Journaling

Keeping a Journal is an important tool for working through your grief. Each session will have an assignment along with Journaling; some might give ideas on what to journal on. It has been learned that those persons who are diligent with their journaling appear to move through their grief work with less difficulty than those who have not written regularly or at all.  Below are several suggestions which will help you in your journal keeping as a healing exercise.

1.    Whether you write poems, papers, paragraphs, or sentences, keep your writing in one book. You may choose to use the book provided by your support group or you may choose to use some other book, some people prefer a spiral bound notebook.

2.    Forget all rules about punctuation, grammar, and even spelling. The content and feelings of your writing are more important than the form in which it is written.

3.    Write down what you feel and what you think or anything else you want to remember.

4.    Consider your Journal as a paper therapist. It is cheaper and a lot more fun!

5.    Write everyday if you can. Even when you don’t what you should wite about, a simple beginning such as “Dear Journal, Today I did, felt, or went…” is enough to stimulate many thoughts and/or feelings.

6.    Date every entry. It will provide a record of your healing when you go back and read what was happening at earlier times.

7.    Think of your Journal as a friend; one with whom you can share all.

8.    Make your Journal a record of what you are doing and thinking in your life, as well as what you are feeling. Since all of this is influenced by the weather it is usually interesting to include a description of the weather.  You may see patterns, such as feeling more sad or depressed on cloudy, rainy days.

9.    Be Free! Use colored pencils, pens, or even crayons if they express better what you are feelings. After all, it is your Journal.

10. Let your writing be an extension of yourself.

11. Write only to please yourself. You do not have to share your writings with anyone else. It is your option.

12. Write only to write, not to publish. If you think about publishing your journal you may try too hard and that can hinder the expression of feelings.

13. Know that you will watch yourself grow and change and that your Journal is likely to become a part of your quite time, sharing you with you.

14. Start Now!  The longer you delay starting, the harder it will be to begin your new habit.

15. Each day record your energy level using the scale 1 – 10. “1” for little or no energy and “10” for an abundance of energy.

16. Specific topics for entries may be suggested at each session

17. Do not go back and read your journal for at least six (6) months after an entry has been made.  I would suggest that you refrain from reading your journal entries for at least six months after they are written for several reasons.

1)    Healing is a slow process and it often takes several months before one is able to recognize that he/she is truly making their way through their grief.

2)    When one is depressed, reading entries on a daily basis tends to reinforce the feelings of sorrow and depression. By allowing several months to pass between writing and reading journal pages one is much more able to judge their progress. 

Ready to start Journaling?  Lets Go….