journaling self-therapy

[Sashajade]

  Sorry if this is a little disorganized. I will do my best to keep it eazy to get through.

So about 10 months ago I started searching for ways to help myself get therapy that

I so desperately needed. I pretty much owe most of the information I got from youtube.

That is where I initially discovered Dr. Gabor Mate an addiction specialist. I started

to watching Gabor Mate's material, and thru an interview that Stefan had with him

I got curious about Stefan. So then Stefan's podcasts helped to clarify what has

happened to me. It was like a small death for awhile. To learn just how

twisted my outlook on the world has been.

  

  So the first method of therapy i had started to do was journaling, and started that

at the beginning of May 2013. I had tried to journal before but I didn't understand

how to do it correctly and I didn't stick with it because I would feel uncomfortable

and ashamed at events and feelings that would come up. I didn't realize that, that

is to be expected. I would never want to reread whatever I wrote bc it was just

so scary, and I would feel worse initially after it. I did notice that i got some relief but

bc it didn't help right away I didn't think it would be that effective. I didn't know

that doing it consistently would make it much eazier after a little while. It's been

like the alternative for talk therapy and I realized I have to treat it like going to

an actual therapy session. U have to take a little time daily or at least every

other day to just write out feeling and situations that u dont know how to handle.

 

  With journaling sometimes u feel like u can't get anything out sometimes.

In that case, I would just start writing about anything, even if u just keep repeating

writing why u dont feel like writing. Don't worry about trying to think about what

to write or punctuation, just keep writing watever comes to mind. After u

relax into it u will notice things coming up and even figure out answers to

to make sense of the things that are bothering u. For the first couple months

or so, my journaling entries were extremely depressing and even angry.

There's alot of emotional dumping in the beginning but it gets better.

 

   In my journal I would write about my problems and issues, but I would also

write down the things that I was acomplishing so I could see my progress

and feel a sense of accomplishment after doing things that are hard or

stuff I didn't want to deal with. Even just little things that make u happy

during the day. It's better if u actually write by hand as opposed to typing.

But either way is effective.

  

   I learned about journaling because of a podcast interview of Stefan's with

therapist Daniel Mackler. His vids on youtube really helped me.  I'll go into

the other techniques/methods a little later. I'm not used to writing this much. lol!

[Gnostiphile]

Thank you for sharing this, Sashajade.  I feel inspired to journal again after some time away from it.

[MysterionMuffles]

Yeah good stuff Sasha. It is actually harder to journal than it seems. Especially if you want to be completely honest and uncensored in your delivery. Glad you've been improving. I find that the frustrating things end up being the longer entries, but once in a while it's good to put some good words of inspiration. In fact I started with spamming positive thoughts no matter how crappy my days were. In a way it was self denial but it did help me improve my mindset. I wanted to become the guy I wrote like, and then I was finally able to write honestly to my self. Now there's a good balance. I feel like who I truly am is on the page now, regardless of positvity or negativity.

 

I don't like typing journals, it's almost as sporadic as audio journalling. Too many tangents. Being stuck with word by word in long hand continuously reminds you what should be next rather than go on a free for all of random thoughts.

[PatrickC]

Sometimes voice journalling with a voice recorder can be an interesting way to re-examine your thoughts.. I did this for almost 3 years every morning with a light walk at 6am. It sounds like your getting a lot from it already mind.

[MysterionMuffles]

Oh cool, so I'm not the only nut who's walked around talking to himself aloud

 

Hearing it back is a trip. Can't believe how each subject flowed into the others through tangents and stuff.

[PatrickC]

Ha! indeed.. The occasional dog walker would spot me answering my own questions.. hehe

[Sashajade]

  Thanks guys, on your imput. think im going to try the voice journaling thing. Ive never done that.

[Wesley]

I did pseudo-voice journaling where I added speech recognition software. Then i had a written and searchable record as well as all the benefits listed above. I would ignore spelling and grammar issues and correct them after if I needed to. saying "period" at the end of a sentence became pretty natural too and didn't interfere with my flow of thought after a while. 

 

Just an idea, but do whatever works for you.

[Tony Crowe]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on journaling. I have also recently gotten into journaling and I really enjoy hearing about how others are going at it. When I started it did feel clumbsy but eventually a part of me that had been silent came out like a flood.

 

[[ Emotions ]]

When I feel a strong emotion it really helps to get out my thoughts. I'll even rage all over the journal explicitly if I want. There's nobody saying I can't write whatever I want. I also LOVE to write when I'm joyous!

 

[[ Integrity ]]

If I journal about a problem I've been having, while I re-read it later, I can track my progress through that issue. It's helped me recognise if I have been living my values. Re-reading the journal was a bit unnerving for me at first too(like the OP said) but it's gotten easier.

 

[[ Acceptance ]]

Sometimes the healing process seems daunting for me. Keeping in mind that I experienced significant challenges growing up I can learn to have compassion for my experience. I won't sensor anything I write in my journal. If I'm going to do justice to my life I will write anything and look at it with curious acceptance. I'm never wrong or bad for what I write.

 

I hope that is helpful for anyone following this thread. If you can share your tips too I would surely appreciate that.

[MysterionMuffles]

I should start journalling more when I am joyful. I think I did a bit of it last month when I challenged my sef to journal for 31 days straight. I dunno, but I feel like I always have so much more to say when it comes to frustrations. Does that make me a pessimist? And is my lack of an attitude for gratitude what keeps me in a rut, or do I require far more than that? Ah sorry I dont even know if those are meant to be rhetorical.

 

I like your integrity idea Tony, good way to keep track on how you've been doing. I don't reread til many years later. I should start doing so though.

[LovePrevails]

From my journal:

 

I am taking to writing down thoughts that reoccur in my notebook

 

It helps to clarify why they are coming up again and again, and I am seeing there is a lot of merit to it.

Duh! No wonder people recommend journaling as part of counselling.

 

One thing is they help you develop the thought pattern so you know exactly what you are "trying to think" - what point you are making to yourself

it clarifies what point you are trying to make

either to yourself or the person you are arguing with in your head

 

I'm also cool with the emotions that come up now

the anger or the outrage

I'm not like, "no I shouldn't be feeling that, love, forgive, bla bla bla"which I am realising can be very unhelpful

self-sensorship might be useful sometimes when you are around people who will attack you for being honest

but not while you're on your own

ok so that's the first function

 

1) clarify what point you are trying to make

2) develop the point

3) you don't have to keep thinking about it again and again because you've got it out -

or if it comes up again it will usually be a further development on top of what you've written.

This saves lots of valuable thinking time and energy wasted going over the same things again and again.

You can use it for building upon what you've learned from journaling instead, or moving onto other problems, or creative endeavours.

There may be other benefits.

 

What are your reflections?

 

useful to stop negative cycles and start allowing more truthful viewpoints to sink in

[LovePrevails]

4) it makes a havit of righting down thoughts that might seem pertinent which desensitizes me to writers block because one of the main causes of writers block is perfectionism or me - and so it gets me in a "write it anyway" state of mind

[_LiveFree_]

Hey Sasha,

 

did you try the voice journaling? If so, how's it going for you?

 

[AnCapJavi]

I learned about something called the 3-2-1 process from something called Interal Life Practice. (Ken Wilber, AQAL, if anyone's familiar)

 

Basically you find something or someone that produces an emotional response in you and you first:

 

1. Write expressing your feelings to it or them.

2. Write out a conversation with the person or thing, how would they reply to you etc?

3. Write from the person or thing's point of view as a reaction to you.

 

This brought up so much stuff for me.

 

Here's a short video explanation.