Does Anyone Journal/Write?

babygetoboy · Newbie

Does Anyone Journal/Write?

Raman · Guru

Hi,,,,
my motto is
WRITE,WRITE,WRITE,,,
ive done it almost each and every day of my life since I first got clean,,,,
I do it till this day !!!
IT WORKS !!!

babygetoboy · Newbie

What do you write about ? do you just do it at night before bed?

we can · Senior Member

I feel like a bit of a hipocrit answering this post, my own journaling has been lacking. Maybe doing this will remind me of why journaling is so important.
When I first came into recovery it was suggested that I journal, so at the end of each day I would sit and write about my day. What ever might have happened that day how I reacted to it , how I truly felt inside about it. Some days I just wrote dam I hurt so much how am I ever going to do this! I wrote about things I learned at the meetings and how maybe I could use those ideas to help me. The most important thing I learned in treetment was to end my journaling with possative affermations, things like: I am a good person, I am lovable, I am worth this journey. All these things replaced the negative stuff I had been telling myself for years, slowly I began to beleave what I was writting.
The value I get out of writting is, that when I put my feelings down on paper I can no longer denie them they become real and are there for me to face, good or bad. Addiction is a disease of emotions and if we are to get better we have to learn to face our feelings and deal with them rather then numbing them with drugs.
Also it's real encouraging to look back and see how much I have changed by reading my old journal enterys, I am bad at seeing my own growth so when it's in writing I am able to see for my self. It's like hey I thought it was the end of the world that day and looking back it seams so small now, or seeing what I got through clean when I'm having a hard time is encouraging for me to know that this too shall pass and I can do it with out geting high.
I hope this helped you, I know it helped me... I need to get back to my journal it is an amazing tool for my recovery.

BigV · Senior Member

I don't write everyday but I have written alot on this board and spewed crap out that was bothering me and also the good things that are going on, I try to translate to others here how this is working for me and it all has to do with writing and expression.

Sometimes I write in my head, I make lists and do inventorys, I THINK about how I used to be and how I can change that person today, what can I do different , what am I doing now? I make lists just like on paper but up in my visual brain.

I think that writing also helps you to have someplace to put everything thats going on rather then holding it all inside, alot of us myself especially get overwhelmed very easily, sometimes it seems like thing start getting heavy and the presure builds up inside , writing is a good outlet look at it that way.

jjj · Member

Journalling is an awesome way to get to know yourself. The trick is letting your thoughts go, to the point where you are not feeling like someone is 'looking over your shoulder'. They're not!! It's just you, having a ocnversation with yourself. Writing can be very validating. It can also show us how our own thinking is peculiar, when we read what we've written.

I keep an ongoing journal on my computer. I don't add to it every day, but I do try to write in both good times and bad. Every so often I look back and can see how my biggest problems of the 'moment' were really not worth worrying about in the way that I tend to. It helps me keep tihngs in perspective.

Journalling has also given me a great tool, for when I am feeling exceptionally ungrateful, to go back and see just how much I have changed per my HP, and it really helps me to have more hope for today. I often forget just how worked up I have gotten over little bumps in the road... looking back helps me to keep everything in it's proper size.

One more bonus I will mention, is that I began to LIKE myself more and more, the more I journalled. This girl wasn't so bad, and I can easily see that I haven't ALWAYS been wrong, nor have I ALWAYS been right about things. It is a good step toward the humility of knowing exactly who I am, nothing more, nothing less.
Great tool, and I hope you use it on the journey!!

Take care,
jjj

Raman · Guru

well,,,,interesting shares here !!!
as for me i do a bit of writing each day ,,, especially at nite,,, but any time will do..
the important thing is to write at least 20 minutes,,,,it works for me,,
i do what i call
""""TOP OF THE MIND

Tahir · Member

babygetoboy wrote:
Hi again everyone, thanks for the responses on the first post I made.
My question now is, does anyone journal/write regularly? Not step work writing, but just like journaling.
A lot of the guys at meetings were saying that they do it everynight and they think it helps, I've never been a writer so I really don't know what to do or what to write about or where to start.
Just seeing if anyone does and if they had any hints to start, like what they write about etc....

Thanks again, and great forum

Greetings babygetoboy,

We don't have to be writers to write a journal. Whatever we feel like writing, in whichever way we can, in our own words, is what an inventory is all about. It doesn't have to be poetic or long or professional, as we write a journal only for ourselves. Those insights about ourselves that we cannot get by thinking about it or talking about it, can only be got when we write. Many times, I had been amazed by what came out from within me while my pen was flowing on the paper (well, nowadays, it's more like my fingers flowing on the keyboard

)

A good way to start writing everyday, at the end of the day, is about how the day went for me, what were my thoughts and feelings, about my behavior, the people and the situations that I encountered thru the day, what was it that I did not like about myself today and what was it that I was happy about myself today, just to know where I stand today, in terms of recovery and personal growth, to get in touch with my defects and my virtues, where I can change even better and so on...

In this context, you might want to follow the NA Daily Journal "Living The Program" that gives you a very simple, yet powerful format for self-introspection. The link is

http://na.org/pdf/litfiles/us_english/IP/EN3109.pdf

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