Writing Provides Excellent Self-Therapy
Posted by Sylvia on March 30th, 2007
Our thoughts can contribute significantly to our level of stress and anxiety. One solution is to get into the habit of writing down whatever is troubling you. This will help tremendously to ease your anxiety and prevent a full-blown anxiety or panic attack.
Many people swear by this method for several reasons:
- It enables them to get off their chest whatever is troubling them.
- Once the issues are on paper, it lessens the urgency surrounding them.
- It provides an opportunity to ‘vent’ their feelings and air their concerns in an environment where they will not be judged.
By keeping a journal of daily thoughts and feelings, in a sense you are being your own therapist. It’s not unlike talking to a counsellor to get feedback. In fact, this is just how a therapist works. He or she will make you look inside and answer your own questions.
The key is to take the time afterwards to go back through your journal and read what you’ve entered. This will put a whole new light onto the issues that had caused you so much distress at the time you wrote those entries.
Often, you’ll realize the things that bothered you weren’t all that important. They might have seemed important at the time, but in retrospect, you’ll find that the issues weren’t quite as dire as you thought. You truly will see them in a new light.
Getting those thoughts down on paper gets them out of your head so you can unscramble them. This is when the resolutions can begin.
Find a safe place for your journal so you won’t have to worry about other people seeing it. Then you won’t have to be afraid to let it all out. Write about everything – from the issue you’re facing to your emotional response and how you feel about it. Think about whether it makes you anxious, depressed or stressed.
The point is, don’t just write and put it away. Come back to it at a later time and read it. Evaluate your condition at the time you wrote it and how important it really is now, compared to how important you thought it was back then.
Realize that whatever you’re feeling about a situation, whether you’re anxious or panicked, when you’ve calmed down you will understand that things are never as bad as they seem.
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