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Journaling

Why Journaling is Important to Me

March 18, 2020January 13, 2022 Comments Off on Why Journaling is Important to Me
Why Journaling is Important to Me

Journaling is therapeutic. It helps me share what is in my mind, and even finding a solution behind specific thoughts and feelings. Journaling has become an essential strategy to help my mental health improve on some of my darkest days.

When a lot of people find out that I like to journal, they immediately assume that I use a diary. But that is incorrect. Putting words into paper is a tool that not many take advantage of, and honestly, I wasn’t a fan when I first started.

You see, my therapist advised that journaling could help. I took her advice.

I had a bad habit of keeping my emotions bottled up. I was afraid of making myself look weak and scaring the people I love away with my mental health baggage. So while I was building up the courage to talk about my emotions to others that weren’t my therapist, I was forced to write in my journal.

It wasn’t working at first. My need to make everything perfect affected my journaling. I thought I had to fill the pages with well-written prose, find time to journal every single day and write for hours. I would even make an outline of what I could write and how I would organize that information.

Obviously, that didn’t work.

My therapist made me realize that I was overthinking the whole journaling process. I was worried about my journal getting ugly from folding. I didn’t like scribbling on the pages, and I hated how my handwriting looked.

She told me that I was pressuring myself on something that should be simple and that I am not being honest, real, and vulnerable with myself. I was censoring my own writing, and I knew I had to stop.

And eventually, I did.

At first, I struggled to find words to write. Soon enough, I wrote whatever came to mind. I wrote about my emotions. I wrote about being depressed, having anxiety, and how I felt like I couldn’t control my feelings. Tears filled the pages as I wrote about feeling fat, not being good enough, and wanting to find my purpose in life. My journal started to be filled with words and scribbles. I uncensored my mind and opened up to my journal and myself.

I finally started to benefit from journaling. Going back to read what I wrote allowed me to gather my thoughts and understand myself better. I began to find common triggers within my depression episodes, anxiety attacks, and binge eating. It helped avoid those triggers, which has helped reduce my symptoms so far.

I also felt like all the weight from my emotions was lifted from my shoulders.

These days, I journal about everything that comes to mind. I write about happy memories, moments that made me laugh, and things that triggered me. Some pages are filled with scribbles and doodles, and other pages are filled with the top 3 moments of that specific day. I have made my journal into my safe haven, and in return, I have been able to reconnect with myself. And most importantly, while I still suffer from depression and anxiety on occasion, it has been much more controllable than before.

Sincerely, Kim

Sincerely, Kim

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My name is Kim.
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