Turning to Creativity for Mental Health

On this episode of Small Steps to Self-Love, special guest and poet Jhane shares her journey of creative self-expression, beginning with music and poetry for fun, but discovering its positive impact on her mental health. We learn about her struggles with depression and anxiety and how they turned to creative activities as a tool for emotional release. Join us as we explore the connection between creativity and mental health with Jhane, and hear a poem that encapsulates their journey towards choosing the light over darkness.

Don't forget to check out the Poetry Club and join the waitlist at jointhepoetryclub.com!

JOIN THE POETRY CLUB:
Want to join a supportive community of poets learning to write and publish their poetry book? Hosted by Shelby Leigh, bestselling poet, you'll get all the support and resources you need, with multiple live events featuring award-winning poets every month. Head to https://jointhepoetryclub.com to learn more!

About Jhane:
Jhane has a B.S. in Literature, Media, and Communication and an M.A. in Gerontology. She has self-published a poetry book, "Compositions: Sinking, Floating, Sailing," and is working on her next book “to feel the darkness but choose the light”. Jhane has been published in Wren's Nest, Blood Moon Journal, and more. Keep up with her @quotedbyjhane on IG, TikTok, and Twitter.

ABOUT SHELBY:
Shelby is a mental health author, who has grown an audience of more than 500,000 on social media who resonate with her work. She is the author of 3 poetry books, including her latest release, girl made of glass and her bestselling book, changing with the tides. Shelby also runs an online poetry community, and helps authors market themselves and their books for more sales.

 resources from shelby:

·        check out Shelby’s mental health poetry books

·        Free self-love poetry print

·        Join the poetry club

·        Get help with marketing as a writer

connect with shelby:

·        Instagram: @shelbyleighpoetry

·        YouTube: Shelby Leigh Poetry

·        TikTok: @shelbyleighpoetry

Transcript

Shelby Leigh [00:00:00]:

Hello and welcome to another episode of Small Steps to Self Love. Today's guest is Jhane, who is a member of my virtual community called the Poetry Club. That is how we initially connected. And before we got started with today's episode, I wanted to let you know that you can join the Waitlist for the Poetry Club at jointhepoetryclub.com. If you enjoy writing, expressing your creativity, and have a dream of one day publish, publishing a poetry book and selling your poetry book, that is what I help with. In this community of more than 100 fabulously talented poets, you can be a beginner. You can already have books published wherever you're at in your journey. If you are looking for community, we would love to have you so you can head to Jointhepoetryclub.com to get on the waitlist and you'll be the first to know when doors open for new members. 

Today we have Jhane, who I met through my poetry club community. I think that was the first place that we connected. So I'm really excited to chat with you today about mental health, about poetry, about self love, and hear more about your journey and your story. So I'd love to just pass it over to you to get started and tell us a little bit more about you and what you do.

Jhane [00:01:10]:

Yes, well, I'm excited to be here. Thank you for having me on. As far as what I do, well, of course. I'm a poet and I started kind of always written poetry. In a sense, music was kind of how I got started in writing lyrics. And then I kind of seriously got into writing poetry in 2020 and created my poetry page quoted by Jeanne and all of that. But during the day, my day job, I work at the Alzheimer's Association and I'm a program manager. So doing really great and important work and connecting with people in the community and raising awareness about that. So that's kind of some of what I do professionally. And outside of that, I just love hanging out with my friends, with my loved ones, my dog or my grandma's dog, our dog, we can say, and just chilling and doing new adventures.

Shelby Leigh [00:02:05]:

Yeah, I love that you said so. I didn't know you did music. Do you play an instrument or do you sing or you just like to write songs?

Jhane [00:02:13]:

All the above. So I dabble with the guitar. My mom put me in guitar classes when I was in middle school because I had a guitar I didn't know how to play. I wish I could have learned kind of on my own, but that wasn't my journey.

Shelby Leigh [00:02:25]:

It was kind of hard.

Jhane [00:02:27]:

But yes, I dabbled with the guitar. I sing and I write lyrics, and I feel like writing lyrics and singing. That's kind of where I started. And then the guitar came later.

Shelby Leigh [00:02:38]:

Got it. Wonderful. Awesome. I didn't know that about you. So already learning new things.

Jhane [00:02:43]:

Great.

Shelby Leigh [00:02:44]:

So you write a lot about mental health as well. So do I, as the listeners know. So I'd love to learn a little bit more about your mental health journey, your self love journey and how you got started writing about these sort of topics as well.

Jhane [00:02:58]:

Yeah, so it definitely has been a journey with mental health. I've been in and out of therapy, and I always tell people kind of during the pandemic is when I kind of started writing seriously, because I got pretty depressed during that time, graduating that year and then the pandemic. Happening and kind of not knowing what's going on and being in that state of uncertainty and needing kind of this outlet to really express myself and work through what I was feeling at the time because I had so many emotions and I know everyone in the world did because we were all experiencing it. But it was definitely such a time. And that's kind of what got me into writing poetry more seriously. But yeah, I've been in therapy, I'm currently in therapy. I always recommend that to people. I just think it's been such a help to me. And I know it takes time to kind of find a therapist that you mesh well with, but I always talk to my friends about that in my journey and anyone who really wants to know, I'm very open about that. And it's been a big help for me as I've gone through different bouts of depression in my life. Different bouts of anxiety. I deal with that a lot. So that's kind of what I've been doing to kind of help with that in addition to writing, in addition to kind of just being more open and engaging in some of those relationships with friends and family. And I think it's really impacted my self love in that I don't know, when you get depressed, you just kind of like or at least in my experience, I don't want to kind of get out of bed as much or kind of do all the things that I need to do, like pull myself together. I'm like, whatever about fashion, I don't we care. Just throw something on and make it through the day. And I think sometimes pushing through that and just trying to find something that makes me happy or a little sliver of light in those moments and just reminding myself that every day and doing affirmations and trying to make that more of a daily part of my life. Those are some of the ways that I'm trying to overcome that and just being more open too.

Shelby Leigh [00:05:04]:

I love that. Yeah, tell us a little bit more about that. So during these bouts of depression or anxiety, what are some tools that you use or things that you found, you said, like finding things that make you happy. How have you found those things that help you with more self love?

Jhane [00:05:20]:

Yeah, it's been a process and again, that's something that I work through in therapy too. I think I just found things that I think work for me, like writing. That's a big thing that I turn to and just kind of getting those feelings out there. I may not always like it, but it helps me to just kind of release whatever's going on up inside my brain. Walking. Walking is a big thing for me. Walking and listening to music or working out, like breaking a sweat, all of that kind of releases some of that tension for me and makes me feel a little bit better doing something like affirmations or something calming, like taking a bubble bath, because that's not something that I do often. I'm used to taking showers, but sometimes taking that relaxing bubble bath and just being able to soak is nice. So just finding things like that, watching a show or talking to somebody who uplifts me, just kind of pulling things out of my toolbox that I think at that time will really be useful to me and help me to kind of get through those tough emotions.

Shelby Leigh [00:06:18]:

Absolutely. And it's great that you have those creative outlets too, to help with that, because I feel like whether or not we think we're creative people, allowing yourself to express yourself and those feelings can be so helpful. So how has you have multiple forms of creativity, it seems like, with writing and music as well. How has that helped your mental health? And was it something that you started doing to express yourself or is it something that you noticed later on down the line that was helping your mental health?

Jhane [00:06:56]:

I think when I turned to kind of doing music and doing poetry, I think initially it was really just a part of life, just doing something for fun or something that I enjoyed doing and found comfort in. Of course, like music I do when I was a lot younger. So I don't know that I always thought about it as attached to my mental health or something that was uplifting me in that way. I think it was just something that I was doing and then I would notice, oh, this kind of makes me feel good. This is bringing me out of this emotion or this feeling that feels bad and icky and negative. And now I'm moving into a lighter space. When I do these creative things like writing or listening to a song and kind of doing a cover or playing a guitar or sitting down and writing a poem, I just would feel so much lighter, like a weight had been lifted afterward. And I think that's kind of how I started to realize, okay, this is something that I could put in my toolbox when I'm feeling some of these more negative or heavy emotions that I can turn to this to kind of bring me out of that. And I just think that it's not always the first thing that I turn to, but more than likely that's going to be what I turn to, my creative side and knowing that that's going to help me to kind of be able to come out of those funks.

Shelby Leigh [00:08:15]:

Yeah, I'm the same way. I don't think that I realized for years that reading and writing and things like that were helping me tremendously until yeah, I looked back and was like, oh yeah, I was kind of doing this as like an escape or really processing my emotions. These short stories I was writing, there was a lot about me in there that I was kind of processing too. So it's really interesting to look back on. And as an adult, I of course know that I'm using it as a tool for healing and processing things too, while also sharing our work with others and hopefully impacting them as well, which is always a really cool aspect of it. But do you have a poem handy that you could share with us related to any of these topics?

Jhane [00:09:01]:

Let me pull this up and while I'm pulling it up, I will say you've created quite a community, which is amazing. I've met a lot of people through knowing you and being in the poetry club and even on Instagram. Just being a part of that writing community has really been such an amazing experience for me. So thank you for building community and being a part of the community and.

Shelby Leigh [00:09:22]:

Thank you for your work out there. Thank you. I'm glad to hear that. Yeah, I think community is so helpful and it was something I didn't really have for the first couple of years that I was sharing work online. I felt very isolated and alone. So that was one of the big reasons for creating the poetry club and it helps me just as much as it's helping other people. I love connecting with everyone that I've met through there.

Jhane [00:09:43]:

That's beautiful. I love that. I love that you were able to create something that you didn't initially have for others and yourself. So that's beautiful.

Shelby Leigh [00:09:52]:

Thank you.

Jhane [00:09:53]:

Yeah. So I pulled up a poem, as you know, but of course not everyone knows that I'm working on a new book and I just released the title, which is To Fill the Darkness But Choose the Light. And it's really just about kind of really, again, what we've been talking about, just kind of processing all the emotions of life, of love, of heartbreak, of all the things that we kind of go through and experience. Which is why sometimes I'll just refer to myself as like a life experience poet because I just kind of write about various life experiences and I feel like that encompasses so much. But yes, I pulled a poem from that. That is the very last poem in the book, in the love section and it's the title of the book. To Fill the Darkness but choose the Light and it's short, so I'll read that, but it goes I'm still learning so many things. Every day I'm trying to focus more on the growth and less on the pain. I'm taking life in sips instead of gulps, bite sizes instead of chunks. I'm learning to go with the wind so I won't just be blown away. I'm giving more of myself to those around me who have shown me that they are in my corner. The light has seemed hard to find at times, intangible, evasive. But I always find it, even if it's just a glimmer and a crack or crevice. And that's the most beautiful way that I've shown up for myself, by choosing the light, even when I felt the darkness.

Shelby Leigh [00:11:21]:

Beautiful. Oh, I love that. I feel like everyone can just take that with them, that mantra with them this week. That's amazing. So I would love to ask you one small step for our listeners to take with them this week, in addition to this poem that you just read, because that's in itself yeah. That they can take with them on their self love journey. Something that maybe you do on a regular basis that you'd like to share as a little tip.

Jhane [00:11:48]:

That's a good question. So many things to do. I think just again, through therapy, I've kind of learned to create a toolbox of things that help to bring me out of those moments. And I think finding those things in your daily life that help you to just feel lighter, help you to just take a moment to be mindful, to breathe, all that's really important. So whether that's going on a walk or it's listening to music or it's catching up with someone or it's going to a cafe and just like being whatever that looks like for you, definitely find that thing or those. Things that make you feel lighter, make the weight the world kind of come off your shoulders a little bit, even if it's just for a moment. Like, you just don't know how much that can be helpful to yourself going forward. So find those moments, find those things and just enjoy life and live it. It goes by so quickly.

Shelby Leigh [00:12:39]:

Definitely. I love the idea of having a self love toolbox that you go to whenever you're feeling down. Yeah, maybe it's just keeping a list of things that make you happy in those moments where you feel like nothing can make you happy. And that way you have that to go to and can remind yourself that there are beautiful moments in life and things that you are passionate about and enjoy doing. So I love that advice.

Jhane [00:13:05]:

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you. I love lists, so I'm going to write those down on the list because I just keep them in my head.

Shelby Leigh [00:13:11]:

Me too. Yeah. I feel like I have to get it out of my head onto paper, else I will forget. So I'm a to do list type of person?

Jhane [00:13:19]:

Same. Very much.

Shelby Leigh [00:13:20]:

The same. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for the advice, for sharing some of your story, for sharing your beautiful poem. I'm so excited for your book coming out, probably is it later this year that you yes.

Jhane [00:13:34]:

September 9 is the date that I've chosen and got a lot of things in the works. Wonderful.

Shelby Leigh [00:13:43]:

So exciting. Well, thank you. And where can people find you if they want to read more of your poems, check out your books, all of.

Jhane [00:13:50]:

The things you can find me on most social media, instagram, TikTok, Twitter, all the things under quoted by Jeanne that's Jhane. And yeah, you can find all my links, pretty much. I'm always on Instagram, so I have my little link tree in there. And you can get into other things through App, through that link so she can find me. Thank you so much for having me on, Shelby. It's always great to see you and be able to talk to you and just to see you on social media. So keep doing what you're doing.

Shelby Leigh [00:14:21]:

Thank you. Same to you. And thanks so much for your time and being here. And thank you, everyone, for listening to today's episode. I hope you have a wonderful week filled with self love and compassion and kindness. And I'll see you next week. Bye.