Writing is proven to be good therapy so why do so few people do it? We start journals that never get finished. We are seasonal writers that write when we are either happy or sad. We are crisis writers writing when at our lowest low or highest high. This tells me we know the value but once we get our fix we move on.
Writing constantly is very transformative and can help us make some difficult transitions. Often when we speak we don’t have the time to think. We really should think first, but it’s a lot easier to write calmly about things than to speak calmly and the effect of writing soon permeates our everyday lives.
Recently, talking to my son’s kindergarten teacher, we decided to introduce an emotions journal for my son. He is having trouble expressing his anger appropriately and so needs a tool that helps get all the stuff in his head out. How comforting to know he is normal. Children feel more and they don’t know what to do with those feelings. Their feelings are uncensored with the common sense and rules of society that we learn as we grow. Their feelings are unfiltered and can be extremely overwhelming.
I think it is so healthy to stay in touch with those feelings. That’s what tells us what gives us joy, fear, anger, remorse or love. When we listen to our feelings we are able to make better decisions on what we want to do, with whom and why. We naturally drift to those things we love sometimes without having a good idea why, now we wouldn’t have to guess.
There is also a lot to be said for uncensored writing. There are very few people we can tell absolutely everything we feel. This is with good reason. It spares us from having to share things that are too painful or we just don’t know what to do with and it keeps us in healthy relationships where we don’t always dominate the conversation. We all know people that are like that, caught up in their own problems and just saying everything that pops into their head, they are not very fun to be around. When you write you can absolutely be yourself. When I used to write in my journal I would sensor it because I was afraid maybe someone would read it. I don’t even bother with that. If someone reads it, I guess there was something in there they really needed to know. Now I just write!
So what to call my boys new journal. Initially I liked the idea of a “Happiness Journal” but that would negate all the other unhappy feelings. Those feelings are not wrong, they are just not happy. Maybe “My Emotions Journal”. Dry but captures the essence of what we are trying to get to. What would you call it?
