@mayoscout I'm glad you have a safe place in your mind. That worked for me too. Is it a place you can describe? My safe place was a geodesic dome frame out in a mountain meadow. Inside it had a chair carved from a tree stump and a wooden carving of a swimming whale. It actually is a real place that I have a picture of somewhere. I'd like to hear about your safe place.

I can guess that if you did drawings, they could be hard to look at, but that might be therapeutic to do that and they can be very simple or even cartoon like. You don't need to show anyone else, but your therapist might be interested. One idea I might suggest is that if you did a drawing of a stressful experience, you could do a second drawing, and give it a different ending that helps you feel better about the scene. That could help create connections that are more positive. What do you think?

I know for myself, I sometimes do a painting to help me feel better. I have a difficult family situation that makes me sad, so I decided to do a painting about love and it was a portrait of a mother and daughter in a touching moment who are friends of mine. This way, I can kind of re-invent my reality when I am feeling down with some effort over several days. If you start sketching and doodling, don't worry about trying to make "art"; just use it as a tool to get your feelings out similar to your journal writings.

I also just adopted a cat who is very loving and she likes to cuddle. At the shelter she jumped in my lap and curled up asking to come home with me so how could I resist? She's my 4th, and it helps to have a pet who wants to hang out with me all day long. The other 3 cats are not too thrilled yet, but they are starting to soften to the idea of a new friend.

There's also voice recognition software that could help with your journal writing. I have a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking. Honestly, I haven't tried it yet, but it would help because looking at the keyboard and typing isn't so good for my neck and shoulders. I do get tight neck muscles and do a lot of stretching. I do myofascial release that I learned from my PT. It's like massage, but you hold a stretch until the tissue releases. It does sometimes help some people improve their neuropathy if there is a physical issue of tightness that contributes to pain. It helps with fluid exchange within muscle tissues and can get stuck tissue moving again. I recommend this a lot on Connect. I was repeating myself so much that I started this discussion to collect the information.

Neuropathy - "Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
Do you think this may help with your hand cramping and pain?