“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear; my courage is reborn.” — Anne Frank

Queen Victoria, Marcus Aurelius, Anne Frank, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, and Benjamin Franklin were journalers. These were some of the famous people in history who used a journal to record their thoughts and day to day reflections.

But what is it about journaling that’s beneficial?

And is it simply about recording daily memories?

In my first year of high school, I started journaling after being bullied (by women) in school. No one taught me about journaling. I just intuitively begun writing in a small notebook.

To this day, I remember that notebook; it had a “Casper the friendly ghost” design (you’re probably a 90’s kid like me if you remember the cartoon and movie).

I started writing because I needed a safe way to vent and express myself. Back then, since I was young, it was the typical “Dear Diary” type of journaling wherein I narrated what happened throughout the day. Usually, the bad things that happened. It was mostly about recording painful memories and experiences that I wanted to stop ruminating about.

Over time, my journaling has evolved — as it should with maturity — to more deep reflections. I use a journal to reflect on my life, plan my goals and dreams, reflect and analyze why certain interactions or situations triggered me.

I also journal about what made the day great and what made me feel happy on a particular day. Further, I also reflect and write about how I can improve, what I’m grateful for, and my “wins” or achievements I’m celebrating.

Sometimes, I don’t write. I doodle, draw, and paint on it instead. Or, place photos like a scrapbook (which is why I prefer a blank unlined notebook/journal).

I discovered that journaling is a great tool for reflection, self-examination, planning, and dreaming that helped improve my life by improving my wellbeing.

So I’d like to share with you the reasons, based on my experience, why journaling is good for your mental health.

How Your Mental Wellbeing Can Benefit From Journaling

1. You Can Gain Mental Clarity & Self-Awareness

Journaling is a form of contemplative practice that can help us to be still and be mindful. Stillness and mindfulness then pave the way for mental clarity.

And when our mind is clear, we feel more calm and relaxed. We also make better life decisions that will not be harmful to our wellbeing.

Further, because of introspection or reflection inherent in journaling, we become more self-aware.

Self-awareness is crucial because to prevent and alleviate mental suffering (caused by depression or anxiety, for example), being aware of our triggers and what coping strategies work for us is essential.

Moreover, while journaling, you can challenge your distressing thoughts and the negative stories you tell yourself and ask yourself questions such as: Is what I’m thinking and the stories I tell myself really true? What is this situation trying to teach me? How can I cope? Can I gain wisdom from this experience?

Asking yourself these questions can help you gain clarity, a different perspective, or even reframe the situation that’s causing you suffering.

2. Helps You Process Difficult & Negative Emotions

I believe journaling helped me get through the difficult times in my life by providing catharsis. Writing down my concerns, fears, worries, anxieties, and pains is therapeutic and calming.

Psychiatrist Dr Dan Siegel coined the term “name it to tame it” as a way to deal with negative and strong emotions. He shared the study conducted about the effect of naming or labelling emotions.

It turns out when we name or label the strong emotions that we’re feeling, soothing neurotransmitters get released in the brain, which calms us down.

The calming effect of naming emotions could explain why I feel better and calmer whenever I acknowledge the strong and negative emotions by naming them through writing. This act lessens the intensity of the negative feeling.

For this reason, journaling is a great tool to use (in conjunction with therapy and coaching if needed) to help you process and alleviate negative and difficult emotions.

3. Helps You Cultivate & Savour Positive Emotions

Journaling is not only beneficial when it comes to dealing with negative emotions. It can also help you cultivate and savour positive emotions by spotlighting the good things in your life.

For instance, I journal about what I’m grateful for, accomplishments I’m celebrating, and specific situations, people, or interactions that made me happy.

By doing so, I become more aware of what I want more in my life and the actions or behaviours that make me happy (so I can do more of it).

Further, whenever I write down what I’m grateful for, I develop the character strength of gratitude, which is strongly linked to happiness. I’m also constantly reminded about all the positive things in my life, overriding our brain’s innate negativity bias. (Our brain has a negativity bias to keep us safe. It’s very good at remembering the bad or negative things that happen to us but quickly forgets the good ones).

In turn, these positive memories and experiences can be savoured or relived in our minds as we write. Research in positive psychology has found that savouring promotes positive emotions. And in my experience, it’s been helpful to go back to the positive things that I’ve written whenever I’m feeling down.

4. Helps You Feel Inspired & Motivated

I love inspirational and motivational quotes, especially from people I admire or consider as my mentors. Writing them in a journal helps me to reflect on them. It also serves as a reminder whenever I need to feel inspired and motivated.

Aside from writing down quotes that inspire and motivate me, I also journal my goals and plans. Doing so makes me feel optimistic about the future. It provides me with a guide and something to look forward to, which I find motivating too.

5. Provides You With A Safe Space For Self-Expression

Not everyone would like to or have the resources to go to therapy or work with a coach. There are also private thoughts and circumstances that you may not be comfortable sharing with another person.

In these cases, journaling provides a safe, free, and non-judgmental space for you to fully and authentically express your innermost self, which benefits your mental health.

You can write down your big dreams that you might be uncomfortable sharing with someone (because you might be misunderstood, criticized, or not be supported).

Or, write about family and work frustrations (that could be unsafe to share with the person involve).

You can also draw and paint on it or glue pictures that inspire you. Your journal is yours and yours alone, so you are free to express yourself in various ways as you please!

6. It Can Help You Sleep Better

Suppose you’re like me, who’s prone to insomnia caused by anxiety and overstimulation due to my highly sensitive nature and negative developmental past. In that case, journaling can help prevent and alleviate sleeplessness.

There are various reasons why people experience insomnia. The common causes are anxiety, depression, and rumination. Constant rumination (repeatedly thinking or obsessing about the same thoughts), which is also common in depression and anxiety, increases brain activity.

Increased arousal and brain activity can then result in our inability to fall asleep. As a consequence, lack of sleep can either cause or exacerbate depression and anxiety.

To-do lists, upcoming presentations or interviews, specific situations you find triggering, etc., can cause worries, sadness, and rumination. Journaling about these thoughts can help calm you down and quiet the mind, allowing you to fall asleep and have a better sleep.

Tips On Starting Your Journaling Practice

In case you’d like to try journaling, here are some of my tips.

• Use your journal as a tool for growth, healing, and self-development. Reflect on not just what’s bothering you or not going right in your life, but also the good things in your life that make you happy. For the things causing you distress, how can you develop resilience, improve, and gain wisdom from it?
• Start small. You don’t have to write a lot if you don’t want to. You can even use bullet points instead of paragraphs if you like.
• Include it in your daily routine – or not. You can do it daily to plan for your day or process what happened during the day, or only whenever the need or inspiration arises. Do what works for you.
• Get into a place of stillness. Go outside in nature or find a quiet place in your home away from distractions. It’s easier to reflect, and you’ll benefit more when you’re in a peaceful surrounding, and your mind is still.
• Remember that you have the freedom to say and do as you please. Take advantage of that freedom by not censoring yourself.
• Don’t limit yourself with words. Use drawings and pictures if that will help you express yourself better.
• Find out which type of journal works best for you. Do you need prompts, or do you prefer a blank one?
• Have fun! You don’t have to take journaling so seriously if you don’t want to. Have fun with your new best friend!  

Key Takeaway

Journaling is a great tool to use to help us improve our mental health. It helps improve our mental wellbeing through self-expression, processing negative emotions, and cultivating positive emotions.

It’s also a way to gain mental clarity, better sleep, and self-awareness to aid in our healing, growth, and self-development.

Now It’s your turn

1. Reflection: If you have a journal practice, what’s its role in your mental wellbeing, growth, and self-development? If you haven’t been journaling, do you think you’ll benefit from it too?
2. Action Step: Write an entry in your journal. You can write about the five things you’re grateful for today or write down and savour an experience that made you happy.

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts. Do you journal? If you do, how has it benefitted your wellbeing?

Reference

Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. (2014, December 9).  Dan Siegel: Name it to Tame it [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcDLzppD4Jc