SJennyWRITE IT OUT!
I’ve mentioned keeping a journal as a helpful tool during this forgiveness challenge. I thought today we’d talk about this in a little more detail. There are a lot of advantages to journaling. If you’ve kept a diary in the past, you may be familiar with some of them. If you haven’t tried it yet, I seriously encourage you to give it a try. It can be very helpful. A journal or diary is always available to you and ready to listen as you pour our thoughts and feelings on the page. NOTHING is more helpful to me than a record of the processes I am moving through. Rereading entries teaches me how far I have come and keeps mre focused!
It doesn’t have to be fancy. Chances are you already have everything you need. You can use a notebook, or one of those fancy journals you bought years ago and never got past writing the first entry. Or if you prefer, you can keep a digital diary. Open a word document on your computer, or keep a voice or video recording on your phone. It doesn’t matter how you journal your forgiveness journey as long as you find a way that works for you. Sometimes, when you hear yourself talking, things click differently. Try it.
The most important part is that you choose something that’s easy for you to do. If it takes too much effort and time, you won’t do it. Keep it simple and choose the format you think will best suit you. If a few days in you find that it’s not working as well as you thought, change it up. There’s no reason you can’t move from a written journal to a video diary and vice versa.
The content, what you write down and record, is much more important than the format. Not only will it help you process your thoughts and feelings while you write them down, it also leaves you with a record that you can look through down the road. When you’re having a particularly bad day, or are struggling to stick to the plan, it’s nice to be able to look back and see how far you’ve come. (<<THIS!)
A journal will help you clear your thoughts and see your path. It can help remind you and focus your thoughts and feelings on forgiveness. If you’re not sure what to write about, I suggest you start with a quote. Find a verse or quotation about forgiveness that speaks to you and copy it down. Then start writing about your thoughts on the topic. Use the quote both as a writing prompt and inspiration. This is an easy exercise to do first thing in the morning to make sure you’re in the right frame of mind to work on Forgiveness throughout the day.
I have created The Gratitude Transformation Journal and it is available on Amazon. It is ten chapters where I teach about the power of gratitude (it is my medicine) and then blank pages that follow, along with quotes to help you shift your perspective. Gratitude and Forgiveness do go hand in hand. think back to the concept of Radical Forgiveness. What a web we weave…
