Grow To Your Best Spiritual Self With Journaling

Understanding Spirituality: More Than Just Being Human

Think of spirituality as the sense of belief one has that they are more than just a human being. It means looking at oneself in a way that emphasises that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, our sensory experiences, and the material things we own. This intrinsic belief shapes our identity, guiding us towards a path of self-realization and enlightenment. The journey of spiritual growth is not just about self-improvement but about finding our place in the vast tapestry of existence. Everyone is spiritual in some sense, and some people really make an effort to improve their spiritual selves. Why? Why do these people go out of their way to improve on something that seems rather indefinite? Let's look into that now. 

Health and Wellness: The Surprising Benefits of Spirituality

Spirituality of course, leads to more spiritual benefits, but it does more than just that. It also has other benefits for people as well. Take this study for example by Tabei et al. (2016), which showed that spirituality had remarkable benefits towards people's health, especially in terms of recovery, improved well-being and even with lower levels of depression! On top of this, Barton and Miller (2015) showed that personal spirituality was related to and may even be foundational for positive psychology traits. Last week's blog talked about positive psychology and its benefits via journaling but what it didn’t talk about were the two (you could say) spiritual emotions positive psychology addresses, forgiveness and wisdom. Let's look at how journaling can help us achieve these. 

Journaling as a Tool for Spiritual Advancement, Forgiveness and Team Dynamics

So now that we know why being spiritual can be helpful for us, Let’s look at the evidence that shows the benefits of journaling for improving spiritually. The first research I’d like to highlight showed that keeping a gratitude journal for divorced parents resulted in the parents being more forgiving and that being more forgiving resulted in better co-parenting after the divorce (Rye et al., 2012). Taking this into account, it could potentially also be applicable to team situations. If you can be more forgiving towards your team members, be it at work or in sports, you might end up performing better as a team.

Forgiveness Therapy and Reflective Journaling

As well as this, a thing called forgiveness therapy exists for people struggling to overcome some intense emotions. Smallen (2019) explained that even in forgiveness therapy, journaling has been used as a way to reflect on things, making it a useful tool to help us forgive others. 

Journaling for Overcoming Trauma and Self-Forgiveness

This has also been acknowledged in the horrible case of acid attack victims. Here, journaling not only helped to improve gratitude in those victims, but gratitude also helps one to forgive others despite the trauma they had to experience (Dutta, 2022). However, that is not all; this paper also showed that journaling helped these victims to forgive themselves, as often victims of acid attacks blame themselves, and this is very important for spiritual growth and getting over such trauma.

Journaling for Everyday Challenges and Goal Achievement

God forbid anyone ever has to experience an acid attack, but this learning of self-forgiveness may be helpful in less severe cases too, struggling to achieve your goals? Struggling to form relationships? Beating yourself up because you aren’t as good as you hoped to be? Keeping a journal might help you keep a record of things and look at things more objectively.

Journaling for Wisdom: An Unmeasurable But Vital Aspect

As you can see, journaling definitely can be a tool for your spiritual growth, and although wisdom was not mentioned, wisdom is an idea that is hard to measure and thus research, so I didn’t talk too much about it. However, growing in life with a good mindset and spirituality and objectively looking at and writing things down or keeping notes of your learning definitely seems like a logical way to work on your wisdom. Nonetheless, journaling is a tool that you can use to grow spiritually.

Practical Tips for Effective Spiritual Journaling

To embark on a spiritual journaling journey, one must approach it with intention and mindfulness. Here are some practical tips to make the most of your journaling experience:

• Dedicate a specific time each day for journaling.

• Choose a quiet and comfortable space for reflection.

• Write freely and authentically, without self-censorship.

References 

Barton, Y. A., & Miller, L. (2015). Spirituality and positive psychology go hand in hand: An investigation of multiple empirically derived profiles and related protective benefits. Journal of religion and health, 54, 829-843. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0045-2

Dutta, U. (2022). Gratitude, Life Satisfaction And Forgiveness Among Acid Attack Victims: Rehabilitation Through Three Good Things Intervention. Online Journal of Health and Allied Sciences, 21(3). https://www.ojhas.org/issue83/2022-3-5.html

Rye, M. S., Fleri, A. M., Moore, C. D., Worthington Jr, E. L., Wade, N. G., Sandage, S. J., & Cook, K. M. (2012). Evaluation of an intervention designed to help divorced parents forgive their ex-spouse. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 53(3), 231-245.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10502556.2012.663275

Smallen, D. (2019). Practicing forgiveness: A framework for a routine forgiveness practice. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 6(4), 219. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000197

Tabei, S. Z., Zarei, N., & Joulaei, H. (2016). The Impact of Spirituality on Health. Shiraz E-Medical Journal, 17(6). https://doi.org/10.17795/semj39053