Journaling Advice ....Please!

[Jaxson]

Greetings,

I need some feedback about journaling. Lately, as I get going, my words just devolve into angry scribbling...just my hand moving across the page (as I'm watching in disbelief) while feeling the anger. It seems relentless but I'm just going with it and trusting I'm on the right path...or at least bringing up the feelings from the unconscious. It seems strange and I have to ask myself if it's really me. Has anyone experienced this? Is this what I'm after? I'm not able to connect the feeling with any event and is it important to do that or not?...
Any thoughts or experiences will be greatly appreciated.

Keep up the fight! We shall be victorious!

 

[Rsoup]

I would say its a good thing. Just keep writing but I think it does help to identify specific events and react to them, but any expression of anger is probably a good thing Have you talked to a therapist? I did one session and felt and my body felt 50 lbs lighter after getting all that stuff out.

 

[Tennis Tom]

...I'm not able to connect the feeling with any event and is it important to do that or not?...

Look at the Rahe-Holmes list for stressful life events that can cause TMS.

THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS SCALE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale

 

[Andy Bayliss]

I would say its a good thing. Just keep writing but I think it does help to identify specific events and react to them, but any expression of anger is probably a good thing

Hi Jaxson,

I think Rsoup is right and so are you, to stay with the process. Stuff is happening ! I would focus on feeling the rage in my body, and allowing it, and connecting this awareness to symptoms, if you can. You are tapping into something that seems surprising and new, so that is good I am thinking. If you are patient, I think the "content" will emerge. You might try some abstract drawing or painting too, exploring the feeling of anger, and drawing what comes up. This may naturally lead to the content through insights emerging...

Andy B.

 

[Steve Ozanich]

I had the same experience. Many times while writing GPD my hand would be scribbling and I wasn't doing it. I would look around the room in disbelief while it continued writing, and tapered off. It's as though the deeper self wants to express but the false self prevents it, or delays its full expression. Interesting phenomenon.

If you look at the gurus of journaling like James Pennebaker (Ira Progoff was the father of journaling, not sure who the mother was), they will tell you to write about current affairs first. But it does help to look at the past and reflect on what was.

Stay focused on what's going on in your life right now. It's always a relationship causing the pain. Who is it that you're angry toward? Can't forgive? Resent? Saddened by the loss of? Miss?

Piece the Self puzzle together.

Steve

 

[Jaxson]

I had the same experience. Many times while writing GPD my hand would be scribbling and I wasn't doing it. I would look around the room in disbelief while it continued writing, and tapered off. It's as though the deeper self wants to express but the false self prevents it, or delays its full expression. Interesting phenomenon.


Stay focused on what's going on in your life right now. It's always a relationship causing the pain. Who is it that you're angry toward? Can't forgive? Resent? Saddened by the loss of? Miss?


Steve,

Thank you for sharing your experience! That means a lot and is encouraging. The idea that it's always a relationship causing the symptoms is powerful too!

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Tis exchange of posts really resonates with me from my back pain healing through TMS repressed emotions going back to my childhood
when my parents divorced when I was 7. I felt great insecurity, both emotionally and financially, worrying if I would still have a roof
over my head, even though we lived in a rented apartment.

In journaling, I didn't discover any single incident from the divorce experience, just a general fear. Reality had set in my life,
and I was such a trusting boy I even believed in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny until my older brother and sister laughed their sides out
at me and "wised me up." I still didn't want to believe them.

I think that when real close friends divorced a few years ago, it triggered my repressed emotions about divorce from my boyhood.

So I do agree with Steve that something recent may have triggered your repressed anger or other emotions, kept hidden inside you for years.

Journaling is not an exact science. I think you 're doing it right and it is going to heal you.

 

[lexylucy]

Sounds perfect to me. Like your really letting something free :0)