Ever heard about the Pennebaker method?
James Pennebaker was a famous teacher whose private life had turned miserable. He was depressed, drank too much and became more and more isolated. He was falling into depression when one morning, he sat in front of his typewriting machine and let himself write every emotion he was feeling. He wrote with his heart, not with his head, being honest about his mariage, his parents, his sexuality, his career, his fears..
He said that writing was incredibly liberating. For the first time in years, he felt strong and able to lead his life in a constructive and positive way. He couldn’t keep this amazing discovery for himself, so he developed a method called “expressive writing“, which consists of putting feelings and thoughts into written words in order to cope with traumatic events or situations that yield distress.
The Rules:
- set your timer for 20mn
- open your journal or your doc
- start writing about the emotional experiences you had during the day, the week or even the month or the previous year
- don’t bother about punctuation or if it makes any sense, just follow your thoughts, with curiosity and without judgement: you are writing for yourself only.
- keep the practice for a week, making it a special appointment with yourself
- at the end of the week just throw the paper or erase the document. The whole point is to distinguish your thoughts from yourself, throwing them on the paper.
- This is the processus of putting things into perspective, so you ll start seeing your experiences differently…
I have been journaling every evening for the last couple of weeks, making it a part of my bedtime ritual.
It does helps in clearing my emotions – not inviting them to spend the night with me.
It also works very well if I had a poor night to practice in the morning. It feels like starting the day fresh.
How about you? Do you keep a journal?
A demain 🙂
Estelea's Blog 
Yes, I journal every morning before the day begins. Of course, there are those days when I feel sick or am struggling to get it together and I just sit there with my coffee numb for 20 minutes before getting ready for work. But oh the good practice to welcome in the day putting my pencil to the page. You are completely right, I feel better, more energy or desire more time to continue writing, writing and writing. Thank you for sharing Day 19 of Journalling. I enjoyed the read 😊
Thank you so much for sharing your experience , I could totally relate to the episode of sitting with the coffee waiting for “something” to come out 🙂 I too believe it is a good exercise, to let the emotions out and I always feel so much more into my day, inspired and in a good mood. Those little rituals have such an impact don’t they? Have a beautiful weekend ahead🌞 and thanks again for stopping by