Being Honest with Yourself

How journaling about your feelings can be a powerful tool in staying engaged and fully present in your own life.

Journaling can be a powerful tool, helping you to focus on the things you’re grateful for or refocusing your prayer life. But journaling—regularly attempting to gauge your emotions and how you’re feeling—is also a vital way to remain engaged and present in your own life.

As my church life group leader likes to say, “Feelings are like kids in the car. You can’t ignore them and stick them in the trunk, and you can’t let them run wild in the car.” Your emotions are important, but they shouldn’t run your life. Likewise, you can’t ignore them, stuff them down and think that you’ll never have to deal with them again.

By pushing pause for a few moments and journaling, we can begin to build a practice in our lives that allows us to acknowledge our emotions, then put them in the right place. So what might that look like? Here are a few ideas.

1. Set a time to journal. Pick a time when you have the mental space and capacity to be honest with yourself about how you’re feeling. You don’t have to journal for hours, but take a few minutes to quiet your heart and mind.
   

2. Start simply. Maybe start with a simple prayer, asking God to help you be honest about your emotions. Your feelings are your feelings and there is nothing wrong with feeling angry, hurt, lonely or sad. An easy way to start acknowledging your emotions is to finish this sentence, Right now, I am feeling ___________, then jot down your response. For me, all journaling is God-focused. As I admit my emotions to myself, I’m also admitting them to him and seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance in how I react to and out of those emotions.
   

3. Be honest. If there is a specific circumstance or interaction that is causing your emotional response, journal about it. Jot down a few sentences about what happened, and then ask yourself these questions:

   1. How did this situation make me feel?

   2. What am I believing about myself because of this situation? Are these things true?

   3. What am I believing about the other people involved? Are these things true?

   4. How do I tend to react or respond in situations like this?

   5. What stories am I telling myself about this situation, why it happened, or the intentions of the other people involved? Do I know if any of these things are true?
      

4. Seek the truth. We all have patterns of behavior that are our go-to responses to emotional triggers. Many of us also create stories in our minds about the situation, which are usually centered around a worry or a fear. The author Brene Brown has often discussed this in her writing, encouraging us to pause, acknowledge the story we’re telling ourselves and bring it into the light. Once we acknowledge how we’re feeling, we can consider it in light of God’s Word and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Rather than simply repeating a cycle that has not worked in the past, we can hit pause, acknowledge both our feelings and the reality of the situation, and move forward with wisdom.
   

5. Keep a record. When you’re honest about your emotions with yourself and with God, you allow him to work in some of the deepest, most wounded parts of yourself. As you continue journaling, you’ll begin to see how he is at work in your life, shaping you more and more in the image of Jesus.