How Journalling Saved Me - From Darkness To Light

Author

Joy Langley
August 11, 2023

Hey There,

Growing pains. I was in a dark, sad place in my twenties. I had a job I hated, and a series of difficult relationships. I felt lost.

Anxiety, stress and depression were my daily tormentors …and then I stumbled onto journalling. Hard to believe it, but my journal became my best friend. A place to get things off my chest - what a relief!

I Journalled for Self-Awareness Because

  • Writing down my thoughts, feelings and experiences increased self understanding

  • Looking back over my journal entries, helped me see patterns …between triggers situations, emotions, thoughts, and actions.

  • Externalizing my inner experiences, getting stuff out of my head and onto paper provided greater objectivity (more rationality)

Methods of Journaling

I tried them all! …from following a structure, to free writing, to using little prompts to get my brain cells working.

  • 1. Structured journaling

  • Note situations, thoughts, feelings and actions (draw columns)

  • Observe patterns and consequences of behavior

  • 2. Free writing

  • Write freely without judging for 5mins, 10mins and increase it.

  • Continue writing through any blocks

  • 3. Prompted journaling (check your bookstore)

  • Use prompts like the 5 W's to get unstuck (who, what, when, where, why, how)

  • Fun prompts can boost creativity (e.g. if I had a magic wand what would I do)

Tips for Journaling

Do you fancy giving it a go? Or if you stopped but want to try it again… here’s a couple of ideas to start you off.

  • How to record things? You can use paper, computer, voice recording, art

  • Its not about perfect sentences or spelling! Focus on capturing thoughts.

  • Try it daily at first for 7 days. Build a habit of daily self reflection.

  • Forgive yourself regularly for stopping. Persist, start again if you miss days.

  • Date your daily pages. Helps you track and reviews E.Q growth over time.

I did a linkedin ‘live’ talk about journalling too, and got some great feedback.

Do you think you’ll try this for 7 days? Drop me a line ‘YES’ in the subject line

(I promise to be your accountability buddy)

speak soon

Joy