Each one of us has our own way of expressing pent-up emotions, stress, and worry. Some engage in excessive shopping sprees to leave their problems behind, albeit temporarily. Others may procrastinate or try to keep busy.
Those who have destructive tendencies may drink to excess or bury themselves in using illegal drugs. The more fortunate may seek help to overcome their feelings of worry and despair.
However, there is one positive method of expressing instead of repressing thoughts and feelings, and the answer is to keep a worry journal.
For hundreds of years, writing has been a significant form of self-portrayal, self-echoing, and self-rehabilitation. Self-revelation, which entails writing about your thoughts and feelings is a vital factor that makes emotional writing beneficial and relaxing.
Countless mental health professionals and behavioral experts have suggested journaling as a method of treating or aiding emotional health issues. According to experts, writing down thoughts and feelings can reduce trauma and apprehension, improves mindfulness, encourages imagination, and helps in getting a good night's sleep.
Associate Professor Jason Moser of Michigan University’s Department of Psychology says:
‘Expressive writing makes the mind work less hard on upcoming stressful tasks, which is what worriers often get ‘burned out’ over, their worried minds working harder and hotter. This technique takes the edge off their brains so they can perform the task with a cooler head.’
And Dr. James Pennebaker author of Writing to Heal says:
‘Expressive writing is a path to healing — emotionally, physically, and psychologically.’
If you can write things down you can help yourself feel better. You can free yourself from some of the emotional sufferings you may be going through.
Benefits of a Worry Journal
Here are some positive effects of writing down your thoughts and emotions in a worry journal.
• Motivates you to assess your views, sentiments, and conduct
• Highlights possible solutions
• Aligns your feelings and drives into your deepest values
• Changes negative energy into creativity and growth
• Reduces your negative reactions to others actions
• Increases open-mindedness to deal with uncertainty, inconsistency, and fickleness
• Aids you in seeing other people’s viewpoints
• Makes you feel more compassionate
• Helps you take definite and positive courses of action.
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How Writing Can Help
People who have bottled-up traumatic memories may learn to move beyond their experiences once they have written down their emotions and how they feel about them.
The process of writing allows people to learn to adjust their feelings. More significantly, the act of building a story about an upsetting occurrence helps someone see their problem more objectively and ultimately helps them reframe the experience.
Lastly, when people write down a distressing event in private, there is a high probability that they will talk to others about it later. This implies that keeping a worry journal opens the door to healing.
A Worry Journal Is Not Just For The Traumatized
Even for those who do not have seriously distressing experiences to work through, writing in a ‘worry journal’ can enhance emotional health. It can develop self-awareness and help to detect devious, unwholesome patterns in thoughts and behaviors.
It allows us to take more complete control over our lives and puts things in a better perspective. Most of all, it can help us swing from an undesirable mindset to an optimistic mindset, thereby making our lives profoundly more meaningful.
