This Is How Journaling Can Be An Amazing Therapeutic tool For Us
Although journaling might seem like a tired tool, the benefits it can have are incredible. The beauty of journaling is that there is no set definition, or ‘correct’ way to do it. It’s all about discovering what journaling means to you, and uncovering the benefits for yourself.
Journaling as a Therapeutic Tool
The process of journaling can help you to act as your own therapist. You can guide yourself as gently as you want, through different questions, experiences, and feelings that might be troubling you. It can be reassuring to open up about these kinds of things within the privacy of your journal, away from prying eyes. As Kathleen Adams writes in Journal To The Self: Twenty-Two Paths To Personal Growth, ‘your journal can be a bottomless well of self-nurturing.’
However, the open nature of journaling can feel overwhelming at first. We are often left wondering what on earth we should write about. That’s why this creative writing blog is here to help, with an explanation and exploration of the power journaling can have. We also share writing techniques you can try. Let’s jump right in…
5 Therapeutic Journaling Techniques
Emotional discharge
Has your boss annoyed you? Has your partner been particularly infuriating today? The journal is the perfect place to release these emotions, without requiring any kind of censor. You can express and vent to your heart’s content on the blank page. It’s a really cleansing form of emotional discharge.
Sometimes, we may get so caught up in life that we don’t release to our emotions, and journaling is an amazing way to help us do this. Getting them out can be a cathartic experience. It doesn’t matter what form your words take, it’s about how it helps you.
2. Freewriting
If we can write quickly, and learn to ignore that inner editor shouting down our ear, we will find ourselves being able to write with a greater sense of flow. As Kathleen Adams explains, ‘Writing quickly increases spontaneity and removes mental blinders.’ Freewriting in this way can act as a remedy to our old friend, writer’s block. Journaling is all about freewriting.
Using a timer is particularly helpful for freewriting. It helps focus our mind on writing in that moment. It can help us forget everything else around us just for those few minutes, and let our words flow and express what they need to.
3. Unsent letters
Writing to someone can be a really powerful tool. The person you’re writing to doesn’t need to ever see it, but it can be another form of emotional release.
Any and all thoughts you have about a particular relationship, can be taken from your head, and put down onto paper. Letting these feelings out can be a really healing experience.
You can always go back and re-read these in the future, to see if your perspective has shifted, to see how your feelings might have changed.
4. Writing Prompts
If you need that sense of direction to help set you get started, you could try giving yourself a writing prompt, or, what Kathleen Adams calls ‘springboards’.
Is there a particular song you’re listening to at the moment? Is there a certain lyric that strikes you? Try using them as your starting point.
Questions can make great prompts. Something which might appear quite basic, such as how am I feeling about an upcoming event, for example, can uncover nuggets of self-enlightenment. You can really get to the bottom of why you’re feeling that way, and gain new understandings of yourself.
If you’ve got a dictionary, or thesaurus on hand, try turning to a completely random page and selecting a word from that page to use as your prompt. You never know where it might take you.
Keep experimenting until you find one that works for you.
5. Dialogue
A journal is a great place to explore the thoughts and feelings that may be left unexpressed sometimes. The sanctuary of a journal can often mean we feel safer disclosing our most honest truths about things.
Use your journal to engage in a dialogue with whatever is weighing on your mind. Dialogue with anger, grief, money, society, anything at all.
Write the conversation, using both your own standpoint, and embodying the thing you’re engaging with. This technique can provide answers to why something bothers you. The fresh perspective it offers can be really enlightening.
Things to Remember When Journaling
It’s important to remember a journal does not need to be a literary masterpiece. It’s a personal treasure and something you have complete control over. Anything goes. Grammar, punctuation and spelling rules don’t exist within the world of your journal. You can write however you want, completely free of restrictions.
There is no set timetable for writing in your journal. There are no rules that say you have to write in it every day. Rest is important for writers too! It’s there for you as and when you feel you need it.
It might take some time to find the journal style that works best for you, but it’s something worth exploring. A journal, no matter what form it takes, can be a powerful tool for looking after our mental well-being.
What is your experience of journaling? Please get in touch and let us know!
