It feels so good to empty all that anguish in your trustworthy friend, you journal. This writing exercise has two advantages. One, it lightens your heart and clears your mind. Two, when you reread it after one year or five, it feels different. You notice how it has lost its power over you. It turns into ash yet saves some energetic embers of ideas for you to use. What you pour on the blank pages of your journal can be compared with autumn leaves. The mountain of dried leaves of your mental trash is all biodegradable. It decomposes into mulch with a few seeds which sprout later. It often happens, that upon rereading your journal you gain greater insight into the things that had happened the previous year or many......

The eminent social psychologist, James Pennebaker in his book, Opening Up by Writing Down, writes that not fully expressing negative emotions, suffering in silence and keeping secrets—swallowing or pushing them down—affects your heart, mind and body for the rest of your life. By hiding your fears, anger, and hurt from the world, you hide from yourself. In order to replace the mask of social “goodness” and “niceness” with authenticity you must first recognize the anger, hurt or fear buried deep inside you. The recognition must be followed by acceptance of the negative emotions. Some of us may require therapy or hypnosis to cleanse the system but most of us can do this by writing in various forms. If you like, write a letter to the one who emotionally hurt you or......

The way we observe physical hygiene for cleanliness, we must cultivate emotional hygiene for mental clarity. What practices do you follow to cleanse your mind? Journaling is one. It clears your mind of the mess that is created every day. Writing it down lends an ear when you need it but can’t share what you have to say with others. It reveals possible solutions to your problems and heals emotional wounds. So if there is a problem on your mind or something is hurting or knotting your belly, why not jot it down on as many pages as it takes? Your honest outpouring in words carries an energy, it has power. Dump all that down and, depending upon the problem, watch how you come up with doable intentions and make......