Write It Down

According to research everywhere, journaling is a tool that you can use to help make sense of all thoughts and feelings that you have on anything and everything.  It gives you a sense of ownership over your thoughts and feelings, can help you put things into perspective, and help you face those harder feelings.  It is a form of expression that can also be recognized as a form of healing and purging.

 

That being said, I usually fall flat on journaling.  I will be dedicated about it when things are stressful or chaotic; I am the type of person that likes to face things and by writing them down, I can do that.  But when my life is in balance or more under control, the journaling typically stops.  Does this sound like you?

 

One of the many benefits of mindfulness is that there are so many different tricks and tactics!  You do not have to be constantly practicing all of them, simultaneously, at all times.  For me, when things are under control, I have no idea what to journal about; what I ate for breakfast?  How the dog walk went?  Why I most definitely need that coffee mug that is shaped like an elephant?  Probably not; I don’t need to purge about those things or face them or really think about them in a deeper way.  But, when I am stressed, and my brain feels too cluttered and I can’t make sense of anything, I write it down.  I journal about it, lay it all out, and then look at it again.  Occasionally, the simple act of getting the jumble out of my head and onto the page solves most of my issues, other times, it allows me to mull it over in a more orderly fashion.  

 

Don’t be afraid to journal and write things down; you don’t have to have perfect grammar or sentence structure; you just need to vent it out.  At the same time, if journaling is not your thing, that is more than okay!  Mindfulness is not a one-size-fits-all because no one is an exact copy of another.

 

Does journaling help you?