Journaling

Heya, BoSox,

I'd be interested to hear others' opinions on this, but I would expect that writing again and again about the same issues would be of limited usefulness. There is lots of research (the name James Pennebaker often comes up) that shows that short term expressive writing can be very helpful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_therapy#The_expressive_writing_paradigm

However, in most of those studies, they only wrote for 15 minutes a day for four days and then were done. That's not much!

When I designed the Structured Educational Program, I added a significant amount of journaling because I believe that a certain amount of journaling can be very helpful in developing greater self awareness. This will decrease our unconscious tension because it will help us make peace with the world. Also, if we understand our own psychology better, it can help us connect cause (emotional tension) with effect (physical symptoms), helping us to see that our bodies are strong and that we don't need to fear the pain. However, despite this, I don't think that a long-term journaling practice is that productive.

Personally, I journal when I've got something I want to work out and explore. If an idea feels like it would be boring and routine to write about, then I figure I won't learn very much from it.

(I want to emphasize that this is just what works for me, and that the beautiful thing about a forum is that we can each have our own opinions.)

So what do we work on if we aren't working on journaling so hard? Well, why do we have to work on anything at all? Perhaps we can just allow ourselves to live our lives, being kind to ourselves.

In terms of TMS work, I'm a fan of the simple five steps that Dr. Sarno used as section headings in the treatment section of healing back pain. See this post for more:
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/section-1-introduction.4628/#post-28646

The following page tells the story of someone who worked incredibly hard with journaling, filling up all sorts of notebooks, but it didn't work:
http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Relapser's_curse_-_there_is_hope,_by_Skizzik
It wasn't until he relaxed into his pain a little bit and learned to fear it less that he got better (Alan Gordon and I call this symptom response modification because you're modifying the way that you respond to your symptoms). In general, I don't see many success stories in the success stories subforum where people were stuck for a long time and then decided to start journaling really hard, crying their eyes out, and got better. In contrast, I've known a number of people who found a way to strain less and managed to get better. (some people have said that this post helps a lot with straining less, but you really have to work it.)

Overall, I believe that TMS healing is about relaxing, unfolding, and finding joy in life while managing to forget about the pain. (Remember, its job is to distract you; don't let it!) Of course there are many mysteries in it as well...

 

Oh, goodness, I'm definitely not saying there are any rules for journaling. Overall, if you feel that journaling is helping you and that you are unearthing or processing things that are important, then it is a good thing. If you aren't making any progress or are getting worse, then it is a bad thing. A certain amount of journaling seems to generally be a good thing, but if it is pursued obsessively or with a mindset that "if I just journal hard enough, my pain will go away," then I think that there are some times when it can be counterproductive.

Only you can get a sense after you journal of whether it was productive. Did you learn something new about yourself? Will the things you journaled about bother you less? Maybe it will take a couple of journaling sessions to figure out if your work on a given topic is helping you with that topic, but eventually the journaling should make you feel better.

If an activity doesn't make you feel better over time (or makes you feel worse), then that's not a good sign. Maybe it's not helping.

I remember a very smart and thoughtful guy I met in TMS circles. He did journaling and even worked with a therapist. He became extremely introspective and talked about how he had started to cry more easily, sometimes for no reason. He interpreted this as him being more in touch with his emotions, but that didn't seem right to me. On the contrary, it looked to me like he was just winding himself up more and more and getting all wrapped up in what was bothering him. Of course, I don't know him that well, so I can't say anything with confidence. But my gut said that he was "feeding the wrong wolf" (or, using different language, he was strengthening the wrong neural pathways). Despite a great deal of very hard and earnest work, I don't think he's had much symptom reduction, and that makes me feel bad to think about it. That's why I emphasize that if an activity doesn't make you feel better over time, then that's not a good sign.

I guess I feel that a certain amount of introspection and visiting the past is very helpful. However, at a certain point, it may be best to put the past behind us and live in the present, focusing on living authentic, joyous and meaningful lives rather than worrying about hidden psychological forces. There's only so much we can know, but at least for some TMSers, the TMS psychology just loves becoming preoccupied with one thing or another. Don't let it!

As for myself, I probably sit down to write every week or so, usually if I have an emotion or thought that I want to work through. Several years ago my girlfriend said that she wished that I was more in touch with my emotions. At roughly the same time, I started reading about the emotional brain. Somehow, as a result of those two factors, my eyes have been opened up in ways that I never would have anticipated, and writing has been a big part of that. I often use body centered techniques to help me identify emotions and try to use a mixture of thinking and feeling.

Overall, I feel like it is helping me to understand myself and live a better life. It's an example of an activity that is making me feel better over time, so I keep doing it. I almost never find a negative feeling to submerge myself in in hopes of discharging it. I find that attempting to do that generally makes me feel worse rather than better, and despite my decision to avoid that type of activity, I'm feeling quite fine, without any pain to bother me.

Bottom line: journal if you want to journal. Only you can figure out what works best for you, but that's part of the process of learning how to find equanimity and happiness throughout our entire brains (and mind-body healing always starts with the mind, so finding authentic peace is what we're all after here).