Journaling & Your Mental Health

It is not a secret that I am a huge fan of journaling! I believe that everyone can benefit from keeping a regular journal and from writing down their thoughts. It can be a great tool for reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and anger. Journaling is also a great way to jumpstart your organizational skills, work toward personal goals, to meditate, let go of things, as well as to feel more peace in your life. 

Journaling is also a very convenient activity. You can do it in a physical paper journal, on your phone, and even on your laptop or other device. It can also be done practically anywhere and anytime. Whether you journal at home, on the go, at work during breaks, or on vacation, journaling can enrich your life and increase your mental health. 

TalkSpace therapists Bisma Anwar and Kate Rosenblatt give great advice, tips, and insights in their article titled “The Power of Journaling for Mental Health: A Therapist’s Guide.” They say:

What Does Journaling Do for Your Mental Health? 

Expressing yourself creatively, like when you write in a journal, is great for relieving stress and focusing on the things in life that aren’t serving you. You can use a journal to develop or practice healthy habits, set and work toward goals, or manage your mental health and improve anxiety, stress, or depression. Even just a few minutes a day can make a world of difference to your mental wellbeing. 

Common benefits of journaling

There are many reasons why people commit to journaling. The process of writing is inherently therapeutic. It can help you organize your thoughts, express yourself, and process and deal with your emotions — both good and bad — in a positive, healthy way. 

Other benefits of journaling can include:

• Reducing stress
• Identifying and tracking goals
• Achieving those goals
• Tracking problems so you can recognize triggers
• Finding inspiration
• Improving self-confidence
• Overcoming fears
• Identifying and addressing negative thoughts and behaviors
• Starting a habit of using self-talk and creating mantras

Mental health benefits of journaling

The benefits of journaling go far beyond just motivation and self-improvement. A review of 31 clinical studies on the use of journaling as an intervention determined it can indeed be effective as an adjunct therapy in addition to other evidence-based forms of treatment. 

Of the many positives journaling has to offer, topping the list are ease of implementation (with virtually no resources needed) and little-to-no risk of any adverse effects. Additional mental health benefits of daily journaling as a supplemental intervention can include: 

• Reduced mental stress and anxiety
• Coping with major depressive disorder (MDD)
• Managing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

How to Start a Mental Health Journal

Journaling for mental health can be a powerful self-help technique that you can start today. All you need is a notebook or paper, a pen or pencil, and a few minutes. You might try journaling if you feel stressed, are having anxiety, or find that you’re struggling with a problem. 

Don’t like to write by hand? No problem. You can even journal on your smartphone in a notes app or in a Google Doc from your computer or laptop. Use whatever method feels comfortable, convenient, and easy. The most important thing to do is just begin. 

Need help getting started? Try the following tips. 

Tips for successful daily journaling

People who start (and stick with) journaling often find the following strategies are helpful in the beginning. 

• Commit to writing every day. Doing something every day helps it become a habit. Simply set aside time for you to complete your journal. It can be every morning when you first wake up, in the evenings just before bed, or even during your lunch break.
  Some people find that keeping a dedicated, consistent block of time helps them stay on track. The reality is, though, you can journal any time of the day, and it doesn’t have to be the same from day to day. Use what works best for you.
• Plan a time, and possibly a place, to journal. You can journal in a comfy chair and side table, sitting up in your bed with pillows behind you, in the bath, sitting on a porch, or anywhere that feels like a peaceful, productive spot for your daily writing exercise.
• Set a time limit. If you feel like finding the time to journal is going to be stressful, set a goal. Maybe you can only commit to writing 5 or 10 minutes a day in the beginning. That’s fine! Work your way up to 15 or 20 minutes, or longer, as you become more comfortable with the process. 
• If being flexible works better for you, make that work. Some people thrive on schedules and formats, but they’re not for everyone. If you don’t need or want a specific place and time to journal, that’s perfectly OK. In that case, don’t tie yourself to the constraints of needing to be in a certain, special place to write in your journal. If you have a busy or unpredictable schedule, be open to fitting in your journaling when and where it works in your life.
• Be open to journaling in whatever way makes sense that day. Journals can be artistic, full of words, random brainstorming, bullet-pointed lists, or a combination of all of these. There’s no one-size-fits-all way to journal. If you want to draw one day, write a paragraph the next, and create a to-do-list the following, go for it. Above all, especially in the beginning, don’t worry about what you’re writing. Your goal is to become a habitual writer. Stuck? Write about that. It’s even fine to lament, logging things like I feel like this is so dumb, or I have nothing to write about, or I’m stressed that I should be doing x, y, or z. The longer you journal, the better you’ll become at it. Your journal is your own, unique recipe for improving your mental health and well-being. Organize it in whatever way makes the most sense and is the most helpful for you.
• Remember your journal can be private, or you can share it. You can use your journal in a multitude of ways. It can be a prompt you use with your therapist in weekly sessions, a way to guide you through difficult conversations and interactions, or it can be your own, private brain dump that nobody else will ever see.
• Write openly. While expressive writing, don’t edit yourself. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, syntax, or spelling. Letting your intrusive thoughts literally spill out of you can lead to breakthroughs and growth. You never know what might come from a journal session, so try to go with the process in an unfiltered, free-flowing manner. If you’re Type A, who just can’t stand it when things aren’t perfect, if you absolutely must go back and fix mistakes at the end, you can — but resist the urge to break up the flow of your entry while you’re writing.
• Use a prompt. If you’re journaling to help you cope with the symptoms of a specific condition, there are some things you can specifically do, depending on what your goals are. Using a template or prompt is helpful for many people, particularly in the beginning. 

Journaling for Anxiety

Journaling can bring peace into your life. It’s been shown in studies as a way to reduce anxiety in young adults when used regularly. 

You can journal for anxiety as a way to:

• Reduce anxious thoughts and feelings
• Identify things that trigger your anxiety
• Decrease feelings of distress
• Challenge your unhealthy and negative thought patterns
• Figure out resolutions to problems
• Understand, prioritize, and face your fears
• Improve your mood

Journaling for Depression

Journaling can be an effective way to manage symptoms of depression. When coupled with therapy and other forms of treatment — for example, medication or other self-help techniques — daily journaling can be incredibly successful. Research shows keeping a gratitude journal can improve your outlook on and quality of life and decrease psychological stress. 

You can journal for depression to:

• Become more aware of your symptoms
• Identify patterns of thinking and behavior that can lead to depression
• Take control of your emotions
• Refocus your viewpoints

Journaling for Stress 

We all face stress in life. Stress, on its own, isn’t bad. What you do with it, and how you handle it, can become the problem. When you’re overly stressed out, you can experience difficulties in personal and professional relationships, organization, motivation, and more. If stress management doesn’t come naturally to you, journaling might help. 

You can journal for stress to:

• Remind yourself of what you can, and cannot, control
• Prioritize your responsibilities so you can focus on the most important things first
• Grow as a person
• Process your emotions more effectively

18 Journal Prompts for Mental Health 

Prompts can give you direction and focus in your journal each day. You don’t necessarily need to use or follow a prompt every day, but if you’re ever having a hard time getting started, try one of the following to keep your momentum going. 

1. List X things you’re grateful for
2. Talk about the day you just had (evening journal)
3. Talk about your goals for the day (morning journal)
4. Identify a personal or professional goal; list X ways you’ll work towards achieving it
5. List your coping mechanisms and discuss how well they’re working for you
6. Do a 5 and 5 entry: Where you were 5 years ago; Where you want to be in 5 more years
7. Write a letter to your 10/20/40-year old self
8. Write a letter to your body; it can be an apology letter, a love letter, or a motivational letter
9. Describe who you are to someone you don’t know
10. Write down X emotions you regularly feel
11. Write a REMINDER entry to read on a bad day
12. Talk about the best goal you’ve ever reached
13. If you could be granted 3 wishes…
14. What’s your purpose in life?
15. Revisit your first memory
16. What is your biggest challenge in life right now?
17. What do you want to improve on?
18. What were the worst and best days of your life?

Don’t forget that whatever is good for your mental health is also impactful on your physical health. Journaling can help you to release tension, stress, anxiety, anger, and to feel more settled. The side benefit is that the more settled you are the better your physical health will be as well. When we do not process emotions or past events the emotions from those events can get stuck in our tissues and cause us issues. Journaling is a great way to start to clear some of that rubbish out.

I personally journal frequently and about a variety of things. Sometimes I am journaling about my emotions or things happening in my life, while other times I am journaling about goals or future plans. I even have a journal that is for my road trips where I journal what happens each day and what I experienced on the road.

One of my personal journal favorites is to write Morning Pages which are 3 page brain dumps, written each morning. You do not have to re-read what you wrote but just get it all out of your head every morning! This technique is also quite handy to do at night if you are struggling to fall asleep, brain dump it out! I grabbed this technique from the book The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. 

I have found that journaling keeps me grounded and helps clear my brain from intrusive or repetitive thoughts. It can be a great way to get what is in your head out and onto paper. If you haven’t journaled before, or it has been awhile, I highly recommend you give it a go! This is a topic I love to discuss with clients so please bring it up in your next session at Posture Massage!