Journaling is touted to be one of the best tools to use in order to enhance mental health, however, I believe this strategy is often under utilized. Over the past several years I have implemented a practice where every morning, in addition to free writing about my feelings, thoughts, experiences etc, I REVIEW what I wrote about the day before(sometimes weeks before;-) and DO something to address the issues that are causing me distress. I call this Journaling Method: Write, Review, Do. Here are some suggestions how to practice it:
WRITE
Journaling is a great tool to get stressful feelings and thoughts out of your mind and onto paper where you can see them with greater clarity. Just the act of writing… purging challenging feelings and experiences onto the page, offers relief to an overwhelmed mind and nervous system. Writing, like all movement facilitates the flow of feeling, unclogs stagnation.
If you desire to benefit from more bang for your buck, as far as a mental health strategy goes, don’t stop after writing, scribbling all your troubles down. Take the next step to actually RESOLVING problems.
REVIEW
Begin a daily practice of REVIEWING what you wrote the day before. When you notice patterns in thought, feeling, behavior, create an affirmation, intention, practice prompt.
For example, after rereading some of my entries, I noticed a theme of fear around being seen in my truth.
In my journal, I wrote the affirmation: “I am SAFE to express my full, creative feminine self.” I was experiencing fear/anxiety around wearing what I felt inspired to wear, putting creative work out there to be seen, speaking my truth.
By turning my issue into an affirmation, it inspired me to go about my day inspired and motivated to DEMONSTRATE this affirmation to be true, thereby, slowly resolving my fear of being seen.
DO
I WANTED to return to this prompt in my journal everyday to document and prove to myself that I was putting in the work to overcome this fear. This made me feel successful and encouraged me to keep working towards mastery of this issue. By using this journaling strategy it helped me to clearly see my issues and take action to resolve them.
I recommend writing your affirmation/intention, the date and description of each experience you have had that demonstrates your efforts to overcoming obstacles.
Ex: Affirmation:_______
Date:
Action you demonstrated that corresponds to the affirmation/intention
If you REALLY want to get the most transformation, empowerment, personal growth from journaling, try implementing Write, Review, Do:-)
Drop a comment and let me know how this works for you. Also, check out my Processing Workshop if you want to improve in your ability to better process feeling, thought, experiences<3
The Conscious Creative Cook 