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Hello, I have some poems I'd like to share but I don't know if they'd be appropriate as there are swears. I know I can (and will) tag for various triggers and content warnings, can I put a "swears" warning as well (maybe in the title of the post) or should I not post them? I made the poems into graphic,s overlaying the writing with pictures, so I could also "blur"/pixelate the sweary parts?

Hi everyone, I had this idea and wanted to see if anybody would be interested in it. I'm really into tarot and have been studying and reading for over 20 years, I use it for all sorts of different stuff, including generating prompts for my art. I thought it might be fun to use it to generate journaling prompts/questions. You could reply here if you wanted one and I'd pull a card or two to see what you get.

As an example: if you got The Lovers, the prompts could be something like:

• What are your thoughts on romantic love?
• Who was your first crush? Who was your first relationship? How do you feel about them now?
• Write about the last time you made a really big choice in your life. Was it difficult? How did you go about making your decision? What would you have done differently, looking back?

These are just loose jumping off points - you could write closely to the question/theme, or go where your mind wants/needs to go. And obviously you don't actually have to answer them here! They'd be just for you to go and enjoy in your own time Is anyone up for it?

I actually started a paper journal a few days ago. My partner and I recently moved to a different country, and as a "we did it!" celebratory gift, I got myself a pretty notebook (and matching pen!) for inner child work and other mental health management. It's even illustrated inside and is just very encouraging to work in. I usually don't last long on these bouts of self-help or self-care, I'm hoping the pretty journal and the forum will keep me on track. Usually I just become overwhelmed, because if I were to do every single thing that's good for me I wouldn't have time to do literally anything else. And how to choose which few things to focus on? And how much is too much vs. how much is not enough? 

I'm thinking to primarily work in my physical notebook but update here with breakthroughs, for community support, or with things I simply wouldn't want to lose. I might transcribe everything! Just edited and anonymized for public viewing. Then I can both be as candid as I need privately, and still able to share things publicly.
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Here's my first entry from June 24th:

Trying to figure out why I randomly started crying, when finally having some alone time for the first time in ages. I miss alone time... Anyway, possible factors:

• Had a long conversation with mom on the phone and it was actually good? Seeing as she's currently interested in the same thing I am - our move - I wasn't being cut off or dismissed too much. Maybe I'm even missing her?
• Partner forgot something at home and came back to get it, he was very irritated. All this while I was trying to connect/disconnect/reconnect the call with mom, had me a bit shaken.
• I've gotten an email from a friend in the morning that made me very happy, but I didn't allow myself to reply to it straight away. It's a struggle between being authentic and scaring people off with how desperate/clingy I seem (am?)
• Earlier today I wrote a draft of my intro post to this forum! It had me visiting a very lonely fragile place.
• Partner being out with people has me thinking - do I wish I had people to go out with? Or do I miss him? Or general attention? We haven't done a lot together recently despite constantly being in each other's space. He was withdrawn and resting from his anxiety attacks.
• I actually started crying during a gentle yoga routine for my back pain. So maybe it's connected to the physical release? Or just the concept of treating myself gently? Caring for my pain... That's a big childhood issue, not being believed about my pain. Even my partner isn't always considerate of it - that makes me feel small and rejected. After how difficult it is to admit I'm not ok in the first place...

Leaning towards the "slow and patient treating of pain" explanation. My main love language is acts of service and while you can do a lot to alleviate pain, lots of it is just one-and-done. This was actually spending the time on Doing Something.

Hi, everyone!

How to even start? My biggest issue is CEN. (There are also some very specific traumatizing events I won't be getting into here). I'm autistic and was a precocious child which made my already emotionally ill-equipped parents assume they can leave me to my own devices and treat me as an adult. Undiagnosed ASD also made me feel like nobody understood what I was talking about half the time (so I should be careful what I express, lest they "put me away"), and a lot of the time my discomfort (stemming from high sensory sensitivity) was disbelieved, shrugged off or overridden, never acknowledged or soothed. Often I got the message that I'm supposed to be enjoying what I'm feeling, or that what's happening to me is good/for my own good. I'm also transgender, which I did not realize straight away, and that together with the neurodivergent experience made me feel like nobody really saw me. And in the manner of a child I rationalized and internalized that to mean "there's simply nothing there to see, I am Empty".

In adulthood that mostly resulted in obsessing over romantic interests, making everything about them - wanting someone to love me, but trying to distract them from the "fact" that I'm "empty". It was too tiring in the long run, and once I stopped I actually did find a wonderful partner. Unfortunately this behavior now switched to platonic/friend relationships. I don't have any close friends (or maybe I have naive, idealized expectations of friendship?) and I cling to any positive attention. Feeling deprived of it/rejected by someone who was initially friendly/willing to provide it is my biggest trigger for EFs right now. But I am in a place where I can recognize a flashback as it's happening and soothe myself/disarm it pretty early on.

Due to bad experiences I'm very mistrustful of therapists and the whole medical system, but I've always been focused on growth and self discovery, and I think I've been doing well over the years (if not as fast and structured as I could probably do with a therapist/proper plan). I've read psychology and self help books, tried bits and pieces of CBT, ACT, but also found a lot of help in the form of meditation, and even paganism and some magical approaches (visualizations, Jungian Inner Work and such). Currently I feel a little stuck - I can't seem to keep up with practices I know help me (like exercises from Jonice Webb's "Running On Empty"), but I'm hoping to find some structure or motivation here. I'm so glad to have found this resource, there's so much good information here and I haven't even started participating. I think the community aspect will be really helpful in my growth. Hope to catch y'all around the forum