After you've experienced a loss, journaling is a healthy way to release emotions that you may be keeping inside, and to help you move forward in your healing journey. Grief Counselor Joy Bishop, a clinically licensed social worker and a certified counselor in death and grief by Dr. Alan Wolfelt's Center for Loss and Life Transition, gives advice on the grieving process and the importance of grieving in your own way, at your own pace. Joy encourages those going through their grief journey to keep a journal. Here she gives a few tips for journaling to help you get started.

Keep writing when you start. Don't go back and re-read or edit what you wrote. Just keep writing without thinking about it too hard. The natural flow of your emotions will likely come pouring out and will feel therapeutic.

Write as if no one is judging you. Keep your journal private to you and write like no one will read it. Treat your journal like it is exclusively yours to release emotions and don’t hold back on what you write, this will help to get everything you’re feeling off your chest.

Forget logic and grammar when writing. Don’t think about how you’re writing, just let it flow naturally. Throw logic and grammar out the window when writing and just write for your own emotional health.

Use a prompt to get you started. If you are stuck on how to begin journaling, here are some prompts to get you going:

* What I want to hear from you...
* I am so angry with you for...
* We had a great time when we...
* No one but you made me feel...
* I am grateful for you because...
* I don't want to wake up in the morning without you because...
* You broke my spirit by...
* This sucks that you left my world. This is how it feels without you..

Writing your thoughts and feelings in a grief journal helps to you validate and process what you are going through and can be a powerful tool on your grief journey.