Journaling is an amazing tool to help you process your emotions that fosters mental health, self-esteem and can even increase your intuition.
But sometimes when you sit down to a blank page, especially if you’re in the midst of experiencing intense emotions, you might not know where to start or how you can use the power of journaling to help bring you relief.
So today we’re sharing 3 easy journaling techniques that can change your life as an empath!
They’ll help you learn how to access and release your stored emotions, find presence and calm when you’re overwhelmed or spinning out, and bring yourself to a place of clarity so you can make more empowering choices going forward.
3 Simple Journaling Techniques
Mind Dump
This is a journaling technique that helps bring awareness to your thoughts and emotions and can help you find clarity through all the overwhelm and confusion. When you feel restless, like you can’t focus or don’t know what to do, this is a great tool to use.
Simply sit down to a blank page and start writing out every single thought that’s floating around in your mind. Get it alllllllll out.
You can try setting a timer where you’ll write as much as possible in a certain amount of time, say 10 minutes, or write until you fill-up the front and back of one page, or if you’re really swimming in confusion, just write write write til there are no thoughts left in there.
This act works because you’re taking the lightning-fast flashes of thought that are endlessly occurring in your mind and slowing them down, making them real, seeing them in front of you.
This helps you get distance from the emotional reactions that each thought evokes and it can quite literally clear your mind to the point where you have agency to then choose what you want to think about, rather than being pushed and pulled by the endless automatic cyclical thinking.
Break the Cycle
When you find your mind becoming fixated on one thing, like something you’re struggling with, something you have to fix or attend to, something you’re worried or wondering about, this can easily put you into anxiety or fear mode as you’re not present, you’re living in your head during those moments.
To pull yourself out of these cyclical, spiraling thoughts that can easily pull you down, here are some ways to journal yourself out of it and break the cycle while it’s happening.
- Focus on your 5 physical senses and write down 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can taste, right now.
Get in touch with your present moment experience, right here. - Write down 5-10 seemingly impossible things. Imagine some preposterous and silly things like a moose rollerskating championship, flying to the moon on a flower, or teleporting to the Galapagos to ride on the back of a 100-year-old tortoise.
Anything you can think of, the more absurd the better, write 5-10 impossible things down until you feel more centered and present. This will help you get your mind out of the cycle of whatever it’s obsessing about, will open up your imagination, and may even make you laugh! - Make a happy list, of 10-20 things (or even more if you want to keep going) that make you happy. Think simple, everyday treasures, like sunshine and smiles and delicious food and the things that always make you feel good, people and pets that you love, favorite things about life.
This can help break you out of a negative mindset and remind you of all the good things you can appreciate about right now.
Self-Reflection
The most common journaling technique is to reflect on your day and your experiences to be able to remember them, but when you can do this in a guided and intentional way, you can add some oomph to this journaling technique’s ability to help you understand who you are better.
This is a great practice to do at the end of the day to help you release any pent-up emotional energy and stress, and help you wake up the next morning feeling more clear and intentional about the kind of day you want to create for yourself.
This is the type of journaling that can help you notice habits and patterns that need to go, that can bring awareness to the things in your life that need to change or be revamped, so you can feel brighter and better each day!
For this, here are some great self-reflection questions to ask yourself at the end of each day:
- What drained my energy?
- What made me feel really good?
- What’s something I learned?
- What made me feel valuable and purposeful?
- What am I feeling grateful for?
These questions, when answered consistently overtime, will give you so much insight into who you are, what you want and need to feel happy, and what your true priorities and passions are so you can begin to cut out or change the things that are consistently dragging you down or making you feel bad, and put more energy into the kind of life you deserve for yourself!