(Disclaimer: This transcript is using AI technology. Please excuse any errors.)

Music 0:00
Welcome to the Atheists in Recovery podcast, where we talk about finding hope in recovery. And now your host, Dr. Adina Silvestri

Adina Silvestri 0:13
Hola Atheists in Recovery, and welcome to episode 116 of the Atheists in Recovery podcast. And it will not come as a shock to many of you. But today is this episode is the final podcast of atheists in recovery. And I'm equal parts sad and excited. I'm sad, because I've gotten to know a lot of you over the last two years, and I've gotten to know your stories. And I really enjoyed making this podcast, you know, 116 episodes, and we've reached audiences all over the world. And it's just been so gratifying. And I've just loved every part of making this podcast and it's really helped me grow as well. And so today's episode is going to be a bittersweet one for sure. For me, and I want to talk to you a little bit about what I'm up to next. But I also want this to be, as I hope most of my episodes are informational. And so we will spend a few minutes just talking about how I feel, writing has helped me and how it's really taken a lot of people that I know, including a lot of the people that I work with, from feeling of hopelessness, and sort of transformed how they look at their trauma and their stress and to one of lightness of hope. And so I'm just going to share a few things about writing. And stay tuned to the end, it's going to be a short episode. Stay tuned to the end. And you can learn a little bit more about what I'm up to next, including my new limited series podcast. Okay, on to the show. So as I've mentioned, this is going to be the last episode of atheists in recovery podcast, and I'm going to be starting a new podcast called Writing bravely. And that's just because I think that writing is transformational. And I don't think that you have to be brave to write. But I think that anytime that you're vulnerable, and you're open with your vulnerability, then I feel like there's so much courage in that. And I know I've talked about that on this podcast many times before. And so just looking at writing for a minute, I feel writing can be used as a coping mechanism. I feel it can be used as a creative outlet. And I also feel that it could be used for healing. And so if we just look at writing, expressive writing, specifically as a coping mechanism, it really helps to sometimes write down the difficult stuff, things that you're stuck on things that you're having a hard time processing. And when you're writing it down, you can really make sense of what's going on, you're really in this embodied space with the feelings. It allows you to sit with those uncomfortable feelings and be curious about them. And be curious about their contours, their shapes their sizes. It could help you honor and light up. Your stories also can help you envision your future selves, as restored and renewed. And I know that it's done this for me. Writing has been transformational in that I wasn't ready for therapy, to be quite honest. As a therapist, I was not ready for therapy. And writing just opened up a whole new world. And it ended up being that I shared much more with writing than I ever would, one to one in therapy. And it doesn't have to be that writing is the only creative outlet for individuals in order to cope with difficult emotions, but it's the one that I really believe in. And it doesn't take much effort. So number two, writing as a creative outlet, I feel like writing heals. James Pennebaker, who's a social psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin study the impact of certain kinds of writing on mental health In 1986. Since then, there has been over 200 research studies that reported that emotional writing can improve people's physical and emotional health. James Pennybacker

really laid the groundwork for a lot of this a lot of what we know today on emotional, creative writing. So there are many ways that expressive writing can help us make sense of our emotions and thoughts. And you start, the writer must link feelings to events on the page. This reading allows a person to tell a complete, complex and coherent story. So there's a beginning and a middle, and an end. And as you're linking these feelings to events, you can also start to link other events. Let's say you're having a difficult time with your partner, and you're just getting triggered. And that trigger is coming out as anger and frustration. When you're starting to write these feelings down and notice where they are in your body, or notice what's coming up for you, you can then start to link that back to childhood experiences, and start to write about them and start to make those links to where you used to feel that way, the first time you ever felt that way with a primary relationship in your life, and that can be incredibly powerful, just to kind of get some of those secrets out into the open to give them air. They're not meant to stay hidden. They're really not. And so in such telling, we the writers are transformed were transformed from a victim into something more powerful. A Narrator With the ability to observe. So, writing has done a lot for me and for my clients and the people that I work with. And again, it's not for everyone, there are other creative outlets that people can utilize to help them get through difficult emotions or perhaps trauma. But if you are interested in writing, if you are interested in working with me, I think that would be wonderful. The 13th century Sufi mystic and poet Rumi wrote The wound is the place where the light enters you. And love that the wound is the place where the light enters you. So thinkers, from Freud to Ted talker, Brene, brown have all postulated that there's strength and vulnerability. And this is where I'm heading guys. And I hope you'll join me. Riding bravely podcast is set up to be a short podcast, a limited series, kind of like Netflix. But it may continue. It may continue. The episodes are going to drop sometime in the middle to late June. So be on the lookout for that if you're on my email list, you will get updates about that. And I hope you show up. I hope you show up with me, I hope you're interested in learning more. I will be starting to write weekly with whoever decides to show up via zoom with me. And no prior writing experience is required. In fact, it's probably better that you're not a writer because you won't be as judgmental about what you write. I know I was not a writer when I first sort of this journey. And that's it. That's all I have. I will think of everyone fondly as I start this new journey. And if you're interested in writing with me, if you're interested in learning more, just head over to writingbravely.com. Again, that's writing bravely.com to get the latest news and updates. And you can even sign up there. I think the first group, we're limiting it to five individuals just to kind of get a beta round going. And then after that they'll still be pretty small writing groups, but I'm pretty excited about this new venture. Alright guys, have a great one. Bye.

Music 9:44
Thank you for listening to the atheist and recovery podcast. For more great info and to stay up to date head over to atheistsinrecovery.com