A New Direction for the BP Harmony Blog
From Information Dumping to Personal Stories
You will rarely find the personal “I” in blog posts of the past. This is because, for the last two years, I have playing a game that has not felt authentic to why I started BP Harmony to begin with. As opposed to writing about personal stories about how I overcame mental illness, I’ve been SEO-ing this blog to a state lifeless info dumping. Keywords, blog banners, positioning… something didn’t feel authentic.
When I, Imran Ghani, was going through the acute phases of mental illness, I ached for narratives that gave voice to my experience. I jumped for joy when I found movies like Silver Linings Playbook and shed tears when I found Ellen Forney’s powerful TED Talk. When I finally liberated myself from a life of chronic illness, I wanted to pay it forward to sharing my story. I did that with my book and masterclass, The Five Pillars of Bipolar Recovery, but now I want to continue writing about living life to continue offering hope.
In any case, I’ll still put a shameless plug at the start of each blog to about guidance on how to recover from the acute phases of bipolar disorder 🙂 You can also check out my free resources to find immediate help.
Why Switch to Personal Stories?
In the age of generative AI when readers can query information for ages, it is more important than ever to offer human connection through lived personal stories.
Take for example my recent grappling with jet lag. In the past, I would draft a general article titled, “Bipolar and Jet Lag,” and put together a bunch of information that is guided by SEO strategies. The article would have sections titled “What is Jet Lag?”, “Precautions for Bipolar Individuals and Jet Lag”, and most importantly “How to Recover from Jet Lag.”
Now, I’m going to talk about my experience with jet lag and how it may have triggered any symptoms and what I did to address them. You’d still get a lot of good information but the personal narrative, I imagine, will make it more relatable.
What Would You Like to Read About?
What would you like to hear about? What are you struggling with? I’m here to share my experience and engage with you, the reader, in your struggles and triumphs.
Here’s to a new direction!
-Imran
