My Journal Entries

So I decided about two weeks ago that it was time to take a different approach with my journal entries.  As many people, my journals are filled with writings that express how I feel about certain events and such in my life.  They could be entries filled with joy, hope, inspiration, sadness, sorrow, grief, longing, etc.  Lately, however, I discovered that my journal entries comprised mainly that of anger, discontent, sadness, and a variety of other disparaging thoughts.

While my writings also included glimpses of profound thought and hopeful revelation, it was beginning to become far and in between.  Writing used to make me feel better about situations.  God would use it to help me grow spiritually; but my emotions had taken a foothold.  Writing in my journal didn't provide me any solace anymore.  In fact, I started feeling worse as I wrote, which writing used to have the opposite affect.  This needed to change.

While I have had my reasons to be upset and hurt, continually writing down my negative feelings wasn't getting me anywhere either.  What I was writing was not something I wanted to reflect upon years down the road.  Continually harping on hurt feelings and negative situations was just leaving me all the more bitter, resulting in fruitless thoughts and actions that got me absolutely no where, but feeling worse.

So I decided to take a different spin on how I wrote in my journal, for which I am already noticing the positive affects.  I decided that each day, I would take a few minutes to list and reflect upon five things that I was thankful and grateful for that day.  This could be a range of things.  Anywhere from how my kids made me laugh so hard at dinner one night to how flowers that I thought had died in my flower bed and bloomed again!  Wherever and whenever there was a positive, I would list it and hang on to it!  After about two weeks, I am having some problems keeping it to only five items!  Sometimes you will see some bonus positives thrown in there!

Also, to help combat my low self esteem that has crept into my life recently, I have also decided to list three things that I did right and/or good things about myself.  I am still working on myself image, but I am doing better to end my evening thinking positive things about myself rather than the negatives like I so often do. 

I am taking more joy in my journal entries again.  They are providing me with more hope and spiritual well-being than they have in a while, which is a good thing!  I look forward to not only writing in my journal again, but going back and reading them in the future!