KatieWe all know that feeling of stress; it’s like the world is weighing down on your shoulders. Things feel heavy, overwhelming, and it’s hard to know how to get yourself out of it or feel like it will ever actually get better. Because we’ve all been there, we know that pushing those feelings down and pretending they don’t exist doesn’t actually solve the problem; you have to sit with and work through the feelings and sensations. This process can look many different ways but I love to turn to journaling when stressed out as one of the ways I work to do this.
Journaling in many ways can be seen as a form of yoga. Not yoga asana (the postures), but Svādhyāya, one of the NiYamas within the 8 limbs of yoga. Svādhyāya translates to “Self-Study” and journaling is a form of self-study. It provides an opportunity for us to get to know ourselves better, learn more about our stressors, triggers, and what actually helps us move through the things which are weighing us down and holding us back.
If you haven’t tried journaling before, I know it can seem intimidating at first. Maybe when you think of journaling, you imagine a pre-teen girl with her glitter journal and feather pen sitting in her room writing in her diary about the boy who she likes and doesn’t like her back. If that’s you, I get it. For many years, I often felt the same way. I wasn’t sure how journaling could help you, aside from just writing out your feelings. I didn’t know that journaling can actually help you tap into your subconscious. But now that I know better, now that I’ve been journaling for several years, and now that I have tried a variety of journaling techniques, I know that journaling is actually one powerful practice.
When you’re in that state of being completed stressed out, if you find yourself feeling like you’d try anything at this point to make it better, then I want to encourage you to reach for your journal (or just any piece of paper and pen will do!) and stay open to this process of journaling when stressed out and just see how it can help open you up.
Journaling when stressed out
In this video, I’m going to dive in a bit more into journaling for when you’re stressed out and I’ll give you one journal prompt to get you started. If you want more journal prompts for when you’re stressed out, you can grab them HERE.
Before you dive into your journaling, I highly encourage you to spend a few moments meditating. This isn’t required, but it is encouraged as this will help you ground your energy, connect deeper with yourself, and tap into that subconscious mind quicker. A great meditation to try before grabbing your journal would be my 9-minute Meditation for Centering. Do this meditation, then go through the journal prompts for when you’re stressed out, and call out those stressors so you can start working through them.
Have you tried journaling when you’re stressed out?
