Journal Entries Analysis, Essay Example

As I started compiling journal entries, I quickly noted that the process of writing itself helps you cope with the stress irrespective of the content. Writing was kind of a self assurance that I will never forget the experiences I felt at the loss of my cat Tigger. Iwould tell myself that time will heal the pain but somewhere inside my heart, I was also afraid that time will make me forget Tiggerwho filled my days with happiness. Thus, writing my experiences and thoughts assured me that I will never forget the pain because by writing, I was making my experiences a permanent record.

Journal entries also provided useful clues to my personality. As I went through the entries, I developed some sense of the activities that are most useful in terms of cheering me up or relieving my stress. The first thing I noticed in journal entries was that it was not until July 16, about twelve days after my first journal entry that I got my first good sleep. The reason was that on July 16, I had the opportunity to talk with three people at grief counseling meeting at work where we each shared our experiences. From this I realized that I was making a mistake by trying to deal with everything by myself. By sharing your experiences with others you realize that you are not the only one who is going through pain. In my profession, we are taught to be emotionally strong otherwise we would not be able to help the patients. This is probably why I overestimated my ability to deal with the loss without any external support. I also found out that achieving my goal of 8 hours sleep is easier when I am feeling a little less stressed which proves the negative relationship between a good night sleep and stress level in my case.

On July 20 I reflected upon my experiences at a bereavement class two days earlier and realized how much I discovered about myself by talking with people. This made me realize that we are often unaware of our own strengths and weaknesses that may be apparent to others. Becoming aware of my strengths that I didn’t know about before made me appreciate myself more and gave me new energy to move on after the loss of Tigger. By July 22, I had realized why my energy level had been low in the days immediately following the loss of Tigger even though my daily work routine had not changed much. It seems I didn’t think that mental stress drains as much energy from the body as it did. I used to think that only physical activity drains a considerable amount of energy from the body while mental stress has a negligible effect. But then again, I had never suffered the level of stress before that Tigger’s loss triggered.

I have always been a well performer at my job but after reading all of my journal entries I realized that I am even more dedicated to my work now. Before I had a sense of responsibility to my patients but now I am better able to understand their pain. I did feel the loss of my patients before, too but probably not to the extent I do now since I have personally gone through a huge personal loss. The journal entry project went well since I succeeded in achieving my goal of 8 hours sleep. On July 28, I actually slept for around 9 hours. I also believe that the idea of rewarding myself was really effective because it further motivated me and when I did indulge, I didn’t feel guilty like I used to before. Now I would consider my indulgence as a deserving spending for successfully achieving a goal.

If I have to sum up the lessons learnt from this project, it is that the techniques we use to help and motivate others, they can also be used to our own benefits, for e.g. sharing our thoughts with others and rewarding ourselves for jobs well done. In addition, when we write, we are better able to express ourselves because we take the time to reflect upon our experiences. In addition, our writings also reveal useful clues about our personalities that we discover only by carefully studying them later.