Tags
- compassion
- coping with anxiety
- couples therapy
- creative anxiety
- creative expression
- creative process
- death anxiety
- embracing mortality
- emotional processing
- emotional risk-taking
- encouragement
- expanding emotional capacity
- finding purpose
- friendship in marriage
- healthy relationships
- intentional living
- making meaning
- mental health
- perfectionism
- personal growth
- self-discovery
- shame
- skill-building
Journaling, Part Three: Overcoming Obstacles and Making the Practice Your Own
If you want to try journaling but feel inhibited by that persistent voice insisting your journal should be aesthetically pleasing or filled with profound insights, I encourage you to keep experimenting. That voice is standing between you and a potentially transformative practice.
Journaling, Part Two: Tools, Methods, and Finding What Works for You
I have a strict policy against buying blank books that feel too expensive or precious; I simply don't want that kind of pressure. Journals are tools, not objects of reverence. A journal should be like a hammer or a spatula — you want a tool that fits the task at hand, not one so intimidating that you can't even begin to use it. The best journal is the one you’ll actually use.
Journaling, Part One: A 27-Year Love Affair
Journaling has been my most faithful companion through decades of life's twists and turns. During times of anxiety or grief, my journal offered refuge — a judgment-free space where my raw, unfiltered thoughts could live. I'll never forget the day I found an old black-and-white Composition Book during a painful breakup. As I flipped through the pages filled with my own handwriting, I was stunned. The relationship problems crushing me now were documented there in my own words — five years earlier, during our first months together. Finding that journal became more than an eye-opening moment. It created a through line, connecting present-me with past-me, reestablishing trust in my own inner knowing.
Parts Work: A Gentle Approach to Your Inner World
Parts work recognizes that we all contain multiple perspectives, emotions, and needs within us — this is our fundamental nature. This approach views internal conflict as a conversation between different aspects of yourself, each with its own concerns and wisdom. Rather than trying to eliminate difficult emotions, parts work invites you to listen to all aspects of your experience with curiosity and care.