J – Journaling
Why consider journaling?
Journaling, writing, composing letters, or collecting images can be a helpful practice for those living with grief and trauma. Nowadays various workshops, retreats, and online classes serve as effective tools to assist people in writing their way through the darkness. The act of transferring conscious or subconscious words, feelings, and images from mind to paper may help to release internal feelings of despair, promote a sense of self-compassion, and provide a stepping stone to realize future hopes, goals, and dreams.
How does journaling promote healing?
• By reducing emotional stress
• By lowering blood pressure
• By improving heart health
• By tapping into the subconscious
• By aiding in the therapeutic growth process
Resources
Books
- Grief Quest: A Workbook & Journal to Heal the Grieving Heart by I. J. Weinstock
- On Coming Alive: Journaling Through Grief: 100 Prompts to Guide You from Darkness to Light by Lexi Behrndt
- The Unedited Heart: Letters on Loss by Monique Minahan
- Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives by Louise Desalvo
- Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from Trauma and Emotional Upheaval by James Pennebaker
Organizations
- Center for Journal Therapy: Life-based Writing for Healing, Growth, and Change – Beginning techniques, classes, conferences, resources, and links.
- Refuge in Grief: Emotionally Intelligent Grief Support – Offers a thirty-day creative writing e-course called “Writing Your Grief.”
Handy to Have at Home
- Blank journals
- Colored pens
- Illustrated Discovery Journal Materials (blank notebook, glue, magazines, scissors)
- Journal prompts (Google “Grief Journal Prompts” or “Grief Writing Starters”)
