Day 6 Journaling

Hello all,

Question with journaling. How should I do it?

My hand starts to hurt after 5 minutes of intense writing (this just happens when I write at a furious pace) and I find myself getting angry at the fact that I need to journal.

Instead of capturing everything as a random stream of consciousness, I was hoping to spend less time writing and more time, just thinking, pausing, contemplating and THEN writing. Rinse and repeat this process over the 15-20 minutes.

Advice?


Johnny

 

As Dr. David Clarke says in "They Can't Find Anything Wrong" ...writing, even more than speaking, has a way of revealing thoughts and emotions people did not suspect they had.

Recently I wrote about a situation with a friend in which I was very angry. i have been "thinking" about it for weeks. I knew I was angry. So I thought ...I need to journal about this. Wow, I had no clue I was absolutely furious with her. I did not realize the magnitude of the anger until I wrote about the situation. Then I noticed an easing of pain...a releasing of tightness.

Are you being your "most severest critic" with this assignment? Is your need to do it perfectly sabatoging your success? Are your furious with yourself for being in this fix?

 

Hi Johnny,

I don't think there's a right way to journal--see what works for you. What worked best for me was just free-writing for 10 - 20 minutes about whatever I thought might be bothering me. I did that for a few weeks and then moved into just thinking about what could be bothering me/sitting with my feelings/talking to people here/talking to my therapist.

I also had the experience of having an increase in pain when I would start to write and I just wrote as best I could and the pain would fade out.

 

Hi Johnny
I have been journaling off and on for many years as suggested therapy for various issues. This program has actually broadened my journaling "horizons" because I never knew of any technique other than the free-write. I was always told, "just sit down in a quite place with some paper and a pen and write whatever comes into your head" which was great advice and very helpful. I have benefited from the unsent letter technique that I've learned here (a tip I have passed on to my sister as well) but I really struggle with the dialog...I cannot seem to make my brain generate someone else's responses. I have tried to write faster than I normally do as the instructions suggested, but my hand cramps terrible. I find myself having to stop frequently to "shake out" my hand, which causes my train of thought to completely de-rail. I've given myself permission to slow down and write at a pace that is comfortable for me and you might want to think about doing the same. I told myself it was ok, that of all the things I could add to my "current stressor" list, journaling wasn't high on my list. I don't want to even think that I'm going to come upon an assignment one day where I have to journal about journaling!

 

Johnny, why do you get angry that journaling is a necessary release for some? Perhaps explore that.

I found it to be very helpful for processing feelings and changing my perspective on things so I could come into more balance about situations--both past and present. There were times where journaling on paper wasn't an option, say I was fuming about something as I was driving. I would do it out loud in the car. It felt good.

I always suggest ending journaling on a positive note--Even something as simple as "I'm ready to heal this past experience/hurt/etc." is healing for the brain to hear.

Best wishes!

 

Hi all,

I'm coming back to doing the exercises after having some time off.

I think I'm finding myself completing the exercises under self imposed duress... I feel I need to rush and do things as efficiently as possible rather than take the time to properly integrate what I'm doing. I think that this is some kind of psychological mechanism that is likely a large source of my anxiety and I am noting down my feelings towards this.

Will keep you posted how things go.

Cherio for now,

Johnny

 

Hi Johnny,

TMS personality comes up when recovering from TMS too...feeling like you have to read all the books, journal a certain way, etc. There is no right way. Different things work for different people. Just try one thing at a time, take your time, and be nice to yourself.

Take care.