Pen to Paper: Processing Change Through Journaling
Getting thrown into the adult world can be difficult. That's something I learned these past few months first hand. Transitioning into college comes with a lot of ups and downs, but for someone who has always struggled with separation and letting things go the transition seemed even more difficult. Feeling as though you are being torn away from everything you know is daunting, and for a while it can feel as though you will never be the same. This feeling can come from a lot of things. Moving away from the people, places, and things you are comfortable with is, well, uncomfortable. So today I want to tell you about one way that I have learned to deal with transition in my life in the hopes that I can help you too: journaling.
Journaling is the act of writing your thoughts, feelings, and emotions down in an organized and specific manner. Now I don't mean that the thoughts themselves should be organized. In fact, they will likely be far from it. What I mean is that in times of transition creating spaces in your life where you can dictate the structure of the situation is important. So when it comes to journaling you should choose a time or place or structure for how you journal and try to be consistent with those choices you make.
The actual content that you put down in your journal can be as organized or disorganized as you would like. I find it helpful to just ask myself what I am feeling right now and write those emotions down. Sometimes it's easy to feel like there's no one we can talk to about the things we are doing though, journaling is not a substitute for meaningful conversation, but it is a tool that can better help you manage your feelings and learn about the way you process emotions. That way when you do need to share with someone about what you're going though you have a better understanding of your own internal dialogue. When journaling you can write about your day, you can write about your feelings, or maybe you could even pick a poem or piece of literature to read and then write about how you feel with regards to what you're reading. There is no wrong answer, the goal is to create something that is uniquely yours.
Another thing that I feel is important to note is just because you write something down doesn't mean that emotion is immortalized. It can be tempting to want to avoid writing your feelings down for the fear that that makes them real, and it can also be upsetting when you look back over the things you've written and they all seem negative. You need to give yourself grace, you're not doing anything wrong, in fact you are actually doing everything right. By putting those negative emotions out on paper you are releasing all the negatives. The longer you hold the things that stress you out and upset you inside the more they will start to affect you and seep into other parts of your life.
You don't have to be a writer to journal, you don't even have to write in your journal. If you would rather doodle or make word lists (list of emotions, your feelings, things that make you happy, things that you're upset about) those are all completely valid options. Journaling can be an amazing tool to help you process what you're feeling and can help bring to light emotions you didn't even realize were there. Now you know the basics of journaling, it's time to pick up a pen and start writing!
