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Why do therapists recommend journaling?
Therapeutic journaling is the process of writing down our thoughts and feelings about our personal experiences. This kind of private reflection allows us to sort through events that have occurred and problems that we may be struggling with. Record your thoughts about your most recent session, and take note of anything interesting that you learned. Experiment with journaling during your sessions, directly after your sessions, and later on when you reflect upon your experience. Set personal goals with your therapist, and use your journal to track them. Journaling also helps people hone their focus so that they think about only one thing at a time. When you write your thoughts by hand, you can only write one word at a time. Your thoughts slow down to match your writing speed and you’ll find that it’s easier to slip out of your overthinking mindset. Sometimes keeping a journal of your thoughts, feelings, and experiences helps, but often it makes things worse. In general, it is likely to hurt if it tries to help you “know yourself” in isolation and helps if it leads to greater understanding and behavior change in your interactions with others. “Therapists’ process notes are to help therapists solidify memories of important details, themes to come back to, or noteworthy elements of the therapy process,” she says. “These small bits of information help us remember where we left off when we meet again and help us track the progress of therapy.” Sleep journaling can help improve the quality of your sleep. In the hours before going to bed, using a journal can be beneficial to your mental health and wellbeing, allowing you to process your thoughts from the day, preventing you from overthinking and reflecting when you are trying to go to sleep.
Why is journaling so powerful?
Journaling evokes mindfulness and helps writers remain present while keeping perspective. It presents an opportunity for emotional catharsis and helps the brain regulate emotions. It provides a greater sense of confidence and self-identity. But writing in your journal as a way to release and express your thoughts, feelings and emotions can be a life-changing habit. Daily writing can be a challenge if you’re new to it. Much like meditating, it requires patience and commitment. But if you stick to it, it can improve your life in significant ways. Journaling can be a great self-care idea for introvert. It gives us a chance to reflect in solitude and channel our thoughts into words. If you have trouble sitting still for an hour every day, journaling can be a less intimidating alternative. So often, we let our minds slip through our jam-packed schedule. Enhance Your Intelligence Writing has long been connected with the ability to increase your own intelligence and even to improve your IQ. By writing through a journal, you’re actively stimulating your brain, putting thoughts into written form and expanding your vocabulary. How Journaling Can Be a Negative. According to Stosny, journaling can become dark when you it makes you live too much in your head, makes you a passive observer in your life, makes you self-obsessed, becomes a vehicle of blame instead of solutions, and wallows in the negative things that have happened to you. While a journal cannot replace a therapist, it can be therapeutic. What a journal can do is help you to notice patterns in your behaviour and emotional responses. It’s an opportunity to reflect on your experiences, feelings, thoughts and behaviour.
Why do people not like journaling?
But journaling isn’t for everyone. Some people find that it doesn’t feel calming or fulfilling and the stress of finding the “perfect” words to put on paper can be overwhelming. As a child, I would get super excited every time I got a new diary or notebook—and then stress out if I missed writing for a few days. Journaling boosts my creativity. Writing without a censor frees me from overthinking and limiting my imagination. It helps my brain make connections it might not otherwise. Most importantly for ADHD, it allows me to capture my great ideas before I forget them two minutes later. In addition to generally feeling more creative, plenty of notebook journalists swear that their journal entries are deeper and more meaningful when they take the time to handwrite them. Studies show it’s better to journal at night because it gives you an outlet for emotions and thoughts that might otherwise keep you awake. Even though there is sound scientific research to support the idea that journaling at night is better, many people prefer to journal in the morning. There are no rules in journal writing. The pages are for your eyes only. Be your weirdest self. Be your most curious self.