Journaling, Anxiety & Stress
What is Journaling and How can it help?
Journaling is the practice of writing your thoughts on paper,
whatever they may be. It is sort of a freestyle approach to
problem solving as it is written only for the writer, free from
restrictions as the only person who is going to read it is you.
If you are in a treatment program you may wish to share it with
your health care proffesional to aid in your treatment but that
is completely up to you. You have total control over who reads
it (if anyone at all) and what goes into it. It is imprtant to
remember that when writing in your journal to write from within
and to be totally honest with your thoughts and feelings. If you
hold back your thoughts or feelings in anticipation that someone
will read it, then you are completely wasting your time engaging
in this exercise.
How Do I Write a Journal?
There are no real rules to journal writing. However you do want
to be as honest as possible with your thoughts and feelings or
you will only be wasting your own time and fooling yourself. It
is best to set aside a time and place free from distractions
when making an entry. DO NOT write when you are in the same room
that you sleep. Why? When writing your journal you may
experience an assortment of powerful feelings (sadness,anger,
joy). If you make a habit of writing in your bedroom you may
associate the place where you rest as a place to deal with your
emotions and may start finding it difficult to get some sleep.
Make yourself as comfortable as possible in another room, get a
cup of tea, put on some music and shut off the TV. It is ok if
you don't know what to write about at first, just start writing
the first thing that comes to mind and allow yourself to let go
from there. At first it may seem a little awkward but with
persistence it get's easier. A topic that everyone can start on
is writing about your days events. Focus on what you were doing,
how you were feeling and thoughts you were having at a
particular time. Write only as much as you feel you can handle
at any given sitting, but do try and write something daily. If
you are using journal writing as an aid to conquer anxiety, try
to focus on specific situations that cause you the most
symptoms. Focus on the 5 W's, Who, What, Where, When and Why. By
doing this you can refer back to any given day and may see what
was contributing to your anxiety. You may also see the things
that helped you to get through some tough times. You may find
things out about yourself that you were unaware of such as
stressful areas in you life or things you miss doing. The whole
idea of the exercise is to explore your feelings and thoughts no
matter what they are, to learn about who you are and grow as a
person.
written by psychiatric nurse, webmaster/author of the website
www.anxietyhelponline.com , an anxiety, panic and stress self
help resource. 12/10/05
About the author:
written by psychiatric nurse, webmaster/author of the website
anxietyhelponline,an anxiety, panic and stress self help
resource. 12/10/05
AnxietyHelpOnline
