Journaling for Self-Care—Rewrite your Past

Thanks to research studies, personal experiments, innovative teachers, and determined writers, we know with certainty that journal writing can have a positive effect on a person’s mental and emotional health.  But how does journal writing create a positive effect?
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There are two considerations that every writer must address before starting any piece of writing—purpose and audience.  With purpose, writers need to take into consideration why that piece needs to be written in the first place and what purpose it will serve in the universe once it is completed.  With audience, writers need to consider who the intended audience it, what information that audience already has, and what information that audience needs.  Writers also need to consider the type of effect they want to have on the audience. 

With journal writing, the purpose and audience become much simpler.  When writing in a journal, the purpose is to reveal information from the past, to clarify details, or to organize one’s personal thoughts and memories.  Since we can use journaling in different ways (writing about the past, organizing personal goals, or book journaling), that purpose can shift slightly but is still grounded in the idea of writing for one’s personal improvement. 

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No matter what we write about when we are journaling, we are writing to make ourselves better.  
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While journaling, the audience is always the writer.  Writing for oneself can be a fulfilling self-care activity writers can choose, because it encourages a doubling of positive outcomes—both in the act of writing and in the act of reading the journal. 

So, if we are spending time in a journal with a clear idea of audience and purpose, how can we write to enjoy the fullest benefit of journaling? 

Many people automatically associate writing about past events with journaling, and this technique works well for many writers.  But, a subtle twist can make the outcome more potent.  All you have to do is rewrite the past.  It does sound a little odd at first thought, but this journal entry can relieve regret like no other. 

To begin a memory revision, choose a memory of an incident that went poorly.  Everyone has many of these types of incidents—times when you said the wrong thing, took the wrong action, failed to act at all, or flat out fell on your face.  Any incident that you would like to relive or revise would work perfectly for this activity. 

Once you have a memory chosen, write up a list of what happened in this incident without changing any of the events or details.  The notes do not need to be heavily detailed, but feel free to detail where it seems most appropriate, such as a part of the story where a misstep led to a significant problem. 

With the general overview of the incident in hand, start writing what happened in detail in your journal.  Write down as many specifics as you can think of—thoughts, sounds, sights, smells, tastes, emotions, and so on.  Make the retelling of the situation as thorough and in depth as when you originally lived it.  Write the story until you get to a point where things went wrong.  

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Maybe you made the wrong turn.  Maybe you said the wrong thing.  Maybe you hit “send” instead of “draft”.  Whatever action you took or failed to take that resulted in the problem, change it.  This is the point where your journal entry changes from the factual incident that went wrong to a revised version that could have gone right.  This is where healing in journaling happens.

From the change in action point, rewrite the story.  What could have happened if you took a different turn?  What could have happened if you said something different? What could have happened if you leapt into action instead of standing still?  Could a relationship have been saved?  Could a person’s pain have been lessened?  Could a personal goal have been fulfilled? 

From that point forward, rewrite the story.  Include the details that would make sense related to the story’s events.  Keep within the time and setting as much as possible (so do not add in a cell phone into an incident from 1994).  Put words into the mouths of the people involved in this incident to make it as real and true as possible.  We are rewriting history, so we want to do it justice.  
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As you are rewriting this incident, what is the outcome that you wish you could have created the first time around?  What did you want to happen in this incident?  Whatever it is, identify it.  Then write it.  Write out exactly what happened.  Include the dialogue between the people who were there, include the effects of the weather, the details in the surroundings, and the shifts in tone and mood as well.

This technique of rewriting the past can be used over and over to create a sense of relief and a release of regret from past situations that went poorly.  There is no reason why anyone should have to carry around the miserable weight of remorse and shame.  Instead, rewrite those stories so that they more closely match the person you are today and reflect the goals that you are working on now.  Then focus your energy on your current goals rather than worrying about what could have been.  
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