Tip #9 - Journal writing is a way to better understand yourself.
Self-exploration requires digging into past events, relationships, and emotions. When you go back and read your journals, you see patterns in your life—some beneficial and others detrimental. If you can recognize negative patterns, you are then able to make the required changes—that is if you are ready to do so. Self awareness can move you in a positive direction, making adjustments so that you avoid the same hurdles you've repeatedly jumped over in previous years. This provides an understanding of why you behave the way you do or why you keep using the same strategies and expecting different results. (Didn't someone say that is the definition of insanity?)
Writing helps you process emotions and the why for making decisions. Understanding the why associated with your emotions and behaviors and recognizing patterns can potentially free you from insanity, so get sane! Search for the negative patterns that persist then resolve to make the needed correction(s). Write out a plan and follow it. Good luck.
Writing Exercise:
Think of one moment in your life or a person who may have been instrumental, purposely or not, in changing how you felt about yourself, the path you chose, or a decision you made.
- What changed in how you felt about yourself and why?
- Why did you make the choice to go down that particular path? Were there other alternatives you had considered?
- Do you have any regrets? Why or why not?
- Can you imagine what your life may have been like if you had chose differently? Is that even a question worth considering?
Please email me at deborah@deborahludwig.com or leave a comment should you wish to share any of your writing with me. I may use it in a future post, with permission of course.
