‘Journaling is like whispering to oneself and listening at the same time.’
Mina Murray
Why is writing in a journal important?
Do you ever have those nights where you toss and turn or lie awake as a million thoughts soar through your head? The time stretches slowly and meaninglessly as you struggle to either fall asleep or return to a peaceful abyss. The day’s events flicker endlessly through your head mingling with a healthy dose of frustration. Sometimes it’s all-consuming gut-wrenching life moments that have you feeling overwhelmed, other times it’s just the endless routine of a busy life. For years I was a prisoner to this pattern of anxiety, often waking at 4 or 5am, while the world around me was still and silent.
Training in Psychotherapy and Counselling opened my eyes to these nonsensical patterns we weave. I realised that I was simply operating in a constant cycle of worry. Worrying always comes in varying forms, depending on your stress levels, but still, it lurks there underneath the surface, ready to rear its ugly head at the most opportune moments. Often most of us operate on autopilot, consistently in the flight or fight response, rather than identifying our triggers. I was one of those people. Sometimes I would worry over huge, life altering decisions or events, other times I would worry about day-to-day issues and sometimes I would even worry just for the sake of worrying. I was in a self-destructive worry loop, without even realising it!
The simple task of journaling was recommended to me as a tool to me to become more self-aware, more in cohesion with my thoughts and the issues presenting in my body. Being able to free write any thoughts that came to mind was liberating and acted almost as a reprieve from worrying. Writing in my carefully chosen journal allowed me a place to write my deepest thoughts, my silliest worries, and my happiest moments without the need to filter as we all unconscious do when we are discussing any problems or issues that arise with others. Most importantly my mental health improved. I was practicing mindfulness. Often, I write without thinking, simply penning my swirling thoughts, as fast as possible onto the page. When sufficient time has passed, I look back on journal entries, realising how far I’ve come from those worrying cycles and identifying what was really at the core of my anxiety, and how to work on or fix my problem. Journaling started as a requirement of a course I’d enrolled on but became a necessity in my life.
What is cognitive journaling?
Dr Ira Progoff’s first introduced the concept of journaling as a therapeutic mechanism in the 1960s. He envisioned journaling as a tool to analyse our emotions and behaviours, to increase our awareness and to radically undergo a cycle of healing through which we can grow and change. Journal therapy is now a fundamental concept in Psychotherapy. It allows us to take control of our own journey of psychological awareness and growth, by mentally decompressing our emotions into manageable chunks.
Cognitive journaling in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is when you free write to identify any distorted thinking or irrational thoughts. Cognitive distortions in CBT can fundamentally alter how you perceive many situations. Being able to write freely and identify your trigger will help you to move back limited or distorted thinking patterns and realise how even small, normal events can be distorted by negative thoughts.
Cognitive distortions include:
- All or nothing thinking
All or nothing thinking tends to focus on strict black or white fundamentals. It focuses on perfectionism and only thinking in extremes, veering dangerously between two opposites.
- Over generalization
Over generalisation can happen without you even realising it. After one negative experience, you can begin thinking in an always or never style mentality, for example, one negative experience with work means I can’t do that job.
- Catastrophising
Catastrophising is when you always assume the worst or are permanently in a negative thinking spiral.
- Personalisation
Personalisation is essentially paranoid thinking, when you think everyone is out to get you or trying to be mean or attack you. It usually gets worse in stressful or high anxiety moments and can be linked to both anxiety and depression.
- Labelling
Labelling is when you reduce yourself and others to a single label, for example, stupid, drug addict, irrational etc.
- Discounting the Positive
Discounting the positive always focuses on the negative and creates another cycle were someone feels constantly down, bad about themselves, anxious or depressed.
- Mind reading
Mind reading can be a dangerous distortion because it is essentially you always assuming that you know what other people are thinking, for example, “I already know that that friendship group won’t like me because they think I am ugly, worthless and a waste of space.”
- Jumping to conclusions
Another dangerous distortion is when someone refuses to listen and always jumps to conclusions or makes judgements based on little or no evidence.
- Should and must statements
Should and must statements can usually be a sign of guilt and feeling pressure to meet the expectations of those around us.
- Emotional Reasoning
Emotional reasoning is usually based on the premise of a lack of rational thinking, for example, “I feel _____ so it must be true.”
*Please see my CBT article for further exercises where you can incite positive change.
How do I break the pattern of thinking through journal writing?
Breaking distorted thinking patterns can be difficult. The most important step is to be honest with yourself. We have all at some point in our life thought negatively (at least one from the list above) or thought in a cognitively distorted way. When something happens in your life that upsets or triggers you, sit down, open your journal, and ask yourself these questions?
Ask yourself what triggered you? Why did the person/thing trigger you?
Why are you feeling these negative emotions?
Often when someone triggers us consciously or unconsciously, it is the Universe encouraging us to use the trigger as a learning opportunity. Sit down, take a deep breath, and write about how the person or thing triggered you.
What came up for you? Did the person/thing hit a nerve? Why? What do you need to work on to work through this upset or trigger?
Usually when we are triggered, we are sensitive about this issue and being triggered by it is the Universe’s way of gently telling you to work through it. Once you work through it, you will feel lighter and more able to deal with any other issues positive or negative that arise in our daily lives.
So, I encourage anyone who wants to make a positive change in their life to take up journaling. It doesn’t have to become a chain around your neck either. Write when you feel you need to, in good times and in bad. I write sporadically. Sometimes weeks or months will go by, and I won’t write in my journal, other times I write daily. Do what suits you but I promise if you try it, you will find you will feel happier, healthier, and more at peace with yourself and the world around you.
Below are my top tips for journal writing:
- Choose a notebook that speaks to you or that puts a smile on your face. This is going to be the place you write your deepest thoughts so have fun with choosing your journal.
- Always write in a safe, private space. Your journal is for you and you alone. You can write far more freely when you aren’t worried about any of your family or friends reading your thoughts.
- Write when it suits you. Don’t organise a schedule or make it laborious for yourself, for example, its 6.00am for me right now. Everyone in my house is sound asleep but I feel like writing, so I’m up enjoying the sunrise and writing in my journal.
- Don’t berate yourself for having negative thoughts. Its normal to have both positive and negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are simply thoughts that need to be processed and worked through. We all have them. Feel them, surrender to them when you are going through them and then pick yourself up and work through them.
So, if my article resonated with you, please try some of these ideas to get you started on your journal:
- Simply take a deep breath, clear your mind, and free write! It will surprise you how freeing it is and what will come up for you in your writing.
- Write about a current challenge, worry or anxiety you have and what the possible solutions could be that would ease your mind.
- Write about someone important to you – appreciate and be grateful for them!
- Write about you. Seek to know yourself (and this is where free writing helps!), write about your biggest dreams, your deepest longings, and your fears about yourself.
The most important thing about positively healing your triggers, anxiety and worry cycles is to be happy with yourself. Accept yourself, flaws, and all. The flaws you see in yourself are probably traits other people admire in you and vice versa. Be kind to yourself, we all have good and bad days. We all work through distorted thinking patterns. Be proud of yourself for making the step to positive change by cognitively journaling!
References
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash