Journalling - the route to your inner self

Keeping a journal opens up your inner world with powerful results.

You can, for example, record your dreams on its pages and re-telling dream-stories lifts your waking mood. Breaking your dreams, as the old saying goes. After all, we’ve all woken up – in tears or buoyant with love – with an almost overwhelming desire to tell someone about a dream. At least, if you confide in your dream journal, it won’t tell anyone else. Confidentiality is assured.

But, if patterns of dream imagery recur, your journal may also be warning you of something you need to take seriously but have not yet consciously acknowledged. In this case, your journal will not judge but will help to raise your awareness of some potential danger.

So how – exactly - does form influence the effectiveness of what you write?

Some days, for example, you may want to use your journal to understand – or even to remove – some vivid emotions disturbing your daily life. You may want to hang on to all this emotion or let it go. But, because of the mental energy required, describing it in words is a strong first step towards regaining control of your life.

At this, you may choose to write your journal in the form of a daily poem, exploring the experience through metaphor. Or your journal could become a long-running unsent letter to the person who is generating all this feverish confusion in your life. And – unless you make a conscious decision to share - the person in question need never know. This useful strategy can diffuse bubbling conflicts with your boss. Or keep the lid on a love affair. Or speak to someone who has died leaving you with things unsaid.