Most treatment centers will offer you a composition book or journal of some kind. If they don’t provide a journal, they will recommend that you bring a journal, or a few, and utilize it every day. Journaling is an important part of the recovery journey and can support you every step of the way. From the beginning of your journey to years later into your journey, you’ll be able to see how much you have grown, transformed, and evolved. In the present moment, you’ll find that journaling is cathartic and therapeutic.
Journaling helps you process
The day to day life of treatment is busy as you hop from one therapy type to the next. In each group, class, or activity, you are gaining insight and wisdom about yourself, your trauma, or life in general. You cannot possibly process all of it at once, let alone the feelings you are experiencing as you go along. Journaling can act as private you time where you can write down your thoughts, feelings, questions, fears, insights, lessons you learned, and whatever else comes to mind. As you write, you’ll frequently find that you’re processing in real time as well. You might find yourself struck by a realization and change the course of your writing right away.
Journaling helps you grieve
James Pennebaker is a leading researcher on the therapeutic benefits of journaling. In on of his famous studies, he had a group of students spend time each day writing specifically about a negative event in their and another group just write about their day. Students who wrote about a challenging time were able to go through the course of grief about that life experience and come out the other side with significantly less stress. Journaling can be storytelling. You can tell the story of whatever part of your life that you need to, without anybody’s eyes needing to participate. As a result, you are free to tell the stories of your life the way you need to without fear of interference, judgment, or criticism. You can grieve these moments, own them, and release them.
Journaling helps you wind down
Treatment can be exhausting. Your mind, body, and spirit are resting for the first time and also working hard during all of the therapy throughout the day. Though you are fatigued by the end of the day, your mind might be running. A common symptom of trauma is hypervigilance or overstimulation. Journaling can help you slow things down, focus on taking deep breaths, and work through whatever is going on in your mind. You might find that you relax as you journal. If you journal in the morning, you’ll have a clear head to start the day. If you journal at night, you’ll have a clear head to finish the day.
Everyone has a story. Your story can change with treatment and recovery. At The Guest House Ocala, we offer concierge treatment programs, custom designing every plan of care to your specific experiences and needs. Call us today for information on our treatment programs for trauma, addictions, and other related mental health issues: 1-855-483-7800