Journaling for Stress Management
Stress affects our overall wellbeing negatively, but if you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) it totally wreaks havoc.
Stress can be short term or longterm depending on the situation that affects us negatively. Short term could be intense project deadlines that affects our lives and puts a great deal of pressure to deliver. Longterm could be personal events like loss of a loved one, change in relationship status, loss of job.
Daily stress is encountered when situations don’t flow well, like computer breakdown at work, or car accident or other events that interfere with the ‘smooth’ running of our work or personal lives.
Studies have shown that journalling is an effective tool in helping to manage stress.
Journaling allows you to download the emotions of the moment or the day. Think of it as a data dump of all the emotion and thoughts associated with those stressful events. Better than internalizing and aggravating your IBS! Through journaling you can release the emotions and clear your mind to better manage the situation.
Key parts to journaling:
Regular- pick a time of day that would be best to journal, regularity is important if you do not already journal.
Type of journal- what you are most comfortable with.. notebook, journal or APP on your smartphone.
Guide to journalling: pick a topic, anger, anxiety or gratitude , noting ‘wins’ of the day to feel more accomplished.
Journaling can be a regular exercise to write down the thoughts for the day, it can also be done in a moment when you need to release negative thoughts to clear the mind. It is very powerful and effective practice to keep you calm. By journaling you identify patterns of how you are feeling to create constructive solutions for the problem. When you track something then you can measure, see it then you can transform your life.
Back to IBS, so we talk a lot about the gut-brain-axis, that which affects our mind affects our gut. If you are someone who suffers from gut health then you know your overall wellbeing is affected. Stop the cycle by taking a small step and start journaling your thoughts and feelings. Notice how you start transforming how your gut reacts.