Originally Published August 20, 2004 -- Your Wellness
Guide
Free Your Spirit With
The Written Word
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Dear
Diary...today was a great day. I saw my youngest go to
kindergarten. I never knew I could be so sad and happy at the same
time.
Dear
Diary...today I am feeling great about myself. I smashed the
competition with a new product launch. I always knew I could do it
but this validates my abilities.
Dear
Diary...today I am confused. My friend doesn’t see that there is
another way of life beyond destructive habits. Perhaps one day she
will open up and make different choices. |
Journals or
diaries are places where you can offer up the words of your soul for no
one’s consumption but your own and, instead, provide inner healing and
reflective joy.
Rebecca
“Kiki” Weingarten is a life coach in New York City who was supposed to be
at the Trade Center on 9/11 but through a twist of fate wasn’t there that
tragic day. “I lost friends in the Trade Center. People that I worked
with saw people jumping.” Weingarten wrote an article about how many of
those who experienced 9/11 up close didn’t know they were experiencing
post-traumatic stress. “They knew something wasn’t right but didn’t
understand the severity of what they had experienced.”
Along with
the proper therapeutic care, journaling can help people reconnect with
their feelings after deep loss, severe stress, or emotional distress. One
of Weingarten’s clients saw many of 9/11’s horrors and made a watershed
moment decision -- that she had hated her secretarial job of 30 years and
wanted to always be a school teacher. “We used journaling to explore her
thoughts and worked on taking the steps to become a teacher,” says
Weingarten.
“Journaling
is a great tool for goal setting,” says Journaling Expert Carolyn Koesters,
who consults on journaling and is a writer for American Greetings.
“Write down your dreams and goals in your journal. I do something called
‘Wish Writing’ -- start with a list of your wishes, which are mostly big
ones, like you want to get your degree or a new home. Then, put a
timeline on one of those wishes.”
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Image: Wellington Media
Journals aren’t just written in bound, beautiful books. The
computer or e-mails are often more convenient. |
From
there, Koesters recommends that you use your everyday journal or
even a special “Goal Journal” to write down daily small goals that
move you closer to making your wish come true. For example, if your
wish is to buy your first home by May 2006, then daily small goals
might be to look online to see how much homes cost today, write up a
savings plan during my lunch break tomorrow, or make my lunch today
instead of eating out in order to save money for the house. The
very fact that you wrote down your goals helps to keep you
accountable. |
For many,
journal writing might seem like a chore...until you learn how easy it is
and understand the personal benefits.
You don’t
need to write in a leather-bound book. A 39-cent notebook works -- so
does your computer, as well as cut-and-pasted or printed-out e-mails. “So
many people are journaling these days but sending it onto friends in
e-mails, which is a very good diary,” says Koesters.
Besides goal
setting, journal writing can heal physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Studies have shown that regular “Dear Diary” writing also improves the
immune system, decreases doctor visits, and even drops the effects of
rheumatoid arthritis.
Two
important points about journal writing are first you can’t think about
your diary as something that has to be grammatically perfect. This isn’t
your high school paper, so anyone with even a margin of literacy skills
can journal. And second, journal writing should be safe -- you need to
feel that no one will have access to what you have written so that your
mind and spirit can offer free expression.
Here are
some helpful resources for learning more about how the written word can
benefit your life:
Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions
by Dr. James Pennebaker
Write It Down Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want
and Getting It
by Henriette Klauser
Journal to the Self: Twenty-two Paths to Personal
Growth
by Kathleen Adams
Terra
Wellington
is a
national authority on creating a wellness lifestyle.
www.terrawellington.com
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Wellington