Who better to ask about how to be more joyful than an expert in, well, joy? Grace Harry, a self-proclaimed Joy Strategist, was number one on our list when we wanted to talk all things journaling. Harry specifically works with her clients to find where that uninhabited, childlike joy has gone and strategize--much like you would strategize a new business idea--how to find it again. Journaling, it seems, can be a huge part of just that.
Truth # 1: Journaling allows you to release emotions through your written word.
Sometimes, the goal is simply to get it out. "Getting anger, pain, fear, insecurity out of your body to be broken up with or guided into support," is one of the most beautiful and helpful things about journaling, Harry explains. "I used to walk around with a pain script of blame and avoidance. It was easy for me to keep this narrative alive until I began to release it on paper. Seeing the truth of how the fantastical tales I kept looping was not only keeping me stuck but was also passing down as epigenetics to my babes."
Truth #2: A journal instigates us making a big deal about ourselves.
"Chronologically recording your own beautiful transformation is truly love of thyself. We celebrate by documenting every second of a baby's life, and we often notate our achieved "firsts," Harry explains. There is power in celebrating oneself on paper.
Myth: It is not safe to put your deepest feelings on paper.
"Whatever your swirling about, not letting it go, dare I say obsessing about, those negative thoughts are only producing more negativity," Harry tells us. "It is essential to get off the ride by changing your thoughts, by changing your current feeling. Feverishly (without thinking about it) write about the situation...the whole situation. How you feel about it. What they said, what you didn’t say. Get ugly. Say yucky shit. Get loud. Cry. Once you feel ike you got "it" out, you can rip it to shreds or burn it up--somewhere fire-safe, of course.