Writing down your thoughts can be truly powerful. Here, I explain you why. Photo: Pexels
As, with this blog, I’m trying to help my readers in some way or another, writing of all kinds of hardship that could occur and every possible solution I can come up with, today I will write about what exceptional power lies in writing down your own thoughts.
Personally, writing down stuff helps me regulate my emotions and understand myself better. But for some, it’s an anxiety-releasing ritual that can take place every night for example. Let me tell you how writing things down can make your life better – especially in the long run.
The pages of a diary are like a therapist
Therapy, which I think is a terrific way of getting help with being able to handle better one’s inner world, essentially means your pouring your heart out to someone and then together you try to put the pieces back together in a way that doesn’t hurt and will allow healing much faster.
To me, writing down is like talking to someone you really trust – like a therapist, or a good friend. What they usually do, is just listen to what have to say. They might ask a few stimulating questions that will help you understand what’s really going on inside you but you do the majority of the word.
Journalling is just like that. You just write down whatever is upsetting you. The words will just come to you. And after you’re done, you’ll feel much lighter.
By the way, and amazing book to discover self-therapy is this one.
Your pen knows all the answers
Something I find really fascinating is how the words just come to you. When I write I don’t just write three sentences about what happened. I start do dig deeper. Like this
- What made me feel this way? Have I felt this way before?
- Why does this sentence someone said to me hurt so much?
- What is a fundamental belief I have about myself that hurts me?
- Where I have I learnt that about myself?
- How was I treated before that I think x about myself?
- What situation I have been in before proved to me that it’s scary to be in situation x?
- What would I need to hear from someone that could make me feel better?
Most of what we think of ourselves and others lies somewhere in our subconscious. And something put it there, we never learnt something for no reason.
So, the question is: how can we find what hurt us and how can we get it out of there. The problem is: If you never deal with what’s going on with your mind and heart, you will never get the answers to these questions.
There is no censoring when writing
I find that when we talk to someone and we’re not 1000% comfortable with them, we try not to overshare, we think they might judge us for something or they might not understand us, and so we don’t always tell them everything. However, that’s exactly what’s so important: to get out everything.
Sometimes, we only realize things when we said them out loud or wrote them down. You might be surprised how many realizations I had when writing down my thoughts – things I would never have thought to be true.
But apparently, it was something I could only realize when I allowed myself to be honest – and write down everything, every ugly thought, every painful truth. The good thing is, a book would never judge you for anything. So let it all out. No censoring allowed!
To get to the other side, you must get through it
Personally, I use journalling as some sort of a quick fix. I don’t think you should substitute real social connections with journalling. It’s still important to talk to the people we feel closest to.
However, whenever I’m really sad about something, or something’s bothering me so much that I can’t seem to peacefully live with the situation for long, I always journal. It has helped me with:
- understanding myself better
- knowing where my flaws come from
- that most of what happens to us in life is not our fault
- to accept my dark sides
- to deal with hurtful situations
- and to feel more compassion for myself
I would always recommend to someone to write down what’s going on in their heads. Because that’s how you’ll find out, what’s going on in your heart too. But of course, the more you want to help yourself, the more uncomfortable the conversations you’ll have with yourself must be.
There might be some discomfort, some hurt and pain, some tears, some anger. But at the end you’ll have more peace, compassion, and a weight off your shoulders.
Would I advise you to journal? Always! Does it matter what you put into that diary? Not in the slightest. So do me a favor and journal away 🙂 And also, let me know what the most eye-opening experience was when journaling and how did you get there!
Love, Valentina
Written by Valentina – spiritual writer & founder of Valentina’s Diary
