Journaling plays an essential role in promoting emotional and mental well-being. As a part of a holistic lifestyle, considering all attributes of human health, it enables emotional processing, ultimately enhancing personal growth, reducing stress, and increasing overall life gratification– but how does journaling form a holistic lifestyle?
A holistic lifestyle can heal your body and mind with positive habits and natural activities. To further solidify the benefits of journaling, there are medical claims affirming its positive impact on anxiety and depression: two things that, unfortunately, I've had the displeasure of experiencing. Through journaling, I found an immense amount of healing and relief. Thus, in this essay, I will talk about what journaling is, its holistic benefits, and how journaling has changed my life.
To begin with, journaling was introduced to psychotherapy by psychologist Ira Progoff in the 1960s, and it has been proven to be an effective therapeutic tool (psychologytoday.com). It is a way to write your thoughts onto paper, allowing you to step back, read, and find possible solutions. Not only does journaling serve as a map of your mind, but it gives you the non-judgmental privacy that you need when looking to unpack heavy emotions.
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you" - Maya Angelou
Anxiety and depression are two emotional/mental disorders that take a toll on a person’s life. It can cripple the ability to perform daily routines, even drive individuals to take their own life.
So how does journaling help cope with such agonizing disorders?
A way anxiety and depression manifest is by bombarding your brain with what psychologists call intrusive thoughts. Intrusive thoughts are “ideas and images that come to mind uninvited and typically unwanted” (Nebraska Health). They are highly distressing as they attach themselves to your fears and values. Journaling has proven effective for treating clients experiencing anxiety, possibly because of an improved acceptance of negative emotions and healthier response to stress (Balkie and Wilhem, 2005 | positivepsychology.com).
Let's say you have a fear of public speaking, and you have a class presentation coming up. You can’t stop thinking about all the things that can go wrong, dealing with recurring images of failure. Journaling offers you a way to diffuse and detach from these thoughts by writing down what's on your mind.
Dr. Kersten Pilz, a renowned professor with a PhD in literature and yoga instructor, references her own struggles: “I was in free fall and writing gave me a sense of being able to hold on to the pieces of myself as I was falling apart” (The Healing Power of Writing). Journaling was her holistic approach to coping with her depression. As a result, it gave her control over her emotions, liberating her from the hellish depression descending upon her and allowing her to bloom into the successful woman she is today.
Similar to Pilz, my children and I had our own experiences with depression. It was the early morning of January 18th, 2020. I was awakened by my youngest son, who told me, “Mommy! Daddy is sleeping on the kitchen floor!” I immediately sprung out of bed and ran to the kitchen, only to find the lifeless body of my husband on the floor.
He passed from suffocation due to a severe asthma attack.
Nobody imagined that he would pass so suddenly. He was only 33 at the time, and we were the proud parents of three wonderful kids. I’d never been in a situation where I struggled to get a hold on my mental health before, yet I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression. The shock was soul-shattering, and to further add to the tsunami of grief, March 13th, 2020, was the day that the COVID-19 Pandemic made its debut in the United States.
Imagine having lost your husband, dealing with your children’s pain, the stress of trying to hold yourself together, and then boom! You're hit with a pandemic. Sometimes, the grieving was so intense that it would feel like I was only physically present. The feelings can be so
painful and constantly overwhelming that grief can come in waves, seeming to fade in intensity for a while before returning (healthdirect.gov).
Consequently, my children and I turned to therapy to help us cope with everything (thank God for video sessions!). One of the first things our therapist recommended was a journal.
I thought to myself, “A journal?” I thought it was dumb, but once I started, I would feel so much lighter.
My children felt an enormous difference as well. We wrote letters to my husband, telling him what was in our hearts. With time, we were able to close that chapter and remember him for who he was and not for what happened to him.
The letters and the journal were lifesavers for my family. Journaling helped heal a great deal of pain in our hearts. “Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury” (Fifthelementoflife.com|Julia Cameron).
Overall, there is no denying the essential role that journaling plays in a holistic lifestyle. The captivating thing about journaling is that there are no rules! It's all about unpacking your heart and mind so that life becomes a little easier. It not only allows you to process your emotions, reducing your stress, but also gives you gratitude as you read your story and bear witness to how you've grown. Journaling truly is a holistic powerhouse!
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