Start with an intention but then let it go

Whatever reasons you have for writing in your journal, you can get more out of the experience if you start with an Intention and then let it go. Determine what you hope to gain from journaling but don’t be concerned with the results. Write your intention down on the first page of your journal, if you like, but then place the goal in the back of your mind. Don’t worry about how you’re going to achieve it.

Try to tap into the power of the subconscious mind. Scientists do this when the work on a complex problem. The cure for Alzheimer’s is so huge that they cannot attack the problem in its entirety. They break it down into small, tiny subjects that they can work on. Gradually the small answers start to add up, and eventually something clicks. They have eureka moments when their minds seem to hand them a solution. The mind relegates a good deal of high-level, sophisticated thinking to what is called the adaptive unconscious, which does an excellent job of sizing up the world, assessing danger, or initiating action.

• Get comfy, relax. You may want to devise a ritual to help set the mood. Light a candle, make a cup of green tea, wear your favorite slippers. You may also want to go to a unique place away from work or home such as a library. Or if you write at home make one room look different with colored light bulbs or a special throw.
• Find a private spot. You may want to destroy or hide what you have written. It is enough to deal with your own emotional upheavals. You don’t need anyone else judging you or being offended by what you write.
• Date the entries.
• Write regularly. Each of you will define how often you need to write for yourselves. It doesn’t have to mean every day. Maybe you only want to write once a week. Maybe you want to write every day for four days, for at least 20 minutes, the way Dr. Pennebaker suggests, and then not come back to your journal until you feel the need to.
• Don’t edit as you go. Don’t overanalyze. Go with the flow. Whatever you write will be fine. Studies show that the education or writing ability made no difference in the therapeutic benefits of writing.

Challenge Your Own Identity

Journaling is one way to become more aware of the joy and mystery of life. Get comfy, relax. You may want to devise a ritual to help set the mood. Light a candle, make a cup of green tea, or wear your favorite slippers. You may also want to go to a unique place away from work or home such as a library.

It is best to find a private spot. You may want to destroy or hide what you have written. It is enough to deal with your own emotional upheavals. You don’t need anyone else judging you or being offended by what you write. It is not necessary to show what you write to anyone to receive the health benefits of journaling.

Writing privately is a good way to explore what is at the center of your life. Write for twenty minutes about your sense of who you are. Begin with the phrase “I am…” For example: I am a person who loves children. I am often happy. I am sometimes frightened. I am confused about my work. I am strong…etc. Feel free to change the sentence structure and follow any line of thought. Without censoring or judging the sentences, simple keep writing continuously for at least twenty minutes. If you feel like going longer, feel free to continue.

Notice what you wrote. Notice what you feel when you read it. Are there certain themes, things that repeat? What predominant impression do you come away with? …Which sentences seem most troubling? Which seem most accurate?

Which phrase seemed most important? Tomorrow or the next time you write in your journal, spend a while reflecting on this single element, the one that felt the most powerful when you wrote it. Become aware of what it may want to reveal to you.

A Magic Pen

There are an infinite number of reasons for keeping a journal. The act of writing makes you more aware and helps you pay attention to details you would otherwise miss. Paper and pen provide you with a vehicle to bring actions and feelings into the open.

• Writing increases understanding and insight, reduces stress and enhances a healthy lifestyle.
• Writing is deliberate, and rewriting journal entries to create a coherent story or gain insight produces health benefits.
• Writing is therapeutic when it allows you to experience your emotions.
• Writing can be as permanent as desired. When study participants expanded their stories to include positive emotion words, it predicted better health in the upcoming months.
• Because writing is more complex than talking, people retain more.
• Writing promotes self-awareness, free from outside influences. It allows you to reconcile events in ways you can be comfortable with.

Use the Mind to Heal the Body

We cannot control emotional responses, and we shouldn’t try. Emotions are not a question of right or wrong — they just happen. Picture this: You are strolling down a quiet street, enjoying the sunshine. You pass a picket fence. All of a sudden a dog charges the fence, teeth bared. It jumps and almost clears the top. Your heart leaps in your chest and you shudder away from his angry bark. If you had a bad previous experience with a dog, the fear may be paralyzing, not really connected to the current situation.

Fear is not always rational. It depends on one’s coping skills and life experience. Each and every feeling translates itself into a complex set of chemical triggers that cause neurons to fire. Even healthy, well-adjusted people are subject to daily assaults, which make it much harder for the mind to be productive. Stress hormones make us more susceptible to illness, but we cannot reconstruct our lives or undo physiological changes that happen automatically. We can, however, lessen the long-term harm with a variety of relaxation techniques.

Thousands of self-help methods are available. No one system is right for everyone, but researchers have shown that journaling has some surprising health benefits. Putting a bad experience into words by writing it down has a way of telling the unconscious emotional channels that we have dealt with that issue and can move on. The mind can undo the effects stressful situations have on the body.

Who, Me?

Each of us has a different idea of happiness. Each of us has certain items that speak to us as a token of fulfillment. Sometimes we are so busy that we overlook treating ourselves symbolically in way that match our accomplishments. Take a piece of paper and number the page from 1 to 25. List 25 things that represent contentment to you. Don’t take the time to rank them in any order of importance; just capture the first 25 things that come to mind. For example:

1. Green tea
2. Extra pillows on the bed
3. Toys for the children who visit
4. Family photos
5. An herb garden that attracts butterflies, and so forth...

Once you have your own list, review it and select something that you can use to celebrate contentment. Choose something that has special meaning to you, because it reminds you of an experience or time in your life that was happy. It can be an object, color, texture, view. In your journal describe this item in specific detail. How it looks, feels, reassures you. Find out why it comforts you. Write about this special item's history. Speak quietly to this private symbol of contentment.

Then whenever you encounter this item in real life, you will be reminded of life's rewards. Or when you are under stress, you can visualize the symbol and draw on its power to bring contentment back into your life.