Donna F Brown Of Write On Donna: How Journaling Helped Me Be More Calm, Mindful And Resilient

An Interview With Heidi Sander

Journaling helps us to be mindful of the present moment. When we write about day to day events, we stay focused on the present rather than worry about the future or remain stuck in the past.

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 Donna F. Brown.

Donna F. Brown is a published author, musician, retired RN, and certified yoga teacher and therapist living in Pearce, Arizona. Her first book, FINDING MEDUSA-THE MAKING OF AN UNLIKELY ROCK STAR, was published in April 2019, and has received rave five star reviews on Amazon. Her latest novel, ONE MOONLIT NIGHT, a thrilling murder/mystery, was published in November 2021. Donna has also written several articles that were published in Authority, Thrive Global, Woman’s World magazines, and in the Huffington Post.

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 had a pretty rough childhood and endured severe physical, mental, and emotional abuse by my mother. She had been abused by her father, and perpetuated the cycle of abuse. Because of my scattered and chaotic upbringing, I was frequently depressed and anxious, and mistrustful of authority figures. I had difficulty sustaining friendships and seeking a satisfying career to pursue. My mother sent my sister and I to camp every summer and that became my saving grace. I learned to love being outdoors, camping, running, and hiking in the mountains. My sister felt more comfortable camping out at home. Music was also very healing for me. In my early twenties, I played guitar in a rock band then known as Medusa, and have loved playing and listening to music ever since. In my book, FINDING MEDUSA, I wrote in depth about what it was like growing up in the turbulent 60’s surrounded by the most legendary bands and musicians of those magical times. The incredible music of that era helped shape me into the musician and entertainer I am today. My hope is that this book will inspire my readers to pursue their dreams and find their own “Medusa.”

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 first starting writing a journal in my teenage years. I journaled about attending nursing school, as well as keeping track of various live concerts I attended. I saw The Beatles during their last world tour in 1968 in Chicago, my home town, at the International Amphitheater. Seeing The Beatles was an incredible experience! I also journaled about what day-to-day life was like living at home.

How did journaling help you heal, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?

The act of writing down thoughts and feelings gave me a better insight into myself as previously mentioned, and was very therapeutic. Writing helped me release painful, pent up emotions, and thereby provided relief by validating that what I was feeling was real amidst a distressing and chaotic home life. Journaling for me was more healing mentally and emotionally, rather than spiritually. I didn’t really know the meaning of spirituality at the young age of seventeen. It wasn’t until later in life that I was able to embrace spirituality when I studied yoga and became a certified yoga teacher.

Did journaling help you find more self-compassion and gratitude? Can you share a story about that?

In leafing through several old journals, I read about various events I participated in and situations I encountered, and how I dealt with them. Just reading through my entries triggered some moments of self-compassion and more of gratitude. Due to the trauma I endured throughout my childhood and teenage years, I saw several therapists to help me heal and recover. The last therapist I saw in the mid-nineties, recommended a little known treatment at the time called EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing). Currently EMDR is an effective therapeutic treatment used by many specially trained therapists to relieve symptoms of psychological stress such as PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, and Panic attacks. In an EMDR session, a therapist guides you through a series of side-to-side eye movements as you recall certain traumatic events. Overtime this process enables the events to no longer be distressing. When reading through my journals about my EMDR experiences, I wrote in depth about how much this therapy helped me to reprocess the trauma. It finally put an end to my daily flashbacks of reliving the abuse. Journaling helped me realize and feel compassion for what I went through, and gratitude that this treatment helped me regain a sense of normalcy in my life.

What kind of content goes into your journal? For example, do you free-write, write poems, doodle?

I mainly free-write about day-to-day events and express my thoughts and feelings about them. I will sometimes write poems separately about various events in my life, although I spend most of my time writing articles and/or just writing for the pure pleasure of writing. And, yes, there are a few “doodles” as well.

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?

If I am feeling unhappy about a particular event or events in my life, I will read through my journal about happier days in the past. This will usually lift my spirits immensely! I am an avid runner, hiker, and climber. Reading about my past athletic pursuits, such as races I’ve run, or mountains I have climbed, reminds me of all the things I’ve accomplished in my life and generate a tremendous sense of satisfaction. For example, I have ringing in the ears (aka: tinnitus), and it has been very difficult dealing with this challenging problem. When faced with adversity, you have a choice to either succumb to the adversity, or find a way to overcome the adversity and become a survivor rather than a victim. I chose to do the latter.

I did two fundraising technical climbs on Mt. Rainier in Washington and one on Mt. Hood in Oregon. The climbs gave me great gratification! I raised a total of almost half a million dollars that was donated to American Tinnitus Association in Portland, Oregon, for their continued research for an eventual cure.

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’m considering writing a travel log for my next book that documents when Gary and I moved from our three level house in Colorado into a 23 foot long travel trailer in 2017 and traveled across the country. We retired from our unsatisfying jobs and sold most of our worldly possessions. This process was very satisfying to finally be free of clutter, and free to travel wherever we wanted to go. As we traveled, we hiked in every state we traveled through from upper New York to California. I journaled from the day we left Colorado. Gary took myriads of photos of all the incredible sights we saw during our cross country trek. I believe this would be a perfect project for using my journal content. In fact, my first book was based on my writings in the numerous journals I had accumulated through the years.

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 in many ways. The following are ways to highlight how journaling is beneficial in helping people become more calm, mindful, and resilient:

1. Journaling helps relieve stress. When we write down our thoughts and feelings, this has a calming effect on our bodies and minds. As we write, we begin to slow down from the frantic pace dictated by a technology-driven society. Our breathing slows and our muscles start to relax and release tension. Although stress is unavoidable, we can choose how to deal with it. We can either let it consume us or find ways to keep it under control.
2. Journaling helps us to be mindful of the present moment. When we write about day to day events, we stay focused on the present rather than worry about the future or remain stuck in the past.
3. Journaling eliminates the need for judgement. Writing our thoughts and feelings down on paper helps us to see them with more clarity rather than judge them. When we write honestly about our life experiences, both failures and accomplishments, we can better understand, appreciate, and learn from these experiences. This enables us to see ourselves in a more positive light.
4. Expressing gratitude in a journal has numerous health benefits. Researchers have found that writing about what we are grateful for is self-empowering. It enhances our relationship with others, evokes feelings of optimism, boosts our immune function, lowers blood pressure, and improves our sleep quality.
5. Journaling is an effective way to build resilience. Writing down our triumphs and traumas allows us to gain insight into what has previously worked for us, and what has brought us pain and grief. With this knowledge, we are better equipped to make the positive changes in our lives that enable us to become more resilient in overcoming adversity.

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?

The movement I would strongly encourage is believing in yourself. In today’s world there are more people who are depressed and delusional because they lack self-confidence. They would rather believe in false beliefs spread by others than follow their own direction. The questions I would like to ask people are the following: What do you love doing? What is holding you back from pursuing what you love? Perhaps if people would do more following their passions, they would feel more at peace within themselves and spread peace rather than deception.

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’m an avid reader and lover of mystery novels. I would love to connect with Dean Koontz, referred to as, “the #1 New York Times bestseller.” I would love to find out what inspires him to write his incredibly exciting and suspenseful novels, and to find out how he got his start. I would also love to find out what it takes to become a bestselling author.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Readers can further follow my work on Amazon and Goodreads, Facebook, and LinkedIn:

https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Medusa-Making-Unlikely-Rock-ebook/dp/B07RV64G35/ref=sr_1_1?

https://www.amazon.com/Moonlit-Night-Donna-Fields-Brown/dp/1736855204/ref=sr_1_1?

https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard?ref=nav_profile_authordash

https://www.facebook.com/dfb51

https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-brown-733a20169/

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued fulfillment and success with your writing!

Thank you for this interview!