Journaling Taught Me to Think Before Responding

My initial reaction was to hammer out an email to put my new financial advisor in his place.

I took a deep breath.

I needed to get home to my journal to gain clarity.

Before I began journaling daily other extreme emotions caused extreme reactions. I struggled to contain my immediate response, even those I might regret.

Now, my response to these emotions is, "I need to write about this." Writing gives me clarity. It changes my response.

Three times in the last three months, I journaled for this reason.

My husband told me I was speaking to him like a child. My first thought was defensive. I definitely do not do that! I didn't say that out loud. After a furious journaling session, I saw his side. I am guilty of doing that on occasion. I owed him an apology.

Our new financial advisor almost suffered my wrath. He addressed all correspondence to my husband, conveying all information through him. "Tell your wife..." What year is this? As an equal partner in marriage and the account, although a mere woman (yes, sarcasm), I can understand and learn about finances. Journaling helped me formulate a professional, respectful response instead of a sarcastic, angry response like the one written here.

Yesterday, I texted a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. Our group of three hadn't met in a while. My texts to the group went unanswered. It seems a group of two had met without me. This revelation hurt and hit all my insecurities. I journaled. There had to be reasons. I needed to take the high road. I didn’t complain about being excluded. There were reasons.

Each experience reinforced the need to use journaling to clarify my thoughts and refine my responses. 

Journaling is my second brain.