do you believe that journaling can change your world?

[MrBates2]

Pennebaker’s research (1989; as cited in Lepore & Smyth, 2002) shows that writing is a cathartic experience that has the power to improve your personal health as well as feelings and reactions about stressful, traumatic, or unresolved experiences.

Engaging in expressive writing acts as a physiological release, reducing the tension caused by prolonged inhibition of your inner feelings. Expressive writing is a healthy way to improve relationships and cope with breakups. It allows you to confront your thoughts and emotions, resulting in an increased understanding of the situation and ability to communicate your feelings.

Is journaling the Law of Attraction?

 

[Hypoxia]

Is journaling the Law of Attraction?

Yes. So is essaying. Writing clarifies thoughts. When I write about my actions, thoughts, fantasies, hopes, I must choose words that express what I mean, and thus I must think about what I mean. The process might be therapeutic -- or it might be a spiral into madness, which is another sort of therapy, eh? Either way, life changes. I had not thought much about cheating until I 1) started reading LW tales and 2) decided to write What is Cheating? where I mixed my old hypotheses on Human Games with attitudes I found at LW. Did writing that change my behavior or my life? It at least clarified my attitudes.

 

[sr71plt]

Writing and journaling aren't synonymous, so I had a bit of trouble parsing the OP post. Journaling is writing, but there are a lot more forms of writing than journaling. I write constantly; I only journal my travels. The journaling is helpful to me, though, as years later it tells me where I was when, where I stayed (and who with) and what I saw. It's a great help for my story writing too.

 

[lovecraft68]

My wife uses journaling as a technique to her life coaching clients.

She follows the law of attraction and tells them to write about where they want to be not where they are now and that will help them obtain that goal.

She published a book last year and and then separately published a journal to be used specifically with the information in the book. The Journal is inexpensive, but has made her money she sells a lot of "pairs"

She gives the Journal away in her work shops, but she's also charging per person so its nothing to toss it their way.

Personally I've never been one to journal, I keep all my crap in my head, occasionally I misplace something, but it usually turns up.

 

[Mister_Chris]

Maybe not such a good idea

Had a girlfriend that did a lot of journaling - probably still does. And by a lot, I mean perhaps six hours a day. Or more.

In her case, she used journaling as a means of ideological self-reinforcement; she would start out with a viewpoint that was emotionally comfortable to her, and then self-reinforce why that viewpoint must be correct. It tended to harden her viewpoints, and make her less amenable to other points of view. She'd already justified her position to herself, a dozen different ways.

In her case, I think journaling made her life worse. Certainly, she was less open to differing points of view, which reduced her social circle. But given that she spent most of the day in the corner of the lounge with a glass of wine and her journal, it may not have mattered to her.

And fiction writing is very different from journaling.
>MC

 

[Never]

I kept a journal for years. It made my depression worse, so I quit.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Journals are like farts, their natural audience is like one person.

 

[MidianCastiel]

I don't know if journal writing really helped me, I was never really "formal" about it either and I certainly didn't write 6 hours a day! My journals were usually dialogues I heard throughout the day, or short essays on current events. At times I'd even write short stories about people I knew, like my neighbor who would sit on his porch and scratch himself for a better part of the day.
I'd sketch a lot and tape pictures..more like a ghetto smashbook

 

[jomar]

I kept a journal for years. It made my depression worse, so I quit.

Oddly enough, studies have shown that writing down three things you are grateful each day for for seven days (more if you seek mindfulness) elevates mood, and the measurably better mood can last up to six months. Weird, huh?