As our days get more complicated and our lives more complex, it seems that chaos abounds. Work, family, bills and obligations eat up our time, and keep us bouncing from one circumstance to another, like a pinball caught in a never-ending game.

But one expert believes that something as simple as taking a few minutes each day to write about your life can not only help you bring it into focus, but it can also make the tough stuff a little easier.

“Writing about your life, what we call ‘journaling,’ can improve job satisfaction, help solve unemployment, aid in juggling modern family dynamics, bring focus to marital and work relationships, and simply bring about a sense of emotional, physical and spiritual well-being,” said Maureen Daigle-Weaver, author of Write Yourself Free: Conscious Living and Personal Peace Through the Power of the Pen (www.journalingforhappiness.com). “One of the quotes attributed to the Greek philosopher Socrates is ‘Know Thyself,’ and the basis behind the thought was that by discovering who we really are inside and out, we become our best. Our dreams, our aspirations and our goals become closer to reality, because our self-knowledge helps us live that reality. Journaling is the easiest way to explore that idea.”

Daigle-Weaver believes that people can derive benefits from journaling that they had never thought of before, including:

Trouble at Work -- In a recession, many of us are holding down two jobs or just barely clinging to the one we have. Journaling can help you eject the stress and harness the positive feelings you have about your job and keep you on an even keel.

Family Matters -- Taking care of a family financially is enough of a challenge in these times, let alone tending to a family’s emotional needs. Finding energy and focus at the end of a long day can be a dilemma, but journaling can help you prioritize your family’s needs along with your own.

Stress -- So many of us live life off balance, lurching from one crisis to the next, without any ability to think or focus on what really should come next. Journaling can act both as a tool to help you vent as well as one to help you create order in your life from amidst the chaos. It can be a source of peace and serenity in a time when we all seem to need it the most.

“Sometimes when we get totally overwhelmed by the demands on us, emotional turmoil and stress build up and we end up dumping it, on the wrong person at the wrong time.” she said. “Journaling is a safe, effective and healthy way of venting, and then helping to make sense of the dilemmas you face. Journal writing is a creative and transformational skill that can easily be learned and used by practically anyone for finding inner peace, personal power, and freedom. Journaling has made my life infinitely richer, more meaningful and enjoyable. A structured journaling approach can become a fail-safe tool for dealing effectively almost ‘magically’ with any issue or problem in life.”


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About Maureen Daigle-Weaver

Maureen Daigle-Weaver, has a B.A. from the University of Toronto, and is the mother of three adult children and four grandchildren. She was a community activist in the 80’s and Founder & Creative Director of the Outreach Abuse Prevention organization where she won a Children’s Choice award for writing Safe & Happy, a children’s book on abuse prevention.

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