Growing through Reflection and Exploration: How Journaling Has Impacted Me
I frequently catch myself feeling like I should have it all together yet at the same time feel like I can't keep my head above water. Sometimes I know I'm struggling, but can’t find work through the clutter in my mind to be able to solve how I'm feeling. Do you ever feel this way?
For starters, you don't have to have all the answers. BUT feeling behind and stressed out is a good warning it may be time to get curious and do a little self-exploration.
Journaling has the potential to help us get curious about what we think, feel, and believe. It gives us the space to write down our thoughts, read them back, and evaluate if we really believe them to be true.
Journaling can also help us access our emotions. It can allow us to process life during difficult seasons where we might lean towards brushing difficulties under the rug and moving on without putting words or feelings to them. Jesus experienced anger, sadness, joy, delight, peace, betrayal, fear, and many other emotions. Emotions are a good thing, but being able to journal through our emotions and name them is even better.
I’ve heard the analogy that emotions are like a check engine light, prompting you to gather information on why that emotion is surfacing. Think of it like getting a warning signal that something is going on beneath the surface so you can evaluate further.
In my own life, I have found several major buckets of journaling: thoughts, emotions, scripture, prayers, and gratitude.
To answer the question why I journal: I’ve spent time reading past fears, prayers, and desires in my journal and was able to see how God answered them or didn't answer them, or sometimes answered them differently than I expected. If you journal and haven’t done this, I encourage you to go back through your previous entries and spend time in reflection remembering past entries. Journaling is an incredible way to remind ourselves of how God has spoken to us in the past and how faithful he’s been. There is something special about seeing it in our own lives. Countless times in Scripture, God reminds his people to write something down so they can remember it later (Jeremiah 30:2; Isaiah 30:8; Revelation 1:11; Habakkuk 2:2). What sage counsel!
“I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive to need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; We write in order to understand.”
-C.S. Lewis
“I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write.”
- St. Augustine