> If there isn’t a tension, a resistant, a sorrow, you didn’t make a break through.
Sounds masochistic. How can you determine whether this is helping or hurting? If you are regularly searching for things to make you sad and tense, you could be conditioning your mind to seek and find those things.
I think both you and GP are right. I think there's a sweet spot in between where you're both regularly seeking out the tension/load that comes with growth and simultaneously leaving space and room to reflect, relax, rest and repair.
Good mental health therapy is emotionally difficult, so you may be onto something. There is even some evidence that shows that self therapy can be effective (e.g., reading Feeling Good).
However, journaling as therapy is not very structured, and there is no compelling reason to continue when the going gets though. I wouldn't recommend it just yet instead of seeing a real, capable therapist.
> If there isn’t a tension, a resistant, a sorrow, you didn’t make a break through.
For some people maybe this works. For others like me this is a sure fire formula to make me drop the habit sooner than later, no matter how motivated I go into it.
If there is resistance, over time my mind will consider if what I'm doing is actually necessary, what are the consequences of fuck this, etc. That's its natural automatic process, which I believe is the healthy state (for myself). I know how to push through, just make it come up with more reasons to continue than to stop, but experience has taught me that when I do that I'm actually slowly hurting myself. I know I can over-exert myself, badly. Because it does not, in fact, get easier (for myself), and my life is not about setting up myself for failure :)
On the other hand, if I formulate the questions as a positive thing, I find I can keep it up for stretches of weeks or months. Even just a simple single thing like "write down 3 things you are grateful about". And I found it has great positive consequences. Evidenced by the fact that I started having to dig my mind to come up with 3 (I try to write genuine non-obvious things--I'm grateful having my limbs but I'm not writing that down each day), and after a while had to stop myself from not writing down 8+ every day. So achievement: more positive thoughts, unlocked :)
What’s the most uncomfortable thing you encountered today?
What’s the most uncomfortable truth you said out loud today?
What did you think about most today?
What did you mentally push aside today instead of thinking it through and openly saying your conclusions?
If there isn’t a tension, a resistant, a sorrow, you didn’t make a break through.