: Price: £54.99

Monthly subscription: £7

Here's the link for more details about the course.