How Journaling Helps You Heal

Journaling is a gentle yet powerful tool for healing and emotional wellness. It’s a technique that helps you process the most difficult emotions and overwhelming moments, and it helps you become aware of patterns and trends.

Research shows a strong correlation between writing and emotional processing. People who write about their emotionally charged moments experience amazing improvement around depression and anxiety. It helps you make better sense of complex emotions and situations, and can reduce or eliminate confusion.

Journaling even improves physical health. Blood pressure goes down, immune function improves, and many experience improvements in memory and sleep quality.

It can also be a fun way to tap into your creativity and into your own intuition.

To get the most healing from your journaling, there are a few key elements to incorporate.

Consistency

• Consistency matters in your journaling practice, especially a daily schedule. Treat it like you would something you would never leave the house before completing first, like brushing your teeth. Make it formal and write in into your schedule. Designate a writing time limit, like 10 minutes, and allow yourself to stop when time’s up. Walk away then, but you may also find you want to keep writing!

Privacy

• You must approach journaling as a private endeavor. Writing for an audience, real or imagined, decreases its effectiveness. You must truly feel free to express yourself within pages nobody will ever see.

Honesty

• Be honest in your private journal. To fully explore and process your emotions, let it all out. Write everything you think and feel and do not edit. Leave the critic behind!

Reflection

• Take time to reflect on what you last wrote, especially if it was an emotionally charged writing session. Don’t skip this important step as reflection is the key to uncovering meaning, unraveling complex emotions, and recognizing patterns in your thoughts or behaviors. Your new awareness will help you learn from your experiences and make positive changes going forward.

To get you started, here are a few journaling prompts:

Another feel-good tip I have is to splurge on your favorite writing tool. It makes writing even more pleasurable if you love what you’re writing with! I personally prefer a gel ink pen in a beautiful bold color.

I always advocate for writing by hand as there is a certain healing energy that moves from brain to heart to hand, a flow that happens, a way to tap into your own intuition. If you prefer an electronic format, that works too, and you can even explore journaling apps.

Much love and healing to you as you move into your journaling practice.

Melody is a Certified Mindfulness Coach, journaling mentor, published author, and poet. She lives in the desert of western Colorado where she rarely has to shovel snow.

Book a Mindfulness Mentoring Session with Melody!

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