Talking is a great way to manage your emotions, get to a point of clarity and simply feel better.

However, there are a couple of challenges I’ve observed:

• It’s rare to have uninterrupted time with someone. Others join in, notifications interrupt the flow and the conversation get’s broken.
• Most of us lack enough purposeful practice in listening to be good at it. Naturally our minds wonder based on what we’re hearing, we start to share examples of ‘when that happened to me’ and take the focus off who we’re listening to. We don’t mean to, it just takes deliberate training to get good at it.

Writing on the other hand allows us to distill our thoughts. Think, write and then edit. We can boil our thoughts down as they flow until we reach clarity. It can be a really productive way to work through what’s in your head, and it can feel incredible. It’s self-care, whenever you need it.

That’s not to say talking through your difficulties is a bad idea. Far, far from it. Others provide us with perspective, experience and emotional support.

So add writing to your daily practice…you don’t have to publish anything, it can be a private exercise. The result is the same.