How Does Journal Therapy Work?
I forgot how powerful journal therapy can be.
Let me start by stating that I am in no way a medical professional, therapist, or the like. All of what I know is based on many different life experiences over the years.
From the mid-90s through about 2004 I journaled regularly. I have multiple formerly blank books filled with many thoughts, feelings, intentions, and ideas from that period.
When I maintained those journals, I was writing as little as weekly and as frequently as daily. But I dropped personal thoughts in there, examined experiences I had had, lamented problems and negative situations, and all sorts of other, deeply personal things.
To be blunt – most of them are terribly depressing. I was not in a good space during much of that time.
Looking back, I know I spent most of my 20s and 30s with little to no direction, a penchant for indecision, and loads of inaction. I was living utterly in fear of being abandoned and left friendless if I succeeded or failed. So, I tended to do little to nothing.
Over the next 15 years plus, I spent a lot of time on the now-defunct LiveJournal and started blogging. Maintaining a handwritten journal fell to the wayside. My last journal book was started in 2004 and today is still not entirely filled.
But in January of this year, I decided I needed to return to this practice. As I worked to better clarify my path and do more work as a writer, I began keeping a new journal.
I have nearly filled a new book this year alone. Every weekday I journal – and it’s been far more cathartic than I gave it credit for.
Thus, I’d like to share with you the power of journal therapy.
Life is in constant motion
No matter who you are or what you do, your life is always in motion. There are things to do, people to talk to, places to go, and experiences to be had.
Sometimes this is utterly routine. One day blends into the next, then into the next, and it feels like stagnation. However – truth be told – you are always in motion.
That being written, it’s easy to lose sight of things. With technology offering immediate information and misinformation, outside influences, the expectations of both ourselves and others – the constant inundation is exhausting.
Recognizing this, I decided it was necessary to pause for a time during workdays (because even doing my own thing, I work Monday-Friday like my wife does), and write out my thoughts and feelings.
How does this differ from the articles I write and share? I don’t want to say that I am more honest, because that’s not it. But I am more direct with myself, as the only person who will see my handwritten journal is me.
Journal therapy, for me, is selfish. But that’s not a bad thing. When I am writing in my journal it is to collect my thoughts, feelings, and intentions raw.
Unlike my journals of old, the entries I write are more thoughtful and much less depressive. I depressed a LOT in my old journal entries.
But it’s therapeutic to journal again. Because I have somewhere to leave my most intimate and personal notions.
Journal therapy is a useful tool for taking a break to assess the constant motion of life. And write out, at the moment, in-depth mindfulness impressions.
Journal therapy is self-driven
More than once, I’ve considered if I should go into the therapy field. Its greatest difference from the self-help/self-encouragement field is more science – and a degree I don’t have.
I love the practice of art therapy. How art can help us be centered and better balanced.
Along that line, as a writer, I believe journal therapy can be equally empowering.
But it’s a self-driven form of therapy. Nobody is helping me to do it, telling me when and how to journal, or checking my work when it’s done or not.
I choose to journal every workday. If I don’t – that’s wholly on me.
I choose what to write in my journal. If I don’t use it as a form of therapy and just keep it light and fluffy – that’s on me, too.
Truth be told, most of what I write in my journal isn’t too far removed from the blogs I write and share. The biggest difference is that I am not writing for myself and an audience in my journal – I am writing purely mindfully in the moment for myself.
When I am feeling angry, frustrated, upset, trepidatious, or otherwise negative – journal therapy is how I can suss it out. Why am I feeling this way? What am I thinking about? How come I am experiencing negativity?
When I journaled before, the depression and negativity were less thought-out. They were simply expressed – largely to get them the hell out of my head.
Now, I explore them. I seek to understand them, where they come from, and why they are with me. In doing so – I can better recognize them, acknowledge them, and work them out. And that’s very cathartic.
This is, however, wholly on me to do – or not.
Journal therapy is not a substitute for professionals
I chose to take up journal therapy again to address something I sensed was missing – but couldn’t put my finger on it.
I cannot deny that the last few years have been rough.
Between the horror that was the Trump administration and the ongoing hypocrisy of the Republican party, COVID-19, major social unrest, and various other way-outside-my-control matters – depression, like the nasty black dog it can be, kept taking bites out of me.
Still, I decided to do more to walk the path I have desired to – and set forth to write, edit, and publish more books while blogging 6 days a week.
I practice meditation for 20 minutes a day, work to practice mindfulness regularly, and have been a lot more diligent about my overall dietary habits and exercise. I take an antidepressant to maintain an even level. All of these have helped. But adding journal therapy into the mix was the missing step that tied it all together.
However – if I continued to feel that I didn’t have a handle on things with journal therapy and my other practices – I would seek professional help. I’ve benefited massively from professional therapy many times throughout my life.
If all these things I am doing for my own good were not empowering me I would seek therapy again. Professional therapy is powerful and empowering – and not to be neglected because you don’t think you need help.
It is not a weakness to seek help. Sometimes asking for help is the bravest, strongest thing you can do.
Practice gratitude
As part of my ongoing daily routines that I track and check off via an Excel spreadsheet – I write out 5 things for which am grateful every day. All my journal entries this year have featured this.
Why? Because gratitude is the key to conscious reality creation. When you’re not grateful for the things you have and the people in your life – how do you expect to draw in new things to be grateful for?
Gratitude empowers conscious reality creation like a sci-fi antimatter drive. The power that it represents is virtually limitless.
Gratitude for all I have – material and immaterial – is a calming and centering tool. That helps make any form of mindfulness, conscious reality creation, and self-work that much more effective and powerful.
Including that as part of my journal therapy has been amazing – because gratitude is always positive. And we can always use more positives in our daily lives, especially to combat the overwhelming outside influences constantly bombarding us.
Adding journal therapy back into my life has been amazing for me. I forgot how powerful journal therapy can be. I can never have too many tools for my wellness and wellbeing – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Do you do some form of art or journal therapy for yourself?
This is the five-hundred and eleventh exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info and click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!
Follow me here!
