Day 19 of journaling vs 8 years of venting to friends, wow

I used to think talking to people about my bad days was the only way to process stuff. But after a huge fight with my roommate in Austin last Thursday, I tried a 10 minute brain dump in a notebook my therapist suggested. Honestly, I figured it was some cheesy self help stuff and I'd quit by day 3. That was 19 days ago now and the difference is wild. When I vent to friends, I just repeat the same story and get more worked up, plus I feel bad for dumping on them. Writing it down forces me to actually organize what happened and pick out what bugged me most. I still text my buddy about the big stuff, but for daily annoyances, the notebook wins every time. Has anyone else found a weird method that worked better than talking it out?

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val94915d ago

Ha, funny how that works. It's like the difference between shouting into a crowd and talking to yourself in a mirror. One just echoes, the other actually shows you what's in front of your face. I've noticed the same pattern with people who complain about their job all the time, they never get anywhere because they're just re-living the annoyance instead of figuring out what to do about it. Writing it down kind of forces you to cut through the noise and get to the actual point, whether it's about a roommate or a coworker.