The Healing Power of Journaling: My Personal Experience

I believe that journaling has the power to heal and reveal. I’ve experienced the transformative power of journaling from childhood.

I have found and rewritten myself and my life many times over in the pages of my journals. I’ve unearthed hidden truths that have led me to a more beautiful, harmonious, authentic, and joyful life. My hope is that my story inspires you to begin, continue, or deepen your own journaling practice.

WHAT IS JOURNALING?

Journaling is the practice of writing down thoughts, feelings, and experiences in order to process and understand them.

The wonderful thing about journaling is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. Since journaling is such a personal practice, it is important to find journaling techniques and styles that work best for you. I personally like to use a variety of journaling styles, depending on my intention for journaling, my mood, or my current life experiences.

THE BENEFITS OF JOURNALING

A consistent journaling practice can improve many areas of your life, including your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. A 2006 study involving 92 adults showed that participants who journaled about stressful situations in their lives for 15 minute sessions twice a week had a significant decrease in psychological symptoms like depression and anxiety, especially if they were distressed to begin with.

Another study, conducted by psychologist James Pennebaker, discovered that journaling has a positive effect on the immune system, by acting as a way to relieve stress.  Pennebaker’s studied also proved that journaling decreases our chances of getting sick, along with increasing the ability to fight off diseases like asthma, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. Writing in your journal can also help you to recover faster after surgery and has been shown to help seniors heal faster.

For me, one of the biggest benefits of my journaling practice has been rebuilding my relationship with myself. Journaling is a way for me to offer myself love, patience, grace, and understanding.

MY JOURNALING JOURNEY

Since I was a child, words have been a powerful tool for me to express myself. I have always found such freedom, wonder, and empowerment in writing and journaling. When I began journaling in elementary school, my journal was a place for me to record my daily experiences, air my grievances, and process my thoughts and feelings. 

During my pre-teen and teenage years, my depression began to really impact my life. My self-esteem and self-worth became non-existent. I loathed almost every part of myself. I had an overwhelming feeling of discomfort being in my own skin, my own body. I was both hollow and so full of sadness, anger, confusion, and hopelessness that I felt like I would burst. I was filled with shame that I had such a great life, amazing parents, a beautiful home, and yet I was miserable.

My shame kept me silent. The only place I felt comfortable expressing it was in the pages of my journal. My journaling practice truly saved me during those challenging years. Through journaling, I began to realize that I needed help. I started asking myself if I had depression. This question finally led me to show my journal to my parents, and eventually, get into therapy. I am forever grateful to my journal. Without it, I don’t think I would have received the help I desperately needed.

HOW JOURNALING HAS HELPED ME HEAL

As I examine my journaling practice, I have been writing and reflecting on how it has changed over time. When I was young, my journal was a best friend that I could tell my secrets to. As a teenager, my journal was a way for me to discover and process my mental health struggles. As an adult, my journal has become my sanctuary. It is a peaceful, loving, and healing practice that leads me to powerful insights about who I am, who I am working to become, and how I want to show up in the world for myself and others. Below is an entry from my journal:

4/10/23

My journal has always been my trusted truth-keeper. The words I couldn’t say, wouldn’t say, or shouldn’t say flowed easily from my mind and heart through my pen and onto the page. During my depressed years, journaling saved me. Journaling helped me to remember I wasn’t as empty as I felt. It reminded me I was alive, even when I felt like I wasn’t. 

Over many, many, years, my journaling practice has changed. It morphed from incredibly sad to hopeful. From hopeful to joyful. It changed alongside me. It guided me to the answers I already had within me. It helped me ask the questions that needed to be answered. 

Journaling has helped me to be honest with myself. It helped me to notice thought patterns, beliefs, actions, and experiences and how they had shaped me and my choices. These observations led me to begin making the changes I needed to live a more peaceful, happy, and purposeful life. It helped me reconnect with my true self, my true essence. 

Journaling has helped me rediscover my passions, talents, and skills. Through journaling, I realized that I wanted to switch careers and begin teaching journaling, meditation, and mindfulness practices to other women of color. Journaling has been my homecoming, and I believe I can help others use journaling as a way to return home to themselves too.

Why I Use Journaling To Heal

I use journaling to heal because it is a way to:

• process my feelings, thoughts, and experiences in a healthy, mindful way
• shift from being reactive to reflective and responsive to my experiences
• deepen my relationship with myself and offer myself love, compassion, understanding and grace
• discover my purpose through understanding my skills, talents, and desires
• track my growth by being able to see how I have changed my beliefs, patterns, and actions over time
• cultivate self-awareness, which leads me to take action to improve my life
• connect with others by sharing my story ad inspiring them to do the same

And that’s it! These are the reasons I use journaling as a powerful tool to heal and transform my life. After experiencing so many personal benefits from  journaling, I highly recommend that you begin or deepen your own journaling practice.