Recovery And Wellness Through Journaling

Most people keep some form of a journal to keep tabs on their life- whether a sketchbook or a diary, or even a goals chart or a concert ticket album. The Livejournal fad in particular introduced hundreds of thousands of people to Weblogging. Far from just a pastime, however, journaling can be a fantastic motivational tool. In the past decade, journaling has emerged as a powerful method of self-assistance and healing. Journaling helps you see where you are and where you’ve been and stay on track to accomplish your goals in life. Whether suffering from emotional or physical trauma, or serious health problems such as mesothelioma or other cancers, those who after their initial prognosis keep a regular journal are far more likely to feel able to act on their desires to improve their lives, to set goals and work to attain them.

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Finding Out Where You Are

Journaling is a highly effective tool for externalizing and organizing your thoughts, both positive and negative. According to doctors Karen A. Baikie and Kay Wilhelm, writing regularly about important issues provides significant benefits tied to resolving dilemmas and developing adaptive thinking. When you express your thoughts through journaling, you are forcing your brain to assess both hopes and doubts objectively. Your mind has to arrange your ideas into a narrative structure; the very act of writing down your thoughts can help you prioritize your goals and confront challenges. For some, rethinking their negativity and attempting to express their thoughts in a constructive manner has improved their overall sense of personal ability.

Getting Things Done

Keeping a journal helps you track your progress towards attaining goals, both in the sense of recovery, and in improving your productivity and quality of life. Being able to look back on past accomplishments encourages future ambitions. In addition, a regularly updated journal is a reminder of what you’d like to get done, and a means of providing yourself with the motivation to follow through on your wishes.

Sharing Your Progress

Keeping a “blog” instead of or in addition to a personal journal has the added benefit of providing a public place where your ideas, needs, goals and successes can be shared with an online community. Blogs allow friends, family and fellow sufferers a window on your thoughts and the chance to offer insight and support during your recovery process. This is not to say that everything has to be out in the open: Privacy locks on blog posts allow users to keep their personal ideas to themselves. The undeniable benefit of maintaining an online journal, however, is that by extending your thoughts to a public space you are allowing the possibility of reinforcing your aspirations and achievements, and those of others that share in your goals.

Melanie Bowen

[http://mesothelioma.com/blog]