spiritualawakening

     Maybe you have never kept a journal. Maybe you don’t see the benefit. Maybe you have tried journaling, but found you didn’t like it. Journaling can be an extremely helpful tool. You don’t need to know how to write well and you don’t need to even know how to write.

I used to keep a journal and it wasn’t enjoyable for me. I felt it was useless. People say if you write down your garbage you get it out of you. For me this wasn’t true. I wrote down my garbage and found it still existed inside of me. I felt no better. Then when i go to re-read what I wrote I rush back to that moment in the past. I feel all the pain and suffering of that moment. This was the only way I knew how to journal. Then one day something changed that.

I was going to a therapist and I was having major anxiety issues. My worries were making it so I could not sleep. She recommended I keep a worry journal. She gave me instructions. Each day give yourself a certain amount of time to worry. It can be as long or as short as you want, but after that time tell yourself your not allowed to worry anymore, and that you had your worry time. During your worry time write in your worry journal. Write all of your worries down. Well I tried this.

I gave myself five minutes of journaling my worries. I thought it would be easy. I thought with as much as I worry it wouldn’t help. I wrote down my worries and realized that after a minute I was bored. I would just be writing the same worries down over and over. When you worry this is how your head works. It likes to loop over and over. It is like a skipping record. This experience let me sleep. I got my worries out and I got bored of writing them over and over. Unlike the journal I had kept about all the bad times in my life, this journal served a purpose. Another thing to do with a worry journal is to burn the pages later as a symbolic release of your worries. It is just a nice added touch for the psyche. Although, if you were to keep the journal you could look back years later and laugh at some of the worries.

Another way to journal is to keep a positive journal. This is wonderful to go back to when you are depressed, or just down. When you are down sometimes it is hard to remember the good. This makes it easier. Find something good in everyday and write that down. Maybe you have had an extremely horrible day, but even if the only positive you can find is that you enjoyed a candybar write it down. And perhaps you don’t want to keep it everyday, but it is a wonderful tool.

One thing to keep in mind when you journal is that it is for you. Maybe you can’t spell good. Maybe your hand writing is terrible. Let go and just express yourself. There are no rules when you journal. Make it what you want. As with all things, you can take my ideas or make your own, or do a combination or twist of them. If you allow your creativity and imagination to flow you can come up with your own wonderful style.

Then their is the visual journal. Maybe pictures speak to you more. Perhaps you are more visual. Your whole journal can be pictures that express your feelings of the day. Perhaps no one else will be able to discern the deep meaning, but this is for you. You can cut pictures from magazines, add stickers, drawings, and doodles. It will be an extremely artistic experience. Perhaps if the words don’t work for you, pictures will.

There is no wrong way to journal and these are just a couple ways I have found. There are as many ways to journal as there are people. They can be extremely therapeutic if you find the right way for you. It mat take some time to find that way, but when you do it is worth it. Happy Journaling!

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