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Who Answers?Journaling in order to help you in AA can be extremely beneficial, especially when you are also attending residential rehab. Call
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to find facilities that will cater to your needs and allow you to recover as safely as possible.
Why Should I Keep a Journal During My Alcohol Recovery?
All components and stages of your treatment can benefit from journaling, as well as your overall outlook on your recovery. It is important to write in your journal whenever you can and to be honest about your thoughts. Even though none of the 12 steps explicitly tell members to keep a journal, doing so could truly be helpful to you during your early recovery and beyond.
Choosing––and Communicating with––Your Higher Power
Journaling is especially helpful to those who feel uncomfortable praying or meditating.
Step two of the program states, “We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity,” according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It can sometimes be daunting at first to decide what this power may be, how you can understand it for yourself, and how it can help you. Journaling can be very helpful toward allowing you to choose and then communicate with this power.
During your journal writing, you can list the things that are most important to you. This can help you choose your higher power, an extremely personal task. Also, if you feel uncomfortable with prayer or meditation or you believe it would be easier to do so through journaling, you can write down what you are thinking and what you would like to say to or ask of your higher power in a very personal and private manner.
Self-reflection and Journaling
You will have long discussions with your counselor in your residential program, and your AA meetings will often require equal parts listening and sharing. But it is important to consider all of what you may have said and learned later by writing in your journal. This time allows for immense self-reflection, which is incredibly important toward allowing what happened in both programs to sink in. You may decide to let your counselor read your journal in order to better help them understand your feelings and thoughts, or you can keep it private.
How to Implement Meditation into Your AA Practice
The eleventh step of Alcoholics Anonymous is “We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out” (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). While prayer can be an important part of…
A Reminder of Your Time in Alcohol Treatment
When you leave your residential program, your journal will likely benefit you in many ways still. It can be very helpful to continue this activity, but looking back on your old journal from rehab can help show you how far you have come and how your needs, goals, and beliefs have come to change through your recovery.
Seek Addiction Treatment Now
The US Department of Veteran Affairs states that those who “participate in 12-step [programs] tend to experience better alcohol and drug use outcomes than do individuals who do not participate in these groups.” AA works, and journaling can help make a key difference in your ability to embrace the program.
We can help you find treatment facilities that utilize the 12 steps as well as a number of other options in order to begin your recover from substance abuse today. Call our helpline
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