Journaling for Stress Relief

Stress…something we all experience and would rather not. It makes life harder to enjoy. It negatively impacts our mental and physical health. It can spiral out of control and be a constant presence in our life. Failure to rein it in can have serious consequences. Since we cannot totally avoid it, it is important to find ways to manage and reduce it as best we can. One of the keys is developing greater awareness of what causes our stress and finding new ways to approach it. Journaling can be an excellent tool for this. Keeping our thoughts and feelings bottled up inside not only causes physical manifestations like trouble sleeping or anxiety, it actually seems to give them more weight—they build up, they feel more powerful. Finding an outlet for them helps us feel a bit lighter, a bit less intimidated. Keeping a journal detailing the stressful events in our lives, how they make us feel and how they make us behave is a great way to gain a better grip on these problems. We can think about them in a more constructive way—instead of just worrying, we can perform self-examination and gain greater awareness. This can change our perspective and help identify ways we can better deal with these situations. It is a way to just let things out and express things we may not otherwise. Research published in ''Psychotherapy Research'' in 2010 found that compared to a control group who did not express their feelings in writing, journaling helped participants reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as make better progress in their counseling sessions. There is not right or wrong way to journal, but there are some tips to optimize the effectiveness of this strategy.While you are free to write anything you want, journaling for stress relief is really about recounting the events of the day like you might for a regular journal. You really want to focus on the things that are bothering you, how they are impacting you and what you think you can do to improve the situation. You might start off with statements like ‘’the things that stressed me out today were…’’ ‘’I got upset today when…’’ ‘’To better deal with this situation, I could….’’ You get the picture. Remember too, do not censor yourself, just write. No one is seeing this but you. Do not judge what you feel as right, wrong, good or bad, it just is. We can only work on fixing something when we own it is there, no matter what it is. You will have plenty of opportunity to investigate. Physically writing may feel a bit more therapeutic, but if you prefer the computer that is fine too. If you are online all day, like many modern jobs require, it may be good idea to use an old-fashioned notepad. Do not just focus on the negative. While a main component of journaling is to reflect on the negative feelings and situations in your life, you do not want to turn the exercise into something where you are just merely listing your grievances against others and other problems. This is meant to produce positive changes in your life. While you are journaling, you also want to focus on the good in your life. Write about the things you are grateful for. Write about the positives that can come out of these negative experiences, such as lessons you can learn and how they can help you become a better person. Often times, our troubles stem from a fear of facing our negative feelings more deeply; it can be scary, it can make us think about things we do not want to think about, it forces us to see where we are contributing to the problems in our lives. We avoid thinking about this stuff in a constructive way. If you can get over this discomfort and tackle the issues head on, you will make progress that you probably do not even think is possible right now. Journaling is a great way to do this.