Trichelle Nieuwenhuizen Of Wellness Warrior On How Journaling Can Help You To Be More Calm, Mindful And Resilient
An Interview With Jake Frankel
Allows you to change your perspective: Being able to write down and read back how you are feeling or what you are facing allows you to get a different view of things. You might see something you haven’t before and deal with emotions differently. It’s like giving someone else advice, except you’re the someone else.
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 Trichelle Nieuwenhuizen — Wellness Warrior.
Owner and Author of Wellness Warrior a, wellness blog about skincare, fitness, nutrition and mental health. She is a certified NLP Practitioner, Life Coach and Fitness Instrucor.
She is Certified Fitness Instructor, Life Coach and Health Enthusiast.
She found a passion for health and wellness by starting her own journey after many fails and health battles. She created my blog as a way to empower other women to see their true self worth.
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?
To be honest, I had a normal childhood. I was happy, healthy, and thriving! When I hit my teenage years, things started to change for the worse. When I turned 16, my health started becoming an issue. I was constantly having stomach problems and was home sick multiple times a month.
Fast forward a few years and I have done every test to try and figure out why I feel the way I do. Finally, in 2016 I was diagnosed with an Auto Immune Disease called Crohn’s. (One of the many health problems I had.) The Doctor gave me my diagnosis and sent me on my merry way. No medication, no treatment plan and barely any explanation as to what’s wrong with me.
As the years went on and the diagnosis of Crohn’s just went away. I mean, how bad can it be if I didn’t even get medication for it? I was young and dumb and didn’t do much research. For years I lived with symptoms and had no idea what caused them. About a year ago I started a Wellness blog, and it motivated me to take back my life and be the healthiest version of myself mentally and physically.
I was diagnosed by a competent Doctor with Crohn’s for a second time but this time I was put on a treatment plan, special diet, and hope that things will get better. My mental health took a big knock because I was starting to lose my mind because no one could figure out what was wrong. Now, I am focused on helping other people reach their potential and heal their bodies mentally and physically.
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 started learning about journaling when I started my blog a year ago. Since then, I’ve been using multiple methods of journaling. I’ve been using a journal to help me heal and express myself in many ways. The main reason I started journaling was for my health because Crohn’s affects your gut. So many foods can trigger a bad reaction. I started writing down the foods that would hurt my stomach.
When I felt alone and helpless, I would write what I’m feeling down. Journaling has become a big part of my life and I wish I had started sooner.
How did journaling help you heal, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?
Journaling became an outlet for me. A way to feel less alone and to make sense of everything I was feeling. I have a few different journals that I use. For example, I have a gratitude journal. It can be so easy to get caught up in all the negatives of life and we tend to forget about the things we should be grateful for. When I started with my gratitude journal, I realized that I have so much to be grateful for.
That it’s so much better to focus on the multitude of good and just deal with the rest as it comes. Journaling became so much more than just an outlet and a way to cope. It showed me that I am worth much more than I think.
Did journaling help you find more self-compassion and gratitude? Can you share a story about that?
Journaling gave me so much more than that. It gave me my life back. When I started my blog, it was also a form of journaling in a sense. I had all these health problems and had no idea what to do with them. I had all these foods I couldn’t eat, foods I should rather eat, exercises I should avoid, and you name it.
Then it hit me, I can’t be the only one with these overwhelming feelings, so I started writing FOR people like me. Things I wanted to know, things that confused me. When I started getting feedback from other people I helped, that made it all worth it. My personal journaling and blog opened a whole new world to me.
A world I wish I had known sooner and I am so grateful for the journey I’ve been on. Journaling, no matter the type, is a way to get to know who you are as a person and to see the world around you for the good it holds.
What kind of content goes into your journal? For example, do you free-write, write poems, doodle?
What doesn’t go into my journal anymore would be a better question. I have so many different journals. I have a food journal to track everything I eat daily; this helps me keep my calories in a deficit and if I have any sort of discomfort, I can look back to what it could be and make a note of it.
I have a gratitude journal, here I write down everything I am grateful for. Whether they are big or small. It’s an amazing feeling to look back in your journal and see the things you were grateful for in comparison to how far you’ve come. It helps me realize just how blessed I am.
Then I have a plain old journal where I write down how I feel. Emotions I might be feeling, things I might be dealing with and don’t know how to word. I’ve come to learn that as soon as my pen hits that paper, the words just keep coming. I read back what I wrote, and it helps me understand who I am and how I feel.
It might sound silly, but you really get to know yourself.
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?
I learned that I am more than my disease. I learned to stop feeling sorry for myself and do something about it. Getting a diagnosis doesn’t define you, you do. Journaling helped me realize this. My blog helped me realize this. Instead of wishing I was healthier and wishing I can eat what everyone else does, I made it happen myself. Journaling helped me realize that I am the only thing standing in my way of living the life I’ve been dreaming of.
It’s all about shifting your mindset from “I want” to “Thank You. The change from “I can’t” to “watch me.” You decide where you want to be in life.
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?
My blog has been a form of journaling in my life and I hope that one day my blog will reach thousands of people and help them live the life they’ve been dreaming of. I focused my blog on challenges I have faced, questions I might have had and ways to help people live a healthier life. Not just physically but emotionally and mentally too.
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”?
- Helps you process emotions: There is no better way to process what you are feeling that reading back the scribbles you have written down. You don’t even have to use words. Getting out what you are feeling helps you start over with a clear mind and take on what you are facing, head on.
- Tracks personal growth: It’s hard to see change in yourself if you have nothing to measure it against. It’s good to be able to look back in your journal and see how far you’ve come. It’s a great way to motivate yourself to keep on pushing.
- Creates gratitude: It can be so easy to focus on the negative things in life if you aren’t aware of the goods things around you. Being able to see all the things you are grateful for makes you realize that you have so much more going for you.
- Encourages mindfulness: Taking a few moments to sit down and write in your journal allows you to be fully present in the moment and feel everything around you. You connect with your emotions and appreciate life. It allows you to become self-aware and heals your mind and body from within.
- Allows you to change your perspective: Being able to write down and read back how you are feeling or what you are facing allows you to get a different view of things. You might see something you haven’t before and deal with emotions differently. It’s like giving someone else advice, except you’re the someone else.
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?
Spreading the message that there is nothing wrong with feeling and looking out for your mental health. We created a world where it’s frowned upon when you feel too much and need to take a step back. Wellness Retreats are very underrated and social media makes it even harder to take care of your own mental health.
People need to realize that taking care of yourself is a priority. No one gets frowned upon when they eat healthy or go to the gym. So why does that happen when someone seeks professional help, meditates, journals or does anything that keeps them healthy?
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 have to say Dr. Joe Dispenza. He has completely mastered the concept of creating your own destiny and re-wiring your mind. He understands the true power of your mind and the importance of mental health. How we are the cause of most circumstances in our lives just because of the way we think and act.
I would love to be able to learn to be completely coherent physically and mentally from someone who has mastered it so perfectly.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
My blog, Wellness Warrior is my outlet and where I strive to help people live their best and healthiest lives. My blog is focused on mental health, fitness, nutrition, and taking care of your skin. It’s all about taking what you have and making it work for YOU.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued fulfillment and success with your writing!
Trichelle Nieuwenhuizen Of Wellness Warrior On How Journaling Can Help You To Be More Calm, Mindful… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.