Allie Morgan – Writer & Cancer Survivor

I’ve always used writing when I’m in a bit of a low spot. Whether I’ve had a bad day, I’m feeling overwhelmed or my confidence needs a boost, writing always helps me to get clear on exactly how I’m feeling.

When I was working with clients as a confidence coach, I made an ebook to help them get into writing, with prompts for each technique. You can get your hands on it here.

Okay, let’s get into it.

Journaling your feelings

I’m sure we’ve all attempted to keep a diary at some point in our lives. It’s not always easy to keep up, is it? I think the longest I lasted was about a week when I was 8.

But a similar technique – journaling – is now something I do every single day & I encourage my clients to do the same. Why? Because not only has it been a cathartic tool for myself but it’s also been scientifically proven to have other health
benefits, including boosting your immunity.

Journaling is a great way to document how you’re feeling, process how your day was or simply get stuff off your mind before you go to bed. Just 5 minutes a day can make a difference.

Throwing it back with a blog

Okay, you might be thinking to yourself: ‘Allie, blogging is so 2014.’

I get it. But I still blog for fun and I find that even if it doesn’t reach millions of people, it reaches the people I want to speak to.

I’ve made some brilliant connections through blogging and been invited to blogger events at NSPCC, TOTM and more. I even won an award.

But it never started like that – it was just a way to share my writing and my story with the world. I’ve had cancer survivors reach out to me to say that my posts really resonate with them and that’s the most important thing for me.

Blogging is a great way to put your story into the world, without even ever having to show your face. And it helps you build your confidence in making your voice heard.

The flow of freewriting

You may not have heard of freewriting but you may well have done it at some point in your life.

Similar to brainstorming, freewriting can help your ideas or emotions to come to the fore, even when you didn’t realise they were there.

It’s basically writing with no regard for spelling, punctuation or grammar – you write without censoring yourself in any way.

This allows you to get into a good flow and to brain dump everything on the page, without being hindered in any way.

Love letters

Remember letters?

I used to LOVE writing letters – there’s just something so much more romantic about writing a letter than sending an email.

You might be out of the habit of letter writing but don’t worry, this isn’t going to be an official communication like we learned to write in school.

Writing a letter to your past, present or future self can be a really powerful way of realising what’s important to you or comprehending just how far you’ve come.

Writing creatively

You might not think writing creatively could help you to move through your own confidence issues but it can give you an indirect way of looking at what’s holding you back.

As children, we are a lot more creative than we are as adults. It’s like we forget how much fun it is to make up stories and use our imagination.

Even when I’m writing about something completely different, I sometimes see themes in my own life coming up. Some of the characters I write about even have the same
quirks of people in my life.

I’d love you to give creative writing a go, even if you think you’re no good at it. That’s just your inner critic talking.

Allie x