Journaling Our Way Back to Sanity – An Interview with Leesa Renee Hall

Oct 9, 2018

Leesa Renee Hall is many things – activist, leader, questioner, writer, filmmaker, teacher … and she’s an old friend of mine. This free-ranging conversation covers a lot of ground, especially in the aftermath of the testimony by Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanagh in the Supreme Court hearings recently.

That’s relevant because Leesa has a way for us to deal with the extraordinary emotional fallout after those events. Mainly because she is engaged in a daily practice, and teaching, something she calls ‘Expressive Writing’. She describes it as this:

“By writing every morning without editing or censoring myself, a process known as expressive writing, I confronted my internal oppression, let go of the expectations others placed on me, and advocated for the person I was born to be.”

According to researchers, write therapy is as beneficial as talk therapy and coaching in changing human behavior. So Leesa has tapped into this by guiding all of us in ways to become more whole through writing prompts.

In this conversation, we dug into writing prompts and how they can heal everything from fat shame to unconscious racism to our shared upset over triggering media.

Here’s what I learned:

• Why expressive writing healed Leesa … and me
• All the many things that can come out of tapping into our unexpressed flow of emotions
• How to do expressive writing – and when
• How Highly Sensitive People are especially suited to this practice, and who they are
• How to know if you’re a Highly Sensitive Introverted Leader, and what to do about it
• Unconscious biases and how we hold them – and how to heal them with writing prompts
• How white supremacy depends on a culture of perfectionism – and how that effects all of us
• The importance of being able to make mistakes with grace

I hope you take a moment to listen. It’s a powerful, helpful conversation.

LINKS

Doreen Virtue’s Goddess Oracle Deck

Leesa Renee Hall Links

leesareneehall.com

The Expressive Writing Prompts project on Patreon

BIO

Leesa Renee Hall is an author, facilitator, social historian, and creative word artist. After writing half a million words over 365 consecutive days, Leesa helps highly sensitive introverted leaders (HSIL for short) use the art of self-inquiry to question their unconscious biases so they create truly inclusive communities, companies, and corporations. Leesa is on the Advisory Committee for Awarepreneurs, and her tips have been featured in American Express OPEN, Globe & Mail, and Inc. Magazine, along with television, radio, and podcast appearances.