Sometimes I find myself with all these words, thoughts, and experiences in my head and nowhere for them to go. I am sure this is something many others feel. From this influx of things clogging my mind, I find myself getting stressed out about where to put them because, for some reason, they will not leave. No matter how hard I try to work them out at the gym, by running which you would think would work them out. Or focus my time on my schoolwork by studying them away. Or even a cat nap, they will not leave.
It was not until one day that I felt so pent up with everything else occupying my brain that I decided to journal about it. I almost felt silly for a minute, and like I was reverting into my middle-school ways when I took out a notebook and started writing what I felt. Because in middle school, half of the reasons I was writing in my “diary” was because all the girls in the movies wrote in their diaries. Personally, I think of Junie B. Jones or Regina George. But oddly enough, after I closed that notebook, I suddenly had nothing left in my head. It was like a release that I did not think I could get rid of, that I always had to suppress, and that I couldn’t solve.
The thought hadn’t occurred to me before, which made me feel dumb, because something as simple as writing down what is on your mind is a lot easier than letting it bring tension to your day. But now, I do not think that I could ever not go a day or two without this practice of mine. My entries can be a page long or a couple of pages long. I find myself never having experienced not having something to write about. Journaling is a no-judgment zone, after all, it is just you and the paper. It could be your grocery list or a whole novel of why you feel the way you do deep down. And if you have had a similar experience with too many thoughts that will not leave your head, I recommend grabbing some paper and a pen. It is okay if you feel like a middle schooler writing in your fuzzy pink diary that had a lock and key, or even a little bit like Junie B. Jones the release is worth it.