6 Powerful Writing Exercises to Reprogram Anxiety from Your Mind
Do you find journaling to be boring or lame? Read this..
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In 2016, I was in college. I would describe my progress at the time as being half 100% all-in, the other half slacking off doing the things I knew I shouldn’t be doing.
I remember coming back from class on an ordinary Fall week in November in Boston. I come home, kick off my shoes, and jump in bed. Next thing I know I’m asleep and recall waking up in a half-dream state, half normal waking state. I start waking up and experience an overwhelming feeling of “if I don’t commit myself to my journey and my beliefs truly, then I would never actually do it.”
I would be another one of those 30 something-year-old’s who’s been saying I’m gonna do this and that for 10 years. Snap your fingers and the next thing you know, your life has passed by in front of you, and you’ve done nothing.
I was immediately, filled with energy and a sense of urgency, put back on my shoes and headed out the door. I honestly didn’t know what to do, or where to go, or who to talk to…
So, I just walked to Target. On my way, I listened to motivational tapes and soundtracks that magnified the emotional state I was in at that moment.
I arrive at Target and head to the arts & crafts section. I picked out a whiteboard and the only journal left in the entire store that ironically said: “ideas can become things”.
I run home, feeling emotionally charged.
I find this idea fascinating, of if we wake up on a random day from an afternoon nap, and we take responsibility for our lives like we really own ourselves, our minds, and therefore our potential, you experience life changing things.
I pull out the whiteboard and start writing in a collage of motivational goals and heroic aspirational ideas. I whip out the journal and just start writing my stream of consciousness, writing my own thoughts on paper, something I had never really done previously.
Since then, I have used that journal, and many others to truly redesign my mind, become the architect of my thoughts, and be able to authentically redesign my life.
It’s funny because when I first stumbled on this idea, I instantly thought, what am I middle school girl to have a little journal to write in? But I quickly realized, similar to other negative dispositions I had, these were thoughts and beliefs in my head, I didn’t even believe myself, but had picked up from others. When you really think about it, I was stopping myself from doing the things that could benefit and help me change my life all along.
Now, I journal almost every day. Sometimes I forget, or get overwhelmed, which always has me going back to, I need to journal as often as possible. In fact, it’s been helpful for me to redefine the word, journal.
Journaling = A tool that your mind can use to mirror and reflect itself, to bring what exists in the mental emotional world in our heads onto the physical world contained in a page or electronic device, which can then be a feedback loop for our thoughts, emotions, world view to evolve and expand in this intimate evolutionary process with yourself.
As you read along, I will cover six different forms of journaling exercises I personally use on an ongoing basis. However, before I do that I want to mention four very common traps for people that stop them from journaling in the first place.
Common Traps:
Seems too simple or boring, and therefore don’t do.
If you’ve never done this or only done it for a short period, you may ask “Mark, how is writing my thoughts down on paper going to help me?” My answer to you is: google it. Look it up and try to do things differently then the way you’ve always done them. A fast route to a terrible life is not trying anything because you think it’s too simple, and therefore overly stupid and meaningless with no value.
Easy to discount, as the “benefits” aren’t instant.
So you journal once or for a week, and are confused as to why you should continue to do it?
Journaling is one of the most sustainable long term habits for happiness, stress management, organization, and overall mental health. The same way you wouldn’t expect to go to the gym for a week, and have a six pack, you can’t expect the same for these exercises as well. Always focus on the long term.
Overthinking, logically dominant brains struggle with this more.
You sit down to journal with a few thought provoking prompts. You might struggle, as it’s quite discomforting, and then logically conclude journaling is bad as a surface level answer within a span of 2 minutes. What I’ve found is what happens is, if you can really be patient with yourself, with no distractions…
After the first 2, 3, 4 minutes, your emotional mind opens up and you create a real connection with the deeper parts of yourself. But, it takes time, dedication and trust and quite frankly, courage to go in the face of what you don’t know, or haven’t been admitting to yourself. Journaling is a way to sustainably do this.
You Have Trust Issues with Your Journal
I personally write on my iPad pro with an apple pencil. I do this because it’s easier to carry around an iPad, instead of a laptop, journal, etc everywhere I go. It’s also great because my journal syncs with my phone, so I could check any journal prompt I’ve ever written at any time.
However, my iPad is also locked with a passcode. Journal’s usually don’t. I say this because it’s important to have a secret and private relationship with your journal. Nobody, and I mean nobody should have unrestricted access. It creates trust issues within yourself, as you will question, should I really write this, if other people will see it?
Hide it under your bed, lock in a treasure chest, your journal is for your eyes only, unless you choose to share with someone else at your own discretion.
Now, without further ado…
Here are 6 writing techniques and tools for reprograming anxiety.
1. Classic Gratitude Journaling
When: Morning and Night
Why: Writing down what you are grateful for and why you are thankful helps to revitalize your system with emotional gratitude, positive emotions, at a foundational level that helps shift your perspective. Regularly expressing gratitude has also been shown to rewire your brain’s perception and teaches your mind to become more aware of good things happening all around you, that the average person is somehow unable to see with the naked eye.
How: Be as specific as possible. Don’t just write “I’m grateful for life”, instead you could write “I’m grateful for life and how far I have come from my journey last year, and the year before, and I’m looking forward to continuing to rise each year.” It’s also completely okay if it takes you awhile to come up with something. After you write it down, close your eyes, and try your best to imagine the positive feeling. If you write down grateful thoughts about someone, maybe imagine giving them a hug and being filled with that loving energy. Gratitude journaling is great in the morning to establish your perspective for the day. It’s also great at nighttime during an evening routine to help calm your anxieties before sleeping.
2. Free Thought Journaling (Stream of Consciousness)
When: Upon first waking up or when feeling overwhelmed, confused, no clarity or lack of direction.
Why: brings more awareness to your thoughts. Sometimes our minds move so fast, especially in the morning, we don’t even know what to think or how to express it. When you see your thoughts from your mind on paper, slow, it helps to create more feedback loops, which expands the number of thoughts you could be thinking, which is very helpful if you feel constrained or trapped in your mind.
How: Put your head down, look at the edge of your pencil or writing tool, and just write down whatever comes to mind. No filter, no editing, no stopping yourself, no asking should I write this or not, completely uninterrupted.
3. Visualization (Imagine)
There’s 2 kinds of visualization journaling. Imagining your dreams and life goals, and then visualizing a “perfect day” for you, which requires sitting down and writing out, step by step, action by action, of what constitutes a great day for you and then closing your eyes and imagining yourself play out through that.
When: as often as possible, ideally after gratitude journaling.
Why: Feel it, before you experience it. Trying to visualize or experience an emotion or event before it happens is part of the creation process. At some level, this teaches your mind success and achievement, and gets the ball rolling before they happen in real life.
How: Write down what you want to experience first, then close your eyes, and try your best to vividly imagine. You should be as specific as possible. Imagine you are in a dream land and anything is possible. For example: I’m visualizing my business receiving a life changing deal or partnership. I imagine myself pulling out my phone, checking my email, and receiving an email with a specific subject title line, with someone reaching out saying exactly what my goal is and seeing that in real time and responding while visualizing.
4. Life Journey Analyzing
When: in need of clarity & direction, and organization.
Why: to analyze different areas of your life and do a more typical pros vs cons list.
How: Break down your life into the most important categories. Say for the sake of this example, Fitness and Relationships. List out your strengths, weaknesses, goals, struggles, and current habits for each category. For my fitness example, my strengths are good at cardio, weakness is not being good at weight lifting, goal is to get better at weight lifting, but it’s difficult but because my nutrition is off, and what habits can I change to make this more possible and in line with my goals? This is a good way to get a birds eye view of your life, and what to do to move forward.
5. Challenging Yourself
When: On a journey to expose yourself to fears, keep yourself accountable, and progress.
Why: It’s one thing to challenge yourself, in your head, fail or no do it, and then forget about it. It’s another to challenge yourself, write it down on paper, fail or do it, document your progress, positive or negative to track a mission’s progress. As they often say, happiness is really just the feeling of progress.
How: Write down the purpose for challenging yourself, and then the smallest possible steps you need to take, and expose yourself incrementally to each step and track your progress overtime. Document your perception of success or failure, feelings, struggles, fears, and major lessons you learned.
Example: when I was first facing my social anxiety years ago. I used this form of journaling to challenge myself to talk to other people. It looked something like asking myself these questions:
Do you know what time it is?
Do you know what the time and direction are to this place?
Do you know the time + directions + give them a simple compliment.
Give someone a compliment and start a conversation with a random stranger.
6. Dream List (then schedule in calendar)
When: the night before, or morning of..
Why: Establishing your focus for the day, this is my spin on the classic to-do list, but more important. Instead of an endless to-do list, imagine creating a brief list of the most important actions you can take today to move you closer to your dreams.
How: List the 3 most important task, only 3, anything you else you accomplish you can look at it as a bonus or the cherry on top.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this and found it beneficial to some degree. Whether you try out one of these or all of them, the choice is yours and your future self will thank you if you choose to do things different, then the same way you’ve always done them.
Journaling, meditation, and exercise is a powerful combination.
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