Let’s face it, we all go through hard times from time to time, some more than others. These periods of difficulty that come up in our lives can make dealing with the present nearly impossible. And when I say periods of difficulty, I can mean really anything – from getting a medical diagnosis that scares you, to to having a fight with your lover, to being afraid of the next meeting you need to attend. Anything that causes you emotional trauma can be helped with the following method.
I first heard about this method while listening to a podcast about EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique While I cannot remember the person who shared the technique (and after extensive searching can’t find her), she mentioned that a great way to release emotional pain is by journaling about it. The problem with journaling is that journals aren’t necessarily completely private. Online ones can potentially be discovered or hacked into and hard copy journals can be discovered. How to get around this?
As I recall, the technique was called “Writing Between the Lines” – and it works wonderfully well! It’s really simple, too… All that is involved is simply writing out your thoughts on a piece of paper and when you get to the end of the line, you go back to the beginning of that line and continue laying out your thoughts, fears, anger, anguish, etc.
What you’re doing here is taking the time and space to write out your feelings, but note that as you write more and more, because you’re writing over what you wrote previously, you’re irreversibly hiding your words behind more and more ink. After a few lines’ worth of text, all of your writing becomes illegible and completely private.
For those who aren’t familiar with journaling, there are many resources available that can be explored. For example, on tinybuddha, they discuss a number of journaling tips to really thrive. In fact, they mention The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron as one resource – that book is where I first read about the benefits of journaling to stimulate creative processes. From a mental health point of view, the University of Rochester Medical Center gives a bunch of mental health benefits that can come from it.
So the next time you’re feeling:
- Depressed
- Anxious
- Fearful
- etc.
about anything in your life, give this a try and leave a comment telling me how it worked out for you!
Interests of Interest 
Epic! I like your writing example. 🙂
Thanks!
What an absolute coincidence (not)! Yesterday I listened to a podcast (the channel was one based on the seven chakras) and the guest was a woman who specialized in eft. I also forgot her name but loved it. I’ll definitely try this technique!