Journaling can be useful and fun.

When you use a journal to write thoughts and feelings that are often hard to express verbally, it allows those feelings to have a place to go instead of being trapped inside of you. If feelings are stuck inside of you, they can start to compound and anxiety can set in.

When anxiety becomes so overwhelming that you don’t know what to do with it, it can turn into depression. So when you are unable to express your feelings verbally to a friend, or to people upsetting you, a journal becomes a tool to express feelings you either cannot express out loud or choose not to express.

Writing in a journal also allows you to put things down without judgments from anyone else. You don’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing or being misunderstood. In addition, when you get your feelings out on paper it helps you get clear on the issues you may be dealing with. Expressing your feelings, then looking at what you wrote, gives you a tool to examine what is really going on inside you.

A journal can also be a place to keep ideas, poems, your possibilities, the things you are grateful for, and all sacred things.

My suggestion for keeping a journal, is first to find a journal that you love...maybe even make it yourself. Ask family members to honor your privacy by not reading it. Then start writing in it daily--just thoughts and feelings. Review what has been written regularly to see if it helps you understand yourself and the challenges in your life.

As a young girl as well as as an adult, journaling has been an important part of my life. It is like a best friend that is always there, without judgments, helping me through hard times.

Debra Beck
Author of My feet Aren’t Ugly