Sunday, September 22, 2013

Journaling Self Help for Busy People



When you think of self help you might picture groups of people who require urgent stress self help, self-help for depression, or anxiety self help. A self-help group may be incredibly helpful to you, and there is no need to feel embarrassed or wrong if you feel down or stressed and in need of assistance. After all, asking for help is an important sign of strength.

Self-help and recovery are important aspects of everyday life. You can actually apply small self-help techniques to help you to cope more effectively with whatever life throws at you at any given time.

An important avenue for self-help is journaling. Whether you journal on a scrap of paper or into a notebook or beautiful journal is irrelevant. What really matters is your total absorption in the moment. Writing in a journal can be your time to heal. Give yourself permission to just let go and absorb the moment. Allow yourself to feel, dream, think, create, and feel lost in the moment. Since you’re journaling only for yourself, you can ignore spelling, grammar, or propriety. For example, you can “say” things to a person in a journal that you could not say face to face.

Wake up your inner child. Can you still remember how you absorbed the world when you were little? As it happens, many busy people lose their ability to relax because of all the demands placed on them. Be it because of ever-growing pressures of responsibility or a total feeling of being overwhelmed, you can take charge of your life by journaling as self help therapy. Kathleen Adams, author of Journal to the Self calls journaling “The 79 cent therapist.” And if you do decide to work with a therapist or life coach, your journal will be an important tool to enhance the new life you’re learning.