How can Journaling help me?
Does writing things down in a notebook help me on an emotional level? How does that work? And what kind of things should I write about?
Writing down how you feel really helps you ‘get it off your chest’ - literally!
Emotional pain, or where someone has hurt your feelings, resides in the heart. If it is held or stuck there, then it blocks the flow of love in our bodies and in our lives. This could mean that you are closed off to friendships and family members - any relationships, really, which could become isolating for you.
If you have had a situation that you churn around and around in your head then, perhaps you did not manage to work through or process the emotions at the time - this is where journaling can help.
If you can write down how you are feeling, really get expressive in your writing, swear if you like, SHOUT IN CAPITALS! This will help you to get the emotions out of your body. Acknowledging and letting yourself feel your feelings and express them, will clear a path through your heart centre, restoring flow, allowing love in and out again.
Try this process as a regular practice:
At the end of each day / few days / week, whichever suits you, write down the things that you are still holding onto. The situations or experiences that aren’t sitting at peace in your body.
How do you know which ones they are? Well, its the experiences you’ve had that you go over in your mind - perhaps wishing you had said something differently or still not believing what someone said to you! Even wishing that you had reacted differently at the time. If you are still mulling over things from the past, then you still need to process them or let them go.
Now at first, it maybe things that happened recently that are at the forefront of your mind, but over time you will start to work back into the past and release hurts and situations that may still be affecting your behaviour today.
Some of your journaling might be as a letter to yourself regarding something that had happened where you didn’t like how you behaved and letting yourself know that you forgive yourself and that you don’t need to hold onto it and feel bad about yourself anymore.
Write these things on a fresh page each time so that you can rip them out when you feel that you have finished getting them out of your system and are ready to let them go. You can then burn them and release the ash to the Earth, asking that the energy be transmuted with love - they are gone!
On the next fresh page you can write down all the things that you grateful for in your life. Positive experiences, moments of happiness, kind words that have been said, time spent with someone, a beautiful, uplifting view, anything that you appreciate and lifts your spirit.
You can keep these pages in your journal and over time you will have a lovely collection of all the good things in your life - a wonderful read when you might be feeling a little blue.