Unlocking the Benefits of Journaling for Mental Health

The power of journaling for mental health.

And I think we hear a lot about Journaling and, does it really help? And those that journal can tell you that it is extremely helpful. Some of the benefits of journaling and when we talk about journaling, what does that mean? Literally writing down your thoughts. That is this big thing of journaling, is just writing down your thoughts, your stream of consciousness, writing down whatever is going on for you.

And so some of the benefits of journaling that research has shown is it reduces stress and anxiety. It improves your mood and emotional well being. It enhances self awareness, so it builds insight. And it also improves personal growth. It helps one process trauma and it helps you process difficult emotions.

Types of Journaling

So there's a lot of different types of journaling. Some of the four main ones that we hear about and that are really studied the most are Gratitude Journaling, Emotional Release Journaling, Goal Setting Journaling, and Reflective Journaling. So those are probably self explanatory, but I'll just do briefly what each one is.

So Gratitude Journaling is literally writing out statements like I am grateful for blank. So I am grateful for being able to wake up today and do my job. I'm grateful that I got to spend time with my good friend today.

Emotional Release Journaling is often when something is really stressful or maybe even traumatic has happened and you are literally just releasing emotions. So I felt sad that blank happened. I feel angry that blah, blah, blah.

Then there's Goal Setting Journaling. And that is, taking a big goal, say of wanting to run a marathon and you're writing the smaller goals of today I ran 2 miles tomorrow. My plan is to run 2.5 miles. I felt great after I ran those miles. I felt like I was purposeful today, that I accomplished what I wanted to do.

Reflective Journaling. This is when you are reflecting on the day. Reflecting on who you are, your value system, where you want to go. It's just a general sort of reflective practice of what has happened that day or in the past couple days. How did it make you feel? Is it something that you want to keep doing?

How to Start Journaling

So ways to start journaling. You're going to choose a type of journal that suits your needs. You're going to set aside time, regular time for journaling. So it might mean literally setting your alarm at a certain time each day.

For some people that's morning for others afternoon can be challenging because you're working, but if that works for you, great. Or maybe after work or before bedtime is another common time to journal. You're going to write freely without the self criticism. So I think that's the hard part is we like feel embarrassed or something like that.

It's literally just a free writing time. And then you're going to later want to reflect on the entries that you've done. And so that's a way to keep yourself accountable to be able to process, see how far you've come, all of those types of things.

Practical Tips for Journaling

So some practical tips. Start with short, consistent entries.

That doesn't mean you're sitting down for an hour or even 30 minutes. It might mean you're sitting down for two minutes. And you're starting it out. And then maybe you're increasing that up to five or 10 minutes. But you want to make things feasible so you actually do them again. You can use prompts if you feel stuck. So that means you could go to Google and ask what are some good prompts. And some prompts might be, what's one thing I did today that I'm proud of? Or again, this grateful idea, that's a huge journaling technique. Or what's one thing that made me feel confident today? Any of those prompts can be helpful. You want to keep your journal private and that way that'll encourage you to be honest. And then you want to combine journaling with other therapeutic practices. So with maybe talking to a therapist or meditating or going for a walk before, after any of those things.

Journaling is just another way, it's often used in conjunction with other mental health strategies.

And if you're having a hard time getting started, you could reach out to mental health professional at Therapy Now SF. We have a lot of therapists that will encourage journaling, or you can even bring your journal in and talk to a therapist about what you wrote.

I have a lot of clients who've done that in the past and it's a way to be self reflective and to process a little bit more, go a little bit deeper into those journal entries.