There are times when you are participating in healing activities that emotions arise and can be overwhelming. These emotions need to be released and writing in a burn journal is a helpful way to release these feelings.
Like other types of journals, a burn journal is meant to be kept private. But unlike other journals, a burn journal’s sole purpose is to eventually be burned. This journal is to become a special place for you to release your verbal vomit and vent your feelings.
In your burn journal, you can write whatever you want, however, you want to write it. Free from the pressure of presenting an image or being concerned with what others think, this allows you with the opportunity to be completely honest with how you feel. Even the use of foul language in your burn journal is encouraged if that is what it takes for you to be honest. If you are concerned with what others think, realize that there is a high chance that others already know how you really feel. You may be hiding the specifics, but others know you are hurting. You do not have to hide your hurt, your hate, your fear, your pain, or even your honest feelings from yourself anymore.
Keeping a burn journal helps you process any feelings that are coming up. When writing in your burn journal, it is important to remember:
1. This is a place where you are able to figure out how you are really feeling in a space that is free from any judgment. Do not judge yourself, instead, just let it all flow out.
2. A burn journal is a place where you can get all verbal vomit out in a way that it will not hurt or injure anyone. Writing in a burn journal will clean both your soul and your body from the emotional toxins. If left untreated, these emotional toxins can eventually become problematic to both you and your healing.
3. No one will ever read it. So, be honest and real.
4. In the end, you get to burn it.
Destroying your journal helps to release some of your emotions. Einstein discovered that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change from one form to another. An example of this is when wood or paper is burned, they turn into heat energy. Just like physical objects, emotions carry powerful energy. By writing them down, you are able to transfer that energy to paper as you write, and once it is burned, that energy is transformed. After your burn journal is burned and the energy has been transformed, you are finally free from it.
Burning is not the only way of changing energy. Shredding or another form of destroying the pagers and changing the energy. You can either wait to fill up an entire journal and then destroy it or you can burn or shred a few sheets of paper at a time as you write them. You can have a ceremony as you burn these sheets and celebrate the release of emotions and the transformation that you are experiencing.
After you complete your burn journal and destroy it, you may not be completely where you want to be; however, this does not mean you can’t celebrate the progress. It can be as simple as watching a movie, taking a bubble bath, having ice cream with a friend, getting a new pair of shoes, or having a massage. It is important to enjoy the process.
