Journal Writing

Ben Eckstein Kim Christiansen Diana Martinez Tiffany Le

History
The word journal comes from the French
word journee, meaning from sunrise to sunset.

Dr. Ira Progoff

1st psychologist to study the use of journal
writing. Developed a seminar Intensive Journal Workshop. Found access to a higher consciousness, which encouraged a search for meaning in his life.

Progoffs Experiment
Setting: NYCs welfare and unemployment

programs. Goal: study effects of journal writing on personal growth. Outcome: of the 300 people enrolled in the study, 90% had improved their job status and housing conditions. Rationale: journal writing contributed to an enhanced state of self-reliance.

Good for the Soul, Good for the Body

James Pennebaker at Southern Methodist
University, 1989, 1990. Showed an increase in immune function along with journal writing. Heightened immune function of Tlymphocytes was seen. (T-lymphocytes are white blood cells involved in clearing pathogens from the body.)

Study: Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Expressive Writing

13 studies were done with healthy individuals,

with the results being an overall benefit to their psychological and physical health. Smyths review suggests that for mentally and physically healthy individuals, the effects produced by expressive writing are substantial and similar to the effects of other psychological methods that are usually more time consuming and costly.

Study: Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Expressive Writing

In the first study on expressive writing (Pennebaker &
Beall, 1986), college students were told to wrote for 15 minutes on 4 consecutive days about the most traumatic or upsetting experiences of their entire lives, while the control group wrote about superficial topics (such as their room or their shoes). The participants who wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings reported significant benefits from both objectively assessed, and self-reported physical health four months later.

Overall Results From Expressive Writing

The overall benefits of expressive writing
potentially result from some combination of immediate cognitive and/or emotional changes, longer-term cognitive and/or emotional changes, social processes and biological effects, rather than being accounted for by any single factor (Pennebaker, 2004).

Various Methods
Unsent Letter Dreams Method Poetry Therapy Buzans Method

Dreams Method
Before you go to bed, review the days
events and how you felt about them. As you fall asleep remind yourself to remember your dreams when you awaken. When you wake up, wait a few minutes to review your dreams.

Dreams Method
Keep a notebook by your bed with a pen/pencil to record

your dreams or dream fragments that you remember. Return to your dream images and ponder what they represent. Jung felt that every dream were a source of information. If you have recurring dreams, write the ending to the dream or scene. Doing so will help to at least reduce the stressor that causes this type of dream, as this may not fully resolve the issue. Recurring dreams tend to represent serious unsolved issues that need to be addressed and taken care of.

Poetry Therapy
This is a form of a complimentary journal
writing style. Here they write their own poetry, which gives them a sense of control and a way to make order out of chaos. This type of therapy is generally used as a way to treat emotional disorders, and can help with awareness and emotional catharsis.

Buzans Method
This method accesses both right and left brain cognitive
functions. Here you draw a line to the left of center on a page, where you write thoughts or perceptions, which would be things like, I have to feed the cat before I leave the house. In the middle of the other side of the page you draw a small circle and write I feel inside it. From there you draw lines out when you feel an emotion. On each line you describe how you feel in 3 words, and you do this for 1520 minutes. Whatever comes to your mind, you write it down as a thought or feeling. This serves as an eraser to clean the blackboard of your mind. the mind then can become uncluttered and achieve a state of mental stability.

Unsent Letter
Here, you write a letter to someone that
you are upset with. You write down all your feelings be it anger, sadness, etc. BUT you dont give it to them. The purpose of this is to help you relieve emotion baggage. Provides an opportunity for the tree Cs:
Catharsis, Clarity, and Completion.

Immediate Effects
Release of toxic thoughts from your mind
(unsent letter, thankful list, happy list, etc) Release of thoughts, feelings and perceptions that liberates the mind and softens or expands the walls of the ego.

Immediate Effects
Old thoughts are permitted to leave,
empty space they once occupied allows for expansion of awareness and depth of thought. Increased understanding of ourselves in our many environments. Personal confession Ownership of feelings

Long Term Effects

Pattern identification Illumination of precursors to stress. Impartial view of what was written, an
objective perspective.

Only three essential elements are needed for effective journal writing: 1. A notebook dedicated solely to the
journal. 2. A pen or pencil

Only three essential elements are needed for effective journal writing: 3. A quiet environment, so that you can

collect your thoughts and put them onto paper. A good goal to start with is 15 to 20 minutes for each entry, at least 3 entries per week so that you can see the benefits of journal writing.

Steps to Initiate Journal Writing

What
Try to identify those concerns and problems that cause the most frustration, grief and tension.

Why
Ask yourself what emotions are elicited when these stressors are encountered.

How
Allow the writing process to augment your creative process to further resolution.

Best Application of Journal Writing

Good-quality journal writing has several
purposes. The first is to act as a personal sounding board- to cleanse the mind overloaded with perceptions, emotions and toxic thoughts. Journal writing is a great way to vent anger. Pinpoint how and why different feelings are surfacing.

Best Application of Journal Writing

Cleansing negative feelings is an effective
way to find clearer thoughts and feelings so you can map out strategies for resolution. These applications of journal writing can be used as an offensive tactic in the face of stress.

Tips Hints and Suggestions

Centering
Before you begin to write, take a moment to relax. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and try to unwind.

Label your journal entries. Identify each with

the day, date and year. Uncensorship.

Dont censor yourself. Write whatever comes to mind without editing your thoughts before your put them down onto paper.

Tips Hints and Suggestions

Spontaneity.
Let your thoughts be free-flowing. Get whatever thoughts you have down on paper and then sort them out however you chose.

A private place.

A private journal.

Journal writing can be done anywhere, but having a designated place of solitude lends depth to self-disclosure.
Your journal is for your eyes only.

Cool Stuff
The 1000 Journals Project started in
August 2000 San Francisco 100 journals were distributed in random places in San Francisco and are still being passed around to friends and strangers. www.1000journals.com www.1001journals.com