“Living Life Twice” by Demi Fortson
One of the first things that people experience when they journal is that they can detect those sneaky unhealthy patterns in our thoughts and behaviors. Seeing this is the first step on your self awareness journey and something you should look out for when you journal. When we are recording our thoughts, we have no choice but to confront the words in front of us. This may be scary at first, but with this expanded self-awareness, you can see your life from a different perspective and take more control of it.
Self-esteem and self-compassion can also be improved with the help of journaling. Self-esteem is what is needed to feel good about yourself. It is controlled by our thoughts as they tell us how to feel about ourselves every second of every day. Thoughts tell us our values and what our attitudes are about what is going on around us. If you are currently dealing with some negative thoughts, know that you are not alone, and that they can be trained. Writing about your feelings and experiences in life can help you develop a deeper understanding of yourself and accept who you are.
Another key result of journaling that I feel significantly helped me in my mental health journey, is improved self-compassion. Having self-compassion deals with how you react when things go wrong in your life. It is tied to resilience and self confidence. Someone with high self-esteem can still have low self-compassion, which is what makes this so important for cultivating high self-worth. Recording events in a journal, free from judgement, allows for you to see situations from a friend’s perspective. When a friend messes up, you try and make them feel better. Seeing your thoughts from your journal’s perspective helps develop this same skill.
Okay, so by now you know how important journaling is, but you still might not know where to start. Here are some golden rules of journaling that can be applied to any practice to make journaling work for you:
Write in a private place that is free from distractions.
Keep your journal private! To truly write your thoughts free from judgement, be sure to keep your journal in a private place and avoid showing to others.
Write at least three of four times a week consecutively.
Give yourself time after writing to reflect on what you just wrote or previous entries.
Don’t force yourself to write about a particular event or follow a particular format if it doesn’t feel good for you. Write what feels right in the moment.
Make sure your journal is separate from other note taking books in your life (don’t have your grocery list right next to a journal entry!).
Journaling has truly changed my life by helping me confront my thoughts and not being so afraid of them. Since I got back into the practice, I have accomplished things that I only used to fantasize about. I have been taking better care of myself physically and paying more attention to the ones I love. If you are looking to start your healing journey or even to try something new, I would give it a try. Because one day you too may look up from the page, and realize you are honestly happy and healthy for the first time in a long time.