How to Journal Away Your Stress

In stress-filled times, people often look for ways to express themselves. One such way people do this, is to journal. It allows people to find their inner feelings, deal with them, and record them in a manner that they can personally look back on and reflect. There is no right or wrong way to journal, only ways to increase the ease with which you do, and products to help you store your thoughts and words for future ancestors if so desired. However, in all reality, an old-fashioned tablet of paper with pen or pencil will work just as well, especially if you want your journal to be for your eyes only. No excuses that you do not have a proper journal either, as any notebook, or even a letterbox with lid, filled with loose leaf will work.

Rules of Journaling

There is one rule of journaling during stress-filled times, and that is that there are no rules. Write down whatever you want, thoughts, feelings, what is bothering you. If something gave you momentary happiness or joy, record it in black and white, so you can quickly see that there is good among the not so good, whatever you think might help. Write letters to yourself and to others, even though you do not intend to mail them. By turning thoughts into visible text on a page, you allow yourself the strength to deal with the issues that are your life.

If you have lost a loved one in your past, and you find yourself often talking to them, (we all do it, so do not roll your eyes!) write to them in your journal. You will be surprised at how clear your thoughts can be when you have a specific person to write to about the ups and downs of your current life situation, and that same someone is not ever going to read what you are writing.

Doodling Accepted

Doodle in your journal. Even if you are not the drawing type, you may be pleasantly surprised at how stress relieving the simple task of jotting down little bubbles of text over stick people can be. Better yet, grab a pack of colored pencils and draw a whole page of bright yellow smiley faces, a page of red hearts, blue clouds, or rainbows incorporating every color in the box. Something about coloring is so relaxing that this task alone can open your mind and relax your senses, that you may find yourself being able to think more clearly about what ever it may be that is bringing on this bout of anxiety.

Poetry

If you are a poet at heart, fill your pages with whatever poetry you can. Even those who have never put pen to paper for a single verse in their life may find themselves discovering poetry within needing an escape. I personally both love to write down my thoughts as poetry, but I also love words of wisdom that I uncover in pages of books, on the internet, in some of my favorite magazines. Whenever I do uncover a gem, I clip it or print it and stick it in my journal for those times when I need an encouraging word from someone else, and no one else is near. By keeping all of these words, your own and those of others together in one place, they will be there when you need them.

Positive Thinking

Declare a few pages as nice pages. Use these to write down nice things you think of about others, things you do for others, and anything that you hear someone say to you. For example, a teacher told me that I raised my son well, and another time I let several people behind me in the grocery line go ahead of me because they each had only an item or two, while I had a cart full. Someone reading this might say that this is bragging, and in a public forum such as this, that may very well be right. However, for the pages of my journal, it was just what I needed to read a few weeks later. I had been feeling as if I just could not open my mouth without shouting at someone, anyone, and it reminded me that sometimes the simplest things like waiting a few minutes for somebody is not only ok, it can make someone else smile.

Space for Everything

I journal it all, and by that I mean I use a journal to write down every aspect of my life that needs dealing with, especially when my stress level is crawling off the Richter scale. I write down any life necessities that I must continue to deal with, so as not to lose a total grip on reality, such as bills that need paying, children’s schedules, work due, etc. I always dedicate about a dozen pages in the back of any journal I am currently using just for this purpose. By putting it in the back, it is readily available, I know it is there, yet I am not violated by it every time I pick up my journal.

I also keep more than one journal at a time. I have a small one that fits in the bottom of my purse, essentially a small spiral bound notebook that I picked up at our local dollar store. If I find myself stuck in traffic, waiting for an appointment, or just too lazy to go down the hallway and grab my regular one I always keep on my desk, I can quickly grab this small one from my purse.

Clearing the Hurdles

If your last hurdle in tackling stress through journaling is that you would not even know where to start, that you and words just are not a big go together, I say nonsense. Grab a pen, grab a sheet of paper, and put the most important sentences anyone has ever written in his or her journal across the top of the page:

I am I, myself, no one else, and I am as important to life as you, them, and everyone else. I am loving, giving, beautiful, and my own person. No one can make me be hurtful, selfish, ugly, or under the control of someone else, because I belong to one purpose in life, and that is to bring about purpose in my life and all the lives around me.