The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives.
Journaling is a highly effective way to reflect on your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. It’s a great tool for staying mindful and learning more about yourself. And since journaling is what you make of it, you can record however much or little you want—or even keep multiple journals!
Right now, I have four journals: a bullet journal for planning purposes, a journal in which I record things to share with my therapist, a food journal to help me stay on track in my eating disorder recovery, and a theatre journal, where I keep track of the plays I read, potential audition materials, and other goals for my theatrical studies.
I’ve found great organizational advantages in keeping multiple journals, but it’s a somewhat hefty undertaking, and it may not be helpful for everyone. So, what might be the benefits of keeping several journals?
Continue reading The Pros and Cons of Keeping Multiple Journals
We can see more than a little similarity here with the ways adolescents declare their independence from their families.
If you’re anything like me, you may be finding it hard to be motivated this summer. I’ve spent more than a few days on my couch bingeing shows on Netflix. As relaxing and nice as that can be, I know I need to break up that time doing other more productive things that build my self-esteem.
For many people, the word summer brings excitement, joy and anticipation. Everyone waits all year round for summer vacation and the long-awaited, well-deserved break from school. In my school, people start discussing their summer plans and options as early as January!
Have you ever gone to a party or had to talk in front of others and felt sick to your stomach with anxiety about the prospect? Have you ever felt so nauseated and nervous that others are judging you the wrong way? If this is the case, you may be suffering with social anxiety, also known as social phobia. You always may have felt this way but were never able to put your finger on exactly what it was.
It’s important to understand the risks of taking any medication. But it’s also important to understand where those risks came from.
“Would you be mine, could you be mine? Won’t you be…my neighbor?”
Mental illness is often seen as a “white person’s disease”—a product of privilege, a chosen illness. It is represented in the media by people who are white, while those who are not suffer in silence. The most important thing to remember is that mental illness does not discriminate according to race—or any other demographic, including class, gender, and so on.
RED ALERT! Sound the alarms! Batten down the hatches! I forgot to take my antidepressant!