Journaling and Stress

Stress is one of those silent killers.  Stress is commonplace in today's world and we all but expect it as a part of our normal, daily lives.  Society expects us to be strong and wise and as a result our soul underbelly can become callused and neglected.   At that point, we can become hardened and unemotional to all things around us - if we're not careful and aware.

Long ago I realized that I had all kinds of stress and emotion I couldn't talk about.  Therapy and Rx, didn't work.  Everyone has problems and mine wouldn't make sense to anyone but me.  There was a point in my life, I had to get that emotion OUT of my skull - so I started writing.   To myself.  Journaling, in a password protected document that I carried around in my wallet. 

On my darkest days, I would write for hours and I actually felt better after getting it out.  I saved my words and many times enjoyed looking back at them as the years passed to see how far I'd grown. Healed.   I started writing in 1997 and ended up with over 17 years of documented emotion.  It was my personal treasure.  I highly recommend letting yourself and your emotions have a voice in a SAFE place for no ones eyes but your own.  

If journaling becomes a wonderful experience for you, like it was for me - I offer this one last piece of advice: save your work on 2 or 3 different, password protected, flash drives.   Please.   I didn't know flash drives can fail - until two months ago .... when I lost everything I'd ever written to a dead flash drive.  All those years of journaling and growth = lost.  It felt like death losing my 17 years of documented history.  I miss my journal, mostly because I don't have a memory and it was "it", and the me I've long forgotten.  I've grown so much over the years and enjoyed seeing my progress so clearly in writings.  What bothered me 10 years ago, just doesn't matter to me these days - I loved seeing that evolution! 

So I view this dead flash drive as yet another growth opportunity - to let the past stay in the past.  I've since come to peace with it.  And I move on knowing I've grown and survived tough times, on my own because of my journal.   I will journal again .... just not yet.  My mourning period hasn't yet passed.  I still carry my dead flash drive with me, because maybe someday there will be a cure..........and I can revisit my real me.  The me that lives amongst the chaos and stress of every day life, standing tall and wise because - that's what we do.  It's expected.