Stuck in Your Feelings? How AI Helps Untangle Emotional Knots
In this guest post, Mariena Quintanilla, Founder of Mellonhead, shares how AI helped her navigate mental fatigue & emotional overwhelm—and why it might be worth trying, especially when you feel stuck.
Event Alert: I’m going to be co-moderating a panel on Self-Care and Women’s Health, sponsored by Shelby Tutty, Founder of Women’s Health 365 Collective, on Thursday, May 15th at 5pm PT/8pm ET.
You can learn more about the event here. The panelists include:
Christina Heiser, a health writer, Celiac advocate, and writer of Celiac Self-Care.
Jess Mujica, a menstrual cycle awareness advocate and writer of
Jane Pilger, a master-certified binge eating health coach and writer of The Peaceful Eater
Shelby Tutty, a perimenopause expert and writer of The Periprofessional where dull perimenopause information meets art
I’m a huge fan of Shelby’s and she’s really trying to help women connect the dots about different aspects of health and wellness. Shelby has been growing a network of writers looking to bring information to women without gimmicks and BS.
It’s going to be a great session so come with your questions!
Who is Intimidated by AI?
This week, Go Long has Mariena Quintanilla providing a guest post on how she has been leveraging AI. She is one of the early adopters of the technology and sensed an opportunity on making it less intimidating and more approachable — leading to the formation of Mellonhead!
Mariena is the founder and CEO of Mellonhead, an AI Education and Consulting Services company. You can find her on LinkedIn or working on a DIY project in her backyard in Los Angeles.
You can also subscribe to Mellonhead’s newsletter here.
Not Just Productivity: How AI Can Help Manage Emotional Load & Mental Fatigue
My dad and I have very different politics, and we’re both opinionated and stubborn, so we regularly butt heads. One busy evening—a classic working-mom night—we were talking on the phone while I walked the dog. The call left me angry and swirling. I didn’t have time to sit down with my journal to process my emotions in solitude. I was away from home, it was dark, and I had to pick up my youngest from soccer practice in 30 minutes.
I knew if I did nothing I'd spend the night in a sour mood and have restless sleep. Wanting to quickly deal with my feelings so I could recover a peaceful evening, I took out my phone and opened Rosebud AI, an app I'd been using to build a gratitude and reflection habit. I hoped my "Evening Reflection" journal would help me shake the negativity.
But it wasn’t working. The bot kept prompting me to “dig deeper,” and instead of feeling heard, I felt stuck in a loop. I know how to process emotions, and this wasn’t it. Frustrated but curious, I poked around the app and found I could browse other journals—and even create my own.
I set up a custom journal with one simple instruction: Navigate and process emotions. Then, I started again. A minute later, the AI was telling me, “Your anger makes sense,” and I smirked at the irony. Somehow, a bot validating my feelings made me feel better.
Using AI to Lighten Mental Load
That moment unlocked something powerful. As an AI Educator and Consultant, I know how magical AI can be as a tool for productivity and learning, but I didn’t anticipate its impact on my mental health. Over the past year, I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT and other AI tools to see how they can help me, not just at work, but with the thoughts and feelings that weigh me down and keep me up at night. Now, I regularly use AI as a thought partner to process emotions, clear mental clutter, and reduce decision fatigue. Here’s how:
1. AI as an Emotional Processing Tool
Journaling has long been my go-to, but sometimes, life makes it impractical. AI helps fill that gap. With my Process Emotion Journal in Rosebud, I can quickly work through my feelings—naming them, identifying where I feel them in my body, and uncovering their root cause. The voice feature has been especially helpful because articulating my emotions out loud makes them feel more tangible.
Even if it’s coming from a machine and code, there’s something about hearing my emotions reflected back at me that helps. The structure it provides to help me process my emotions takes the burden off me. The AI assistant even offers suggestions and shares patterns it notices from my journal entries.
Try It: Rosebud: free and paid versions available.
You can use ChatGPT or other conversational AI assistants in the same way as Rosebud, but they will require more customized prompting to get the behavior right.
2. AI as a Thought Organizer
At night, my brain feels like a browser with 37 tabs open. Instead of letting thoughts bounce around, I use AI to externalize them. ChatGPT’s voice mode lets me record my thoughts without fumbling for a pen or turning on the light. In the morning, it can help me organize them into an action list, a reflection, or a coherent summary. This especially helps me when I’m worried my inspired ideas will be forgotten if I don’t put them somewhere before I fall asleep.
Whether you get inspired while out or late at night like me, the voice assistant is a great way to organize your thoughts, keeping your mind clear and focused.
Try it: ChatGPT voice mode is available with usage limits for free users. Not sure how to access it? Watch this short video.
Pro Tip: If you don’t want to give AI the same instructions over and over, set up a Custom GPT that remembers your preferred style for organizing information.
3. AI for Decision-Making Without the Overwhelm
Some decisions feel heavier than they should, especially when I’m mentally exhausted. AI helps by acting as a decision-making framework—not to decide for me, but to make the process easier.
I like structure and feel anxious with a mess of information and no clear framework (or even a simple table of “pros” and “cons” in front of me). ChatGPT helps me get out of my own way, as it can create a structured framework for the decision—whether a business strategy or a new fridge. Here are ways I use AI assistants in decision making:
I use Perplexity or ChatGPT’s web search and Deep Research features to find and distill recent information.
I write my thoughts and opinions, then ask ChatGPT to uncover my blind spots.
I ask ChatGPT to restructure my notes to more easily see themes and compare options based on my priorities and constraints.
I use ChatGPT to find relevant decision-making frameworks.
But buyer beware—AI assistants are built to be helpful. They'll always try to give you an answer. Instead, get ChatGPT to ask you questions and help you think through a decision with a prompt like, "Don't give me an answer—ask me questions to help me make the decision myself."
Try it: Use a prompt like “Help me think through [describe the decision]. For context, [provide relevant background details and constraints]. My goal is [describe the ideal outcome].” Make it a conversation.
Pro Tip: Use reasoning models for decision making. I like ChatGPT’s o1 and o3 models as well as the Deep Research mode.
What About Privacy?
A common hesitation people have is: Isn’t AI too robotic for something as personal as emotions? I get it. AI isn’t a therapist, and it’s not a substitute for human support—but it can be a surprisingly helpful resource when you’re stuck. Sometimes, just writing or speaking out your thoughts to AI creates enough clarity to move forward.
Then there’s the privacy concern. Some AI tools, like ChatGPT, store conversations and may use them to improve their product. Follow these instructions to disable data sharing. If you’re unsure, check privacy settings, clear memory, and choose tools that prioritize confidentiality (this resource has a good comparison).
Final Thoughts: AI as a Support, Not a Crutch
For me, AI isn’t about replacing best practices with technology. It’s another tool in my mental health toolkit, alongside journaling, self-reflection, and hiking that helps me apply best practices in mental health.
If you’re new to AI and feeling overwhelmed, try something simple. Next time you’re mentally cluttered, tell ChatGPT: “I’m feeling overwhelmed—can you help me organize my thoughts?”
You might be surprised at how much lighter you feel.
Some Thoughts From Go Long
I have been using AI for Go Long for awhile. My focus has been on identifying 2-3 workflows that I do regularly that are high value but take a lot of time. What can AI simplify for me? It turns out… a lot.
That said, I love the focus from Mariena on how it may be able to help you on the personal front. I agree that it doesn’t replace human connection or working with a proper professional (therapist or otherwise). For my work tasks, I still do my own research and my writing is in my voice (stay tuned for a post on how I do that).
Look… It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all of the AI tools out there in the news. You might be thinking that you’re behind the curve. That’s probably not the case.
Think about something that is blocking you and try some of the prompts that Mariena suggested and let me know how it goes for you.
It might seem strange but if the alternative is to remain blocked, what do you have to lose?
Ready to actually make the changes you have been talking about making?
