An Interview With Jake Frankel
Journaling as a daily practice can help you become more resilient. Writing in a journal is a way to cope and to deal with whatever arises. With journaling one can become resilient because writing can never be taken from us, it is within. If you write you will always have this ability.
Journaling is a powerful tool to gain clarity and insight especially during challenging times of loss and uncertainty. Writing can cultivate a deeper connection with yourself and provide an outlet for calmness, resilience and mindfulness. When my mom passed on, I found writing to be cathartic. When I read through my journal years later, there were thoughts that I developed into poems, and others that simply provided a deeper insight into myself. In this series I’m speaking with people who use journaling to become more mindful and resilient.
As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Andrea L. Wehlann.
Today, Andrea L. Wehlann is a bestselling author and poet. She’s a highly regarded expert in yoga -a Certified Hatha Yoga Teacher — with a BA in Psychology from Brock University and a Social Services Diploma from Niagara College. As accomplished as Wehlann is, she makes clear that she has faced and triumphed over — many struggles, too. Her source of dedication to spiritual healing derives from surviving childhood mental, physical and emotional abuse, as well as surviving rape and sexual assault. Here she shares how journalling helped her triumph over pain and adversity.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! We really appreciate the courage it takes to publicly share your story of healing. Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your childhood backstory?
I grew up the youngest of a family of five in Port Colborne, Ontario. I began channeling and writing poetry at age seven. My first volunteer position was in an old age home where my paternal grandmother dropped me off at age fourteen. I volunteered there throughout high school. That’s where I met one of my first best friends, 99 year old Gertrude. I grew up with two Grandmothers, and two Great Grandmothers. I experienced large family Christmases where I felt a deep connection. Childhood was deep feelings, strong emotions and the compulsion to write them. Looking at what I had written, I learned things, and I experienced things differently.
Writing became my form of expression. I would write out the poems in the obituary sections, when friends in high school had passed and that happened each year. For my family members, I would write my own. When songs touched my heart, I wrote the lyrics out. (U2, Celine Dion, Melissa Etheridge, Imagine by John Lennon, to name a few). I wrote out compelling songs from my ages, think Depeche Mode, INXS. It was through writing poems I visually saw that my vocabulary was beyond my age and life experiences. In the forbidden room of the old age manor, I experienced my touch, presence or my energy around people who were labeled not to be aware or conscious, and in my presence, I saw their movements. In the places of unconsciousness, I witnessed consciousness, at the elderly people’s bedsides and in my written words; I experienced something greater, something extraordinary. School and learning was a struggle for me, if I needed to study for tests, I wrote the answers out, then rewrote them again shorter, then shorter, again and finally into a small sentence I could retain. It was as if I was writing them into my psyche. Reading the texts, I found I had to re-read everything a few times to understand. My writing progressed and I began to write words to what I was feeling inside. It felt natural to me. Words flowed constantly in my mind. I could hear them. I dreamt to sing the words one day. I wrote songs, poetry and letters to friends as a teenager.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about journaling. Have you been writing in your journal for a long time or was there a challenging situation that prompted you to start journal writing? If you feel comfortable sharing the situation with us, it could help other readers.
I had developed this writing skill in childhood. I found high school to be a dark period in my life, I wrote about every experience. When I felt hurt, betrayed, or experienced despair, loss, or family troubles, I wrote everything I felt. In this process of journaling, I could see I was able to write silver linings to traumatic events and this helped me get through dark feelings of suicide and hopelessness. My frosh week, second year University was an ultimate challenge. The Rohypnol drug was slipped into my drink by a classmate from my first year. I can feel resistance in my body even now sharing this story. I am sharing this now because I have found a way to cope and to thrive. I believe I survived to help other people who may have experienced or will experience the same or similar situations. The events of that night are a dark tale, and would make a horror movie. My body was dumped onto a cement curb of the busiest street in the dark. My underwear was ripped; my bra was stuffed into my back pocket. I believe I was pushed out the car door and left here and not meant to live. The spark of aliveness I felt was deep coldness in my bones. Concrete beneath my body was freezing my bones and I felt it. I could not move my body, my eyes opened; there was a sidewalk, a long front lawn, a distant light, four concrete steps. I heard the rushing of cars, my eyes closed, I passed out again.
Freezing opened my eyes again, I slid my right forearm in an effort to move. I felt like dead weight, though I knew my body needed off the curb. I have no concept of time, which perhaps in hindsight is the amount of the drug within me. Forearm by forearm hauling my dead weight body towards the sidewalk and off the curb/road. The steps to my apartment were concrete also; it was only the freezing cold that I knew anything at all. This night’s terror continues, especially because I had another 12 step staircase to get behind a locked door, in case they were coming back for more, there were many men, in my fading in and out of consciousness glimpses; it appeared to be a frat house. We can insert many feelings into my story here. Let us include the stages of grief, every iota of victimhood, shock, despair, depression, worthlessness and death.
Let us also insert here, counseling centers, Universities ability to ‘seek justice’, for most women we know where that story ends. Let this be where my writing tool inspires you now. I will always believe I was meant to die, used, not even as a human being and left for dead. After some processes and the stages above, it was journaling that healed me ultimately. Journaling was the tool I used to transform the energy of this experience and journaling allowed me to take my power back. I remembered specifically standing in my apartment, my roommates were not home. I sat in my pile of victimhood and feeling useless and like trash, I thought of who he was, how he had wooed me the first year, he had made advances while we studied, yet I am a girl who had a hard time Learning. Remember, I was in University despite many odds and mountains I didn’t feel I could climb, it was hard and difficult for me, and advances were not on my mind. Herein lies my epiphany, here my journaling took its best turn ever. I wrote the poem called in my book, ‘Scorched’. When I wrote it that day, standing alone in my apartment it began with an ‘f’ word. I wrote every angry emotion out, all of my rage was emptied on that page. In this writing came acceptance. It was no more a story in my mind, there were no lies. I imagined what kind of life he had to live to do commit that crime against me. I prayed; I fell on my knees at the Catholic Church steps down the street. I wrote this poem and the weight of anger, disbelief, loss, betrayal, violation, had been released. Not taken from me, yet a powerful transformation occurred. This was no longer about him and what had happened. It was me again. My poem ends with ‘who are you to say live or die’. Journaling set me free. I hope my words resonate.
How did journaling help you heal, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?
Journaling helped me heal situations and experiences that cognitively made no sense. Mentally I was able to channel healing words for and through dark painful experiences. Emotionally the words I wrote did not match my age in vocabulary, and it was here in my written words I saw fill the pages in my journals that emotionally I felt a connected sense to a higher spirit, a higher consciousness, a great love. Spiritually journaling is how I came to know myself. In Zen there is Bodhi-chitta, an inner awareness of something greater than the self, a sense of knowing. I felt this every time I wrote. I healed myself with words. I transform the dark into light. I write/speak truthfully. Journaling is an absolute gift, an inner gem, it is wisdom. Journaling is my divinity. Mentally I could re ‘visit’ any dark nesses in my experience and re write, thus trans-form the feelings and pain into light, love, wisdom. Emotionally journaling is my tool to express any and everything. Spiritually I am confident, disciplined, and strong. Spiritually with writing my prayers, it strengthens my sense of spirit, essence, and connection to God/Love. I spent at least two years of my healing writing out my prayers. A book of prayer is actually a book I would like to have published.
Did journaling help you find more self-compassion and gratitude? Can you share a story about that?
Journaling helped me find self-compassion as I write honestly as if no one will ever read it, and say exactly what happened, over and over again, building trust in my process. Once I am empty of what I know more comes, and with writing I can see my pain, fears, troubles, situations and people in ultimate light. I can forgive. I can love. I learned through journaling I am loved. As a child I sincerely believed all the bad things that were happening to me were actually because I was bad. I believed I was born a bad seed. I believed bad things happened to me because I deserved everything bad because that is who I am and that that is what my life will be and is, period. Once what I felt was written, more came, all the endings I wrote were silver linings, or were the opposite of the dark. I came to believe in something greater than my circumstances. I follow this bliss. I trust my inner voice’s wisdom. I can see through and in the words I’ve written.
Perhaps now I can call this grace. I amplified this aspect by spending years writing prayers, which is a powerful tool on its own. I wrote prayers constantly and loved the feelings of compassion I was experiencing. I make conscious choices to write forgiveness to every situation, person, that I felt had ever wronged me. I’ve become gratitude. I express gratitude through writing and in poetry. Once I was aware I can do this and experience the light nesses of this magic, I am sure to express gratefulness by writing my gratitude to everyone I ever met. I write gratitude to every situation. I write gratitude for every negative, past, pain, hurt — all of it. I look for things to express gratitude too. This is freeing and transformative. I have transformed every pain, hurt, fear, trauma, into forgiveness, gratitude and I daily cultivate a love so deep within myself. Now it is a flowing river that wants to heal and reach the hearts and hurts of others. This is my practice now.
What kind of content goes into your journal? For example, do you free-write, write poems, doodle?
In a meeting with many people or somewhere I am required to listen, I will doodle or bring mandalas to color in with fine line markers. Content that goes in my journal when I am not sure what to say begins with: Dear Journal: I do not know what to say. This usually starts a flow of words and I keep writing them, I write streams of consciousness. Once I initially write it is similar to removing debris from a river, and then it flows, a river of words flows. Poetry flows through my mind constantly, in my journals I capture poetry as often as I can, honestly, and most escape me. I write love letters to my sons. I save these for when they are old enough to understand and as memories. I write what they are doing, how proud I am of them. I date every page I write on. I write out my prayers. I write out my yoga classes. I write love letters to my yoga students.
How did you gain a different perspective on life and your emotions while writing in your journal? Can you please share a story about what you mean?
Through writing in my journal I am able to forgive, forgive again, and forgive often. I am able to pray, writing prayers onto paper feels solidified within. Journaling invoked confidence, strength and resilience within me. I have gained new perspectives on life and emotions by writing out my problems. Writing gives a view of problems on paper thus, a gained insight is to be able to work with, re-write, or see the problems from vast angles. I gained insight that there was more to each event or experience. I gained insight that all things are in constant flow or flux. I am able to express emotions, and to re-write those painful emotions into new ones. Journaling has shifted my perspective from reactivity to creativity. I once felt stuck with emotions, now I feel emotions as flowing and impermanent.
In my own journal writing, I ended up creating poems from some of the ideas and one of them won an award. Do you have plans with your journal content?
I dream of brilliant lines of my poems being on coffee mugs and t shirts. I dream of publishing them all and delighting in others transforming with the incredible honest value they add to mind, body and spirit. I dream of publishing my long poetry and a short poems poetry book. I dream of writing a memoir. I dream of writing all my yoga trainings, classes, Reiki courses and classes, and all of my meditation trainings, Feng Shui, Tarot reading training and my journeys of white light circles and silent retreat journals. I dream of a book of how all of these led me to become a yoga teacher… Not for me, yet as a mirror to reflect the light in me back to others. We live in a fast paced culture which makes it hard to see the light we truly are. I want my words spread around as sparks of light that ignite the burning embers I believe are within us all, to fan flames onto those until each of us is just as lit as we can be, sharing our interconnected fires of destiny.
Fantastic. Here is our main question. In my journaling program, I have found that journaling can help people to become more calm, mindful and resilient. Based on your experience and research, can you please share with our readers “five ways that journaling can help you to be more calm, mindful and resilient”?
- Journaling can help you be calmer as writing the words out onto paper and seeing them in front of you, eliminates the constant rumination of thought patterns that tend to and can disruptively consume the mind, your day, your week, your life even. When words are written, they are less damaging to the psyche. Journaling can calm cessations and overwhelm tendencies.
- Journaling gives you something to look at, new awareness, insight, and with these gifts, you can become able to work with your thoughts, become mindful and aware of patterns. It offers a space where you can see with your eyes what is happening and with continued journaling you are naturally more mindful, calm with having developed this technique for yourself to deal with life’s situations, and a coping skill for traumas, pains, childhood issues. Journaling gives you an outlet to release, onto paper or screen, and yet it offers the ability to see beyond such pains, devastations, and laughter’s, fears and can dive deeply into love.
- Journaling as a daily practice can help you become more resilient. Writing in a journal is a way to cope and to deal with whatever arises. With journaling one can become resilient because writing can never be taken from us, it is within. If you write you will always have this ability.
- Journaling can help transform what is happening by being able to write a story about what’s happening for you now as is, and then you have a space and chance to rewrite that story anyway to support your life, your loves, your relationships. I want to share this knowledge that it is the same mind that writes a horror movie is the same mind that can create a love story. It is your mind and your consciousness as a human being that offers you to use your mind to create a love story out of anything. It is impossible for a mammal to do this, for you it is a skill absolutely available to you now.
- Journaling is a powerful tool of consciousness. Journaling strengthens the bond between the physical and spiritual worlds in similar patterns as do breathing practices in yoga. Breathing practices in yoga classes are a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds. I have seen this happening with my own journaling practice being it is a bridge between subconscious, conscious and the magic that comes from discipline and continued journaling practices is even transcending. If willing, if disciplined, if you trust in the divine beyond the five senses. Journaling can be practical or spiritual.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of peace to the greatest amount of people, what would that be?
I am with Melissa Etheridge here, an Uprising of Love. I dream of a Revolution of Love. A few things come up for me here. I always said if I had millions of dollars I would have a home of peaceful healing for those who are dying. My 15+ years in Palliative Care, my work in old age homes since age 14, and believing I could heal those with AIDS for a few years after University and College, taught me something deeply. I have never lived a day without this knowing I felt and experienced over and over again. It is this, love is stronger than death. I dream of a place where I could hold more hands as they take their last breaths. The most real, authentic moments I have been blessed to witness are the moments someone takes their last breaths. What I felt, saw and was able to witness, I realized dying is just as beautiful as birth. Even a few tough, miserable humans I held their hands, I wrote positive words and hung them on their doors, I put powder from donuts on my nose and said I didn’t touch them to make them laugh; these were the most precious moments, to watch a human struggle so much in their life, with their families etc… Find solace and peace in the moments I held their hands as they took their last breaths.
I dream of a Love Fest where I teach yoga to a large crowd of people gathered with the same mindset in celebration, love is stronger than death. Yet, I did create the Summer Solstice Yoga on the Beach event on Lake Ontario beaches in Canada. I offered yoga by donation on the longest day of sunshine of the year on the beach. The first year I had 11 students join me, 2nd year was 33, 3rd year was over 100, and before pandemic lockdown the beach was entirely covered with yogis. I led this class filled with all ages, cultures and children, into a 45 minute to 1 hour hatha yoga class on the beach at sunset. The community faced the setting sunshine and taking in the beauty of the sun setting over the lake while moving their bodies, sounds of the waves, they had a beautiful view of water and sun with community around them. As a yoga teacher I have never seen anything more beautiful than all of them raising their arms towards the sky and moving together in unison. Witnessing this felt like the actual meaning of ‘yoga’ which means to ‘unite’, seeing the community moving together as one. Imagine this, not anyone could hear my instructions beyond the first row or two, the entire beach was completely full, a drone captured images and a short video which are mind blowing. Being on the shoreline of the beach there was no space for me to ‘plug in’ a microphone, it was magic and magical. I continue this event now twice a summer, in June and July on Sunset Beach in St.Catharines, Ontario. I want to show people they have all they need within them and that we are as interconnected as sunbeams with the sun. My dream is alive and burns in my veins, when seeing women in any pain. There is another way. I have a dream that women can go out in anytime at any place and not have to fear for their life. That a woman will not be judged by the clothing she wears or the color of her hair, or lack thereof. Yet, by the content of her character or lack thereof. I dream women will not be judged by their occupation. Women will walk with pride owning their femininity. I have a dream that the feminine will conquer fear, that all fear be conquered. I dream of a rise in compassion.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. 🙂
I would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with Oprah Winfrey. When I was in grade school the stories on her show compelled me. Victims of abuse were given a voice with Oprah. Oprah showed me a world where bad things happen to good people and most times it is for a greater purpose. Oprah taught me a concept I used often, fake it until I make it. I fought hard to overcome a plethora of struggles, vast mountain after mountain I climbed. I may still be climbing now. Oprah inspired me to keep going. I have seen the view at the bottom and top of many mountains. I want to share my hero’s journey to uplift and reflect love to those who may be watching TV or listening now. I want my authenticity to pierce through the veils of storytelling pouring love into souls who feel lost. I want to affirm yes to those born with an inner knowingness they are more than their current circumstances. Oprah has sat with the heroes that inspire me daily, my heroes that grace the altars in my home and in my Ganga Moon Yoga studio. A hero such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Princess Diana and dear to my heart daily is Marianne Williamson. I have connected with her a few times and she is second for breakfast or lunch please. I told Marianne in Toronto in 2023, I would not be here without her, of course when I told her she replied, ‘me neither.’ Oprah has sat with many of my favorite authors and spiritual teachers and I pray this now, one day may Oprah sit with me.
When Oprah and I sit together may the entire world feel peace and healing with our hearts, words, work, combined vibrational frequency, outpouring our knowing nesses of love. We need new stories for a new world; we all have a story within us. I have a dream to positively impact millions of women in pain and need, with Oprah’s reach there could be a poem I have written to soothe their souls and inspiration for them to rise and grow that they have all they need within them now. I want women to feel I see them, feel them, and need them; we are an interconnected invisible intricate web of frequencies.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can find me at Ganga Moon Yoga on FB, LinkedIn, and IG and also by my name; Andrea L Wehlann on IG, FB, LinkedIn, YouTube channel by this name has free videos available. My yearly events are listed on Eventbrite under Andrea L Wehlann with an option to follow me on there. My books can be found at your favorite online bookstores.
facebook.com/andrea.l.wehlann;
facebook.com/gangamoonyoga
instagram.com/gangamoonyoga
instagram.com/andrea_l_wehlann
linkedin.com/in/andrea-l-wehlann-a6b03b187
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qZt1XbHc2DSPFzqje04Zg
https://www.eventbrite.com/o/andrea-lynn-wehlann-14668342646
Visit my author page at ingeniumbooks.com/andrea-wehlann/
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued fulfilment and success with your writing!
Andrea L Wehlann On How Journaling Can Help You To Be More Calm, Mindful And Resilient was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.