about well in words

Everyday, our emotions are nibbling away at us. When we feel upset, stuck, disconnected, insecure, unheard, it matters. These are not 'bad' emotions to be suppressed, because there are no 'good' or 'bad' emotions. All emotions are real emotions that hold lessons about us and our relationships. Lessons to help us improve on our emotional wellbeing.

How to use

I write poetry and for me, it's an effective way of uncovering lessons slinking in every day emotions.
You can read about the Lessons I’ve learnt from my emotions and reading about What Emotions Can Mean might you help you use your own emotions to improve your mental wellbeing.

ifeel

It's how you feel about you and your relationship. If right now, you are looking for some words of comfort, words to inspire you or words that will merely acknowledge how you feel, you can choose an emotion and find poems that reflect that emotion. Go to ifeel (in the menu if you're using your phone). 

Poetry Assignments

As a poetry tutor, I devised my own poetry assignments to help improve emotional well being and I'm sharing these on my blog. I will regularly add more assignments and I hope you'll do the assignments and enjoy these as well. 

My poetry blog also consists of these 5 labels: Exhale, conversations, word|is, Intrusion and Opinion. 

I post new poems under these labels. Open the label as it appears below the poem to view all poems under that specific label. 

Read on to learn about the story behind each label. Choose the label to go straight to the poems.

Exhale

My exhale poems touch on events and emotions I've experienced or observed, and wanted to write poems about. Hopefully, there are some poems you can relate to and find comfort in.

conversations

I love writing satirical poems in the form of conversations. Concepts, emotions and objects engage with each other in pithy conversations where they challenge each other's views or find what they might have in common. I hope these conversations provoke you, make you smile and of course, inspire you.

word|is

I first started word|is as a greetings card collection. The idea was to write one-word poems, where one word suffices to convey exactly and profoundly how you feel. word|is are pithy poems that will surprise you, inspire you and make you reflect on you, and your relationships.

Intrusion

Intrusion is a 6 part short story I've written some years ago about a black bird intruding into an old man's repetitious life. The title of the stories was "The Redeemer", but I changed it to Intrusion as I realised the black bird wasn't redeeming anyone, just causing a lot of chaos to those who dared come in contact with it.

Opinion

I've added Opinion to my poetry blog where I write about current events: what I've learnt from the news, observations and conversation.

Have Your Say

You can sign in with your Google account to comment on poems in Exhale, conversations and word|is or stories from Intrusion or Opinion posts. You may start a discussion on poems, stories, posts or on  emotions and mental health in general. Remember to keep comments constructive.

Report Abuse

You can report any inappropriate comments and these will be removed. Thank you for keeping the comments section a place where you and others can find comfort, inspiration and acknowledgement.

Some useful UK contact numbers and websites

Seeing this is a blog on emotions and emotional wellbeing, here are some useful contact numbers in the UK should you need to talk to professionals about how you're feeling.

Childline ☎︎ 0800 1111

Supportline ☎︎ 01708 765200

Samaritans ☎︎ 116 123

CalmZone ☎︎ 0800 585858

National Domestic Abuse Helpline ☎︎ 0808 2000 247

AgeUK ☎︎ 0300 169 6565

Some useful mental health and wellbeing websites:

mind.org.uk

thesilverline.org.uk

cruse.org.uk

relate.org.uk

About Me

Finally, a bit about me. First up, I am not a counsellor or a therapist. I do not aim to counsel or provide therapy with my poems or my poetry assignments. I am a poet. I started writing poems at the age of 11 and I still have my first exercise book. I’ve written many poems as I grew older and at various stages in my life. Not only has my handwriting changed as I grew older, but also my life experiences,  how I felt over the years and how I’ve learnt to cope. What I’ve documented well is how I’ve changed. Writing poems was a form of expression and healing for me, and this is how I became well in my own words. 

I had my own greeting card publishing business (2012-2015) where I sold my ifeel poems, word|is and some Exhale poems as inspirational greeting cards. I tutored weekly poetry workshops to service users of Northampton Mind (2018-2021).

I designed and built an online poetry hub, where users could register and log in to a safe and supportive environment to write various poems, share stories, read articles on emotions, self-awareness and have fun doing so. Users could learn skills such as listening, presentation and empathy. I even added a quiz element to test users’ knowledge. I called the hub ‘well in words’. Then the pandemic hit. I had to make personal choices, so, I closed down the hub and redesigned it as this blog and keeping some of the key elements. 

I hope you enjoy my blog and find some of my poems and poetry assignments of use to you and your emotional and mental wellbeing.

Jacquelene