The Power of the Pen: Journaling for Mental Health

Effective journaling usually involves keeping a diary or journal exploring the thoughts and feelings associated with events in your life. When done well, it can lead to various forms of self-awareness and clarity that can have significant positive effects in a range of areas, including with mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, PTSD and stress.

Some ways that effective journaling has positive impacts include:

·       Increasing your self-awarenessof thoughts and emotions towards different situations, and so clarifying the connections between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. This allows you to take more control over your life, and put things in perspective.

·       Teaching you about your triggersthat lead to negative experiences.

·       Identifying problematic thought patterns(e.g. negative automatic self-talk) so you can combat them and let them go. This can help you to shift from a negative mindest to a more positive one.

·       Calming and clearing your mind. Self-awareness, action and change are promoted by reducing the swirl of thoughts, worries or rumination.

·       Providing an opportunity for you to release pent-up negative emotions. This can help you to process what you are feeling and perhaps even start to look at more positive perspectives. Or, when exploring positive experiences, you can maximise and savour these. 

·       Use as a problem-solving tool. You might find it easier to hash out a problem and come up with solutions on paper (e.g. working through options, considering multiple possible outcomes, or examining pros and cons).

·       Helping you reduce specific sources of stress.

·       Helping you reach an important goal.

·       Increasing your understanding of your struggles and your successes.

·       Tracking your progress in achieving change and recording your journey.

Effective Journaling Tips

Effective journaling is more than just downloading all your thoughts onto a page. To promote effective journaling, you might like to consider some of the following:

·       Write at least once a day and for a set amount of time (around 5 minutes is a good starting point). Time yourself.

·       Write somewhere that is comfortable, private and free from distractions. Using a book and pen you like can help.

·       Don’t pressure yourself to journal about anything specific. Rather, write about what feels right in the moment.

·       If you’re struggling to get started, think about what is going on in your life, and explore your current thoughts and feelings. Consider what you are currently trying to achieve or what you are avoiding.

·       Write in any form or structure that you like. 

·       Try to write in the present tense (e.g. starting with wording like “At this moment…”, or “Today…” might help). 

·       Start sentences with “I” statements (e.g. “I feel…”, “I think…”, or “I want…”).

·       Take some time to reflect after writing. Read over what you have written, take a moment to be still and calm (maybe practice some calm breathing or mindfulness), and write a couple of sentences about what you notice or feel, and any actions you would like to take. 

·       Keep your journal private. You should be the only audience.

But, most importantly, effective journaling is personal and different approaches and styles work for different people. Find what works for you and explore your inner world.  Remember that if life gets in the way, and you don’t journal as often as you would like, you can get back to it at any time. You may be surprised at the benefits of even occasional journaling.