Journaling and expressive writing are powerful activities that can help you strengthen your connection to yourself in addiction recovery. Journaling can help you process emotions and release negative energy. It can also help you set positive goals and reinforce your drive to find lasting sobriety.
Benefits of Journaling
Journaling can help you focus on the present moment instead of letting your mind wander with negative thoughts that bring you down. This tool can also be used to help you heal from traumatic events and explore the root causes of your addiction.
According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), expressive writing, like journaling, has been found to produce “significant benefits for individuals with a variety of medical conditions.” This therapeutic form of writing can help you process upsetting and traumatic events by bringing stuck emotions out of your mind and onto paper.
Journaling For Addiction Recovery
A 2015 study in Substance Abuse sought to research the effects of therapeutic writing on drug-dependent women who have experienced trauma. It found that expressive writing participants “showed greater reductions in post-traumatic symptom severity, depression, and anxiety scores.”
If you’re in addiction recovery, you are probably no stranger to negative feelings about yourself. A therapeutic writing practice can help you overcome self-sabotaging thoughts and feelings of guilt by allowing you to face them head-on Through journaling, you can also begin to develop a much more positive concept of yourself.
Your Own Therapeutic Writing Practice
There’s no right or wrong way to go about therapeutic writing. You can create your own routine and choose different journal prompts or activities depending on how you feel that day.
It’s important that you don’t judge yourself through the process, even if negative thoughts or feelings come up. Allow yourself to feel any pain, guilt, or sadness. When you’re done, always remember to celebrate yourself for doing deep work to change your life for the better.
Journal Prompts for Addiction Recovery
A great way to ease into a journaling practice is by following guided prompts. Here are some prompts you may want to consider:
- “What progress am I celebrating right now in recovery?”
- “How can I take care of myself better each day?”
- “What would an ideal day in my life look like?”
- “What thoughts, feelings, and memories are weighing me down right now? What can I release?”
- “What are my short- and long-term goals for recovery?”
Holistic Addiction Treatment
In order to experience the most benefits from journaling, it’s a good idea to incorporate other holistic remedies into your recovery journey. The Guest House offers a large variety of healing modalities like meditation, yoga, talk therapy, breathwork, and more. You can discover the programs that work best for your individual needs, allowing you to create your very own plan for long-term sobriety.
Journaling is a powerful therapeutic tool that can help you in recovery. This practice allows you to spend time with yourself, process trauma, and shift self-sabotaging thoughts. At The Guest House, we offer a large variety of healing modalities that will complement your journaling practice. From meditation to breathwork, yoga, and traditional talk therapies, you can try out the processes that work best for you and your unique needs in recovery. For more information, give us a call today at (855) 483-7800.