Writing Your Way to Calm

Effective Journaling Practices for Anxiety Control and Direction Setting

We believe we are objective.

We believe we are objective in interpreting reality. We always interpret events based on our perceptions. They will be distorted by our past experiences, our emotions, and most often by the stories in our minds.

It is ideal to identify cognitive distortions to examine them more closely and correct them. Thus, a more balanced and realistic perspective on situations could be achieved.

What to do for more objectivity:

It helps a lot to separate objective events from subjective perceptions.

It helps me to describe the facts in writing. I write in my journal thoughts about an event or a situation directly. Then I reread and tried to separate the facts as if I wanted to explain the situation to an authority on the matter, a fair master.

I rephrase the situation as if to tell a fair and friendly master. I wouldn’t say nonsense to Confucius, Freud, or the Dalai Lama. The idea is to identify what really worries me, the existing anxieties.

The next step is approaching the situation with compassion. My challenge is to have compassion for myself. Not to judge myself harshly and also to have compassion for others.

My mantra is: In every moment, we do the best we can with the stories we carry on our backs.

It is natural for there to be cognitive distortions, and it is normal for reality to give us a cold shower to wake us up.

Let’s remain realistic: we thought it would be not nice in some situations, but we went through them quite easily. The shower isn’t always as cold as ice! Waking up to reality can even be pleasant.

“We are the ones who create our cognitive distortions with our thoughts and beliefs.” — Albert Ellis

Journaling for Anxiety

Anxiety can indeed be overwhelming. It influences in different ways the life we ​​live: from the decisions we make to various forms of somatization.

Through journaling, we bring thoughts to light. We stop them from their semi-conscious turmoil and create conditions to begin an objective…