When you were younger, did you use to keep a diary of all your private thoughts? It would include things like what you and your friends did that day, your current crushes, complaints about teachers giving you the most grief, and anything special or unique happening in your day-to-day at the time. Pulling out and reading your old diary can undoubtedly inspire a trip down memory lane. However, at some point in your life, the diary got put away, only never to be written in again. Why’s that?
In truth, we grow older, get busier, or simply forget. Writing in a diary no longer becomes a priority, especially since you have much less time to dedicate to yourself. Yet, why should daily journaling be something left behind for a teenage you? Why can’t you enjoy journaling into your adulthood? Great news: you can! Even better news: journaling has been found to affect an individual’s mental health positively. Whether you’re new to writing your thoughts down, or blowing the dust off your stationary supplies, journaling is an excellent way to manage symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety. Let Chapin & Russell Associates explain why journaling might be the right choice for maintaining your mental health.
What Does Journalling Entail?
Journaling can include anything you want it to! Most often, you’ll find individuals use journaling as an opportunity to write down some of their deepest thoughts as a form of expression. However, you don’t have to use a journal to only talk about yourself. Journalling can include fun writing exercises, to-do lists, funny ideas and quotes, general musings you’ve had, and more. Anything you can extract from your brain and write to paper is perfect material for your journal.
How Does Journalling Apply to Your Mental Health?
As you might exercise at the gym to stretch your muscles and stay in shape, journaling helps keep your brain limber and your emotional well-being regulated. While journaling isn’t the answer to every mental health struggle, it is an excellent self-care technique that more people are embracing. If you are considering writing in a journal yourself, here are some of the positive ways it can impact your mental health:
- Reduce Your Stress: Life can be stressful! Whether you’re dealing with hostile coworkers, a packed schedule, or unruly children, it’s enough to make anyone want to scream. Yet, journaling about your day can help reduce the impact of the stress you feel. By journaling, you can more easily process and rationally work through your emotions.
- Alleviate Anxiety & Depression: If you let intrusive thoughts and emotions get the best of you, your anxiety will only worsen. However, by journaling about these thoughts and emotions, you can slow your brain’s thinking down and more rationally work through the hypothetical scenarios that have your mind reeling.
- Increase Self-Awareness: If you never look inward at yourself, you risk staying in the same rut for the remainder of your life. Sometimes, self-reflection is necessary to improve yourself and your emotional well-being. Fortunately, self-reflection is made easier through journaling. By writing down your different traits, behaviors and feelings, you begin to understand yourself better.
- Improve Gratitude and Positivity: Sometimes, seeing the good through the bad in life can be challenging. This only becomes more difficult if you don’t take a moment to acknowledge the positive. You’ll only sink further into despair. Journaling allows you to write about things you’re grateful for, positive moments in your day, and other things that make you happy.
- Assist with Problem-Solving and Decision Making: Does indecision constantly paralyze you? You’re not alone. Just the thought of being wrong can instill panic in anyone. However, through journalling, you can take a moment to think through some of the more significant problems in your life. Journaling helps you view issues from different perspectives.
Where Can You Start?
The best part about journaling is you can do it any way you wish! Typing on a computer or writing on paper; however you wish to express yourself is up to you. Pro tip: do what makes you the most comfortable! Put some of your favorite music on, sit in a comfy chair, and get your cozy pants on; it’s time to write!
But what can you write about? The choice is yours. Whatever thoughts, feelings, emotions, questions, concerns, epiphanies, ramblings or musings you have can be expressed on paper. Yet, if you’re not a regular writer, it can still be a challenge to start writing without any direction. To this point, allow Chapin & Russell Associates to assist. Here are a few journaling prompts and ideas you can use to get you started:
- Gratitude Lists: Take a few minutes to write about what you’re grateful for daily. This could be as simple as a kind word from a stranger, a meal you shared with friends, or a moment of quiet you enjoyed. By practicing gratitude, you shift your mindset to focus on the more positive aspects of your life.
- Identify and Explore Your Feelings: What are you feeling right now? Be it happiness, sadness, frustration, excitement or something else, write it down! Describe these emotions in detail and try to uncover their source. Doing so can help you better identify your emotional triggers and patterns, helping improve your responses to challenges.
- Set Goals and Intentions: Do you have any ideas about what you want to accomplish tomorrow? In the next week? Maybe within the month or year? By making your goals clear in writing, you take the first step towards achieving them. You can continue to use your journal to track progress, which can, in turn, help boost your motivation and instill a sense of accomplishment.
- Reflect on a Challenge: Was there a recent problem or stressful moment in your life that you handled? What went well and what didn’t? Was there something you could do differently next time? Reflecting on recent life challenges can foster your problem-solving skills and build greater self-awareness.
- Affirmation Journaling: Write down some positive affirmations about yourself to reinforce self-love and confidence. For example, “I am capable of handling challenges” or “I deserve happiness and success.” Regularly reading and writing affirmations can shift your self-perception and build inner strength.
- Stream of Consciousness: Put that pen to paper (or fingers on a keyboard) and just start writing! Write whatever comes to mind without overthinking or censoring it. This freeform journaling technique helps clear any mental clutters, allowing you to better process your thoughts and feelings in an unfiltered way.
What More Can You Do for Your Mental Health?
Of course, journaling is just one method for better managing your emotional well-being. If your mental health concerns are deeper rooted, writing alone won’t cut it. The solution to your anguish can be identified through counseling from trained mental health specialists. If you wish to tackle the source of your depression, stress or anxiety, or are looking for help resolving issues of anger management, trauma recovery, substance abuse, eating disorders and more, Chapin & Russell Associates can assist. Get in touch with our counselors and schedule your first session by calling 309-681-5850.
