Forgiving your Past through Journaling

Do you struggle with releasing guilt, shame, worry, or embarrassment from your past? If so, you aren't alone! Our past tends to pop-up in our thoughts when we least expect them to - usually when things are moving fairly smoothly in our present moments. It's not healthy to live in the past, and you probably know that already. It's important to release those thoughts and to forgive yourself. That can be harder said than done though, right?

What if you looked at your past from a different perspective though? You have come so far on your emotional healing journey and with each step forward you should celebrate. For a long time as I took steps forward on my own healing journey I would just be so overcome with sadness. I was so confused why I would be so sad when I was taking steps forward. The thing is though...I was grieving. Grieving over my past 8 year old, little-girl self and that she had placed so much pressure on herself at such a young age. She did whatever she could to be liked, acknowledged, and accepted. That led to perfectionism, people-pleasing and trying to fit in, in all the wrong places. It created unhealthy patterns and a tangled web of emotions and limiting beliefs about myself. You might be feeling the same way about your situation. 

I want you to take a moment with your journal and write a letter to yourself and share all the beautiful ways you have grown, how proud you are of your accomplishments, how strong you are as you have faced some really dark seasons in your life. If this is an emotional moment for you, just let it be. It's okay to be overcome with sadness and strange emotions during this experience. You are healing deep hurts. And if you are staring at your blank journal page and you have no idea what positive things to write to yourself - tell yourself how proud you are for getting out of bed this morning. I'm serious - that's a huge accomplishment if you are in the thick of grief.

Another journaling entry I want you to think about writing are the good memories around those moments in your past you either regret, your embarrassed about, or you are still struggling with forgiving yourself. In those memories or moments, what good was still going on in your life, were there people in your life that were there for you in those moments, was there a family event that made you laugh with joy, was there a lesson you learned during that season?

The point isn't to dwell on the past and sit with the hurt that you experienced every time those memories pop up for you. The point with this exercise is to look back at those moments and not just see the pain, but also be aware of the blessings that were still happening. Blessings are happening all around us, and it's so important to see the joy amongst the struggles.

What joy are you experiencing today? If this is a hard concept for you, I'd encourage you to look into an Aroma Freedom & Journaling Session. The Aroma Freedom Technique is a gentle step-by-step process that I walk you through to uncover any blocks or limiting beliefs that are holding you back on your emotional healing journey. These blocks might not even be known to you and may be rooted by things from your past. We'll begin our session by journaling out some thoughts, ideas, worries or goals that you have; and work together at discovering the why behind it and how to move forward. You can take a look at the different Aroma Freedom Sessions and see which one would be a good fit for you HERE.