Journaling as Therapy

Journaling is good therapy. It is a valuable tool to support healthy lifestyles. What journaling does is not just to heal the physical, but the mental and the spiritual because you connect with your inner self.

It’s the beginning of spring and this season tends to have a positive effect on people. It’s now a good time to document your thoughts/feelings especially if you have emotional things that you are trying to work out. Connect your feelings to spring and think about a new beginning. Spring is a time of rejuvenation and growth.

Since journaling can be a healing tool and spring is a time of restoration, start a spring activity and journal about it. Or observe the colours and growth of the season and write about that. Associate all of spring’s restoration with you being on the mend and see if that helps with your overall therapy.

In writing down your thoughts and feelings you are releasing them from you. You can look at them on paper and make some analysis about the actions you want to take. Just like spring taking you from the dead of winter, you can take yourself from whatever state you are in and start anew.

Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.

Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com

Journaling To Change Our Thoughts

We all know that our thoughts lead to our actions and both guide our lives. Hence, it’s best to start out with positive thoughts. Yet, this is not always the case. Many times our thoughts are negative; our actions reflect this pessimism; and our lives become something we do not want it to be.

The good news is our thought processes can be changed. When we journal the negative thoughts that we have we can really take a good look at what we are telling ourselves. By seeing it, we can take stock and then we can begin to change negative thoughts into positive ones.

When positive thoughts are written down, we can see them and we can live them. Every negative thought that we have can be overridden by a positive one that we will write. It is like practicing optimism. If we are not hopeful, it is worth rehearsing. Our very survival depends on hope.

It could also be that we are lacking confidence in a certain area. We could simply write down the way we want our thoughts to be, a sentence or two that will prod us on to facing our fears. It’s possible we could also find out the reason for our lack of confidence when we journal our thoughts. If we find the source of the problem, it’s easier to fix. So go ahead change your thoughts.

Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.

Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com

Journaling Your Dreams

Many people dream a lot and they always want to find meaning in their dreams. Sometimes the dreams are short pieces; sometimes they are full length movies. Sometimes they come in spurts; sometimes they are smooth. Sometimes a dream comes once; sometimes it’s reoccurring. However they come, they can be written down.

The dream may be a manifestation of what is happening in the sub-consciousness. It would be nice to figure out what is brewing just beneath the surface. Our hopes, dreams and fears may be found somewhere in our sleep time thoughts. Dreams can be fascinating with or without interpretation but meaning is good to have. Dreams are also fleeting so if they are not written down it will be hard to remember them.

If you cannot see meaning in dreams they may be good for other things. Everything may not have meaning. Dreams may allow for creativity. Interesting dreams may make for good fiction, long or short. In some cases you can expand on the actual dream and embellish it into a compelling tale.

Journal your dreams, you may be surprised at what you find.

Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.

Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com

Pretty Paper Journaling

If you are really serious about journaling, you can do it on cardboard. But it’s nice to do it on pretty paper. Beautiful paper, like a work of art, can appeal to our senses and emotions. Aesthetics is probably important in most of what we do and journaling is no different as we critically reflect on our thoughts and our words.

The beauty of the paper may be in the colour, the texture, an image/drawing or a combination of all these elements. What these different elements can do is help in creativity and assist in getting the thought processes flowing. Another thing that beautiful pages do is give us the sense that there is balance and harmony. This is especially true if the colours are blue and green.

Having your own work of art to write on makes your journal unique to you. You are writing about your thoughts, your experiences, your plans and your life so why not have something as unique as you are that reflects who you are?

Apart from the creativity and the sense of balance beautiful paper provides, it is simply pleasing to look at.

Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.

Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com

Journaling to Remember

It is clear that there are many reasons to journal but let’s talk about a practical one. Journaling can help us to remember. It may be something we want to do; somewhere we want to be; or a commitment that we have made. Thoughts can sometimes be very illusive. There are many times when we think of something, for me it’s usually the perfect line for either poetry or prose, but when the time comes for us to use this particular thought, it’s gone.

The reason for this loss is it was not caught on paper. So for this reason we may not keep a promise, we may forget to do something important or we may lose the perfect line. This is the time when we may have this sinking feeling that we disappointed someone, made a poor impression or that a great idea is lost and gone forever.

Failure to record may mean failure to remember. Sometimes the very act of writing things down will help to stamp it in our minds. Hence writing becomes the memory’s stamp. But short of this we can always reread what we have written.

Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.

Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com