Out of the Darkness: A Guided Journal: My Journey to Mental Wellness

By Stephanie Mossi

Have you ever found yourself in the depths of darkness, despair, depression, or anxiety, wishing for a way out? Have you tried to handle these situations on your own, only to find yourself right back in the midst of those struggles? Have you ever thought, "If I just knew what to do, I could overcome this?" Look no further.

Following her debut memoir Out of the Darkness, Stephanie Mossi presents a self-help guided journal to help others find their way out of the darkness of their mental health struggles. Take a thirty-one-day journey with Stephanie as she guides you through steps that she took to build coping mechanisms and learn to overcome mental health struggles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639615827

Book preview

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Out of the Darkness

A Guided Journal: My Journey to Mental Wellness

Stephanie Mossi

ISBN 978-1-63961-581-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63961-583-4 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-63961-582-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Stephanie Mossi

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

A Beginning Plan

Welcome

Welcome to the start of your written journey! This is the first day of the rest of your life! This is a thirty-one-day guided journal that is designed to help you change your mindset to a positive one and to gain control over your mental wellness.

With that being said, this journal does not need to be completed in thirty-one days. Go at a pace that is comfortable for you. If you find yourself needing more than one day for each daily plan, please take the time you need.

Also, please do not feel pressured to fill out every single line on these pages. If you don’t like my questions, don’t feel compelled to answer them. On the other hand, if you have more to say than I have allowed space for, write in the margins or add Post-it notes—make it your own! These are simply spaces to allow for different types of journaling to help you find what works best for you.

I want you to get the most out of this experience, and you cannot do that if you rush through it. Relax, and let’s enjoy this journey together!

The Layout

This journal is designed to reference at different points of the day. In the morning, you will read about the topic for the day. You have the whole day to work on that topic and then will come back to it in the evening to journal about your day.

Again, if it takes you more than one day to complete it, that is absolutely fine. The days also build off one another, and you will be directed to view earlier days where we worked on similar topics.

Basically, I’m hopeful that this journal will stick as close to you as a best friend as you walk through this journey.

Let’s get started!

Welcome

My dear friend,

My hope for this journal is that it helps you learn how to keep track of your emotions in a positive way. This should be a safe place for you to write down your innermost feelings and express your thoughts in one spot. It will also serve as a reference for you over the next month (or longer) to track your progress as you redefine yourself and learn to change your mindset to a positive one. You are on your way to living in complete mental wellness—and I’m excited to walk alongside you in this journey!

—Stephanie

A Beginning Plan

Let’s begin by equipping you with a method for settling your anxious or depressed mind—especially if you’re struggling with a clouded mind right now. This will also equip you if negative thoughts decide to pop up in the future.

When you find yourself in an emergency situation, what do you do? You call for help, right? Most people dial 9-1-1. In essence, we P.A.N.I.C. 9-1-1. We have first responders who arrive and help us through our situation.

I want to equip you with a P.A.N.I.C. 9-1-1 solution for mild mental health emergencies, such as a panic attack, extremely disturbing thoughts, or a rampant thought process.

Certainly, in the event of a true (and especially) life-threatening emergency, please do call for help and get appropriate medical treatment.

If you find yourself in a crowded situation where you cannot easily leave or you’re somewhere by yourself and a panic attack strikes, I want to equip you with a method to help you bring yourself out of it. Don’t give yourself the mindset that you need someone else to get through it. You’re strong! You’ve got this!

So here’s your P.A.N.I.C. 9-1-1 for acute emergencies, like panic attacks or overwhelming negative thoughts:

9: Take nine slow, deep breaths in and out. If you need to control your focus more, have the entire inhalation and exhalation of each breath last nine seconds.

1: Find one thing in the room that you can focus on. It can be a couch, a lamp, a picture, a hairstyle, an outfit, an animal, a person, etc.

1: Think of something positive about that object. For example: I see a lamp in the corner. I like the lamp because it provides light and brings me out of the darkness. (See what I did there?)

The point of this method is to take control, refocus, and redirect our negative thoughts.

One of the first ways that we can take control of our racing thoughts is to override them by focusing on something specific. Immediately redirecting our thought process with something easy, such as counting, is a good way to divert our thoughts and be specific in what we are thinking about. Counting doesn’t take much thought of your own, and it doesn’t overwhelm or paralyze your thought process. This is a learned behavior that has been built in from childhood, so it should come naturally. It will require just enough of your focus to be easily distracted because you’re counting to a nontraditional number, like 9.

If you come to find that just taking nine breaths is not enough of a distraction for you, continue on with the number 9 by making the entire inhalation and exhalation process for each breath last nine seconds.

We want to refocus our thoughts away from menacing and tormenting mental images or phrases and focus on something we can see right there in the room with us. In the midst of chaotic thoughts, I can still look at a couch and tell what color it is or what material it is made of. I can see the dancing of the flame on a candle and smell the aroma it spreads throughout the room.

Diverting my attention and focusing on something else can move my train of thought from a track of panic and mental anguish to a track of focus and concentration on a real object.

Next, let’s think about something positive related to that object. Do I like the color or the material? Do I like the design or the architecture? Do I like the shape of it or even the smell? Tap into your other senses to explore what makes that object unique and what you like most about it.

We are redirecting our thoughts to focus on something we can see and touch, and we are changing our mindset by forcing ourselves to think of something positive. In the midst of chaotic thoughts, we often drown in negativity. If I am focusing on the fact that my heart is racing, my hands are shaking, or that my palms are sweaty, I am fueling the negativity and, in turn, increasing my physical symptoms. When I am intentional and push those thoughts aside to focus on the positive aspects of something that I can use all my senses for, it redirects my thoughts and gives me an object to discover and analyze.

Okay, so I’ve done that and I’m still in a panic attack. I’m still severely depressed. Now what? Do it again! Find another object. Find another thing to be grateful for or to think positively about. Continue to work on redirecting your focus and your erratic thoughts.

The situation may not diffuse with redirecting your thoughts once. It wasn’t one thought that got you to the mindset you’re in now, so it’s most likely not going to be one thought that pulls you out of the negative mindset once and for all. It’s going to take practice and repetition. We are retraining our minds. We cannot master this after one usage.

So when you find yourself in a reckless thought process of negative thoughts or a whirlwind of chaotic thoughts in a panic attack, get help by using P.A.N.I.C. 9-1-1.

We’ve got to be intentional. We’ve got to choose what we want to allow into our minds. We’ve got to choose to be positive!

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (Philippians 4:8–9 MSG)

When you’re in need of calming down, this can turn it all around: P.A.N.I.C. 9-1-1.

P.A.N.I.C.—Please Act Nice. I’m in Crisis!

Be kind to yourself!

9-1-1

Day 1: ____/____/________

Every journey begins somewhere. Whether yours is just starting or you are finding yourself years on your path, your Day 1 begins when you decide to do something about it. Let’s start by making a goal statement.

Goal Statement: By the end of thirty-one days, I have three main goals for myself. These three goals are:

Along this journey, I will keep account of the negative things so that I can recognize triggers and things I need to work on, but more importantly, I will keep track of the positive things. They may start small, but I’m going to keep my focus on them.

I promise to give myself grace along this journey because change doesn’t always happen instantly. It takes time, work, and being intentional.

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16 NIV)

Today’s focus is on what your starting point is. What are the events in your life that brought you to the point you’re at now? How are you feeling at the start of this journey? Allow yourself to be raw and real. This is important for a few reasons. One reason is so that you can look back and see how far you’ve come from this point. Another reason is that we want to address these concerns directly as you go through this journey. If you know what the underlying root of what’s causing concern and other symptoms in your mental health and other aspects of your life, we can attack it head-on. Please know that I am praying over you that you will find freedom and healing during this process. Thank you for taking this journey with me.

Day 1 Continued

Let’s continue with explaining where you’re at in your journey right now. This is your story. Every story has a beginning. Let’s hear it.

Day 1 Continued

Your story continued:

Day 1 Continued

Your story continued:

Day 1 Continued

Your story continued:

Day 1 Continued

Now that the negativity is out of the way, let’s move on to speaking positivity over ourselves with some positive affirmations.

You might find yourself feeling more depressed or anxious after sharing your story. Let’s counteract those negative feelings with positive statements about ourselves!

Take a deep breath. Look in the mirror. Say each statement out loud three times:

I am worthy.

I am important.

I am loved.

I matter.

I am better than the negative thoughts that flood my mind.

I am overcoming this.

It is a process, but