Yesterday we looked at the difference between a diary and a journal, and one of the subtle differences between the two was the depth of the writing.
A journal has more depth, allowing you to explore, analyse and evaluate what’s going on in your life. This makes it the perfect tool to explore the emotional impact of what your going through.
Journaling your emotions
One of the things I’ve found most beneficial about journaling is the ability to write about what I’m feeling. Talking about feelings doesn’t come easy to me, so being able to write about them has turned my journal into a release valve. I get quite anxious about stuff, and must have gone back twice when they dished out the anxiety gene, so being able to explore and analyse my feeling around what I’m going through helps me to turn down that anxiety quite a bit. Just being able to put a name to the things I’m feeling helps a lot. Acknowledging what you’re feeling doesn’t mean that you weren’t right to feel that way, but can help you understand why you did.
Try just writing down what happened without judging or restricting it. Then take a step back. Writing without restrictions can be very therapeutic!
Benefits of emotional jouraling
When you keep everything bottled up, you find that at some point, you need to let it out. But if you hold on too much, when you open the release value, you may overreact.
The way I like to think about it is like shaking a bottle of fizzy drink. When you walk along, the bottle gets shaken, and pressure builds up. So when you go to open the bottle, the bubbles explode and you get the soda everywhere. But when you know that you’ve been shaking the bottle, and open it slowly to release some of the trapped air, you don’t get such a bad reaction.
Being able to journal about your emotions allows you to release the pressure that’s going on. When you take time to explore and analyse them, you can see patterns and triggers, and then find ways around things. In this way, we become more self-aware and personal growth developes.
Sometimes, especially when your dealing with grief, being able to release all those pent up emotions around what happened allows you to maybe lance a wound that is so painful, you can’t touch it, but once you do, the wound can begin to heal. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be any scars. There probably will, especially when the wound is deep. But the wound won’t be so vulnerable to being torn open again.
Tips to get started
1. Acknowledge that writing about your emotions may not be easy to start off with, but try and persevere with it.
2. Write without editing what you’re writing. Just let it out without passing judgement.
3. Try writing from a different perspective. Maybe as an observer, especially for things that are painful, but also from another persons point of view as well. Sometimes we can get so close to a problem that a little distance helps us see things a bit more clearly.
4. Try using journal prompts, like a question that you want answered.
5. Try thinking about how you could have done things differently. How would that have changed things.
6. Give yourself time. The more you practice, the easier it will become.
There are so many benefits of journaling about your emotions. So give it a go, and see how you get on.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Don’t forget, you can join my 30 day journaling challenge any time and if you’re looking for a journal to write in, then I’ve created one or two on Amazon.