How to Use Journaling to Heal Your Life

Journaling is a tool that I've used pretty much my entire life; it’s just something that I was intuitively drawn to at a young age. I’ve used it to heal my emotions, to create awareness of my thoughts, and to help improve my communication with relationships and loved ones over the years.

That said, I want to share with you my process and hopefully, it can help you create some self-awareness and help move you into a better place as well.

Why journal?

Journaling is a perfect way to make sense of things when your mind is overflowing with rambling thoughts. Usually, I journal when I'm really stressed out, overwhelmed, or maybe there are things that you need to get off your chest.

Journaling tips

When journaling, don’t think about whether the words make sense. It doesn't matter. If your thoughts are jumping all over the place, then write them as they come and be really specific. Once you do that, let it go and sleep on it. Give yourself some time, then once ready, reread it with a fresh pair of eyes.

As you look back on what you read, the thoughts that are happening in your head can give you a lot of insight into who you are and how you react to things, allowing you to do some self-analysis.

How journaling heals

Journaling allows you to look back at the things you have internalized into paper. It allows you to get perspective. It makes you think certain things about you such as: Are you taking things personally? Are you making assumptions about what that situation meant to you? And so on.

When you go back and look at the situation, maybe you didn't ask enough questions, maybe you assume someone was thinking or feeling something. That’s when you can really open up that line of communication. The more you get things out, the more you can better understand where you're coming from and the more you can communicate your own feelings in the future.