4 Great Tips to Help You Start Journalling for Your Mental Health
If you have ever thought about journalling before, then today’s post from Tina might just help get your off to the perfest start.
Today I’m sharing some tips to help you start journalling for your mental health. Journalling is a fantastic tool to help people work through their thoughts and feelings, and, as such, it has been proven to be extremely useful to those experiencing overwhelm, or mental health issues such as anxiety or depression.
Journalling for your mental health can help you to identify areas that you struggle with, including behaviours that add to your stress and anxiety, or behaviours that do not serve you in a positive manner. It can also serve as a great tool to encourage you to incorporate self care into your daily routine.
The Benefits of Journalling for Your Mental Health
Journalling may seem like a commitment, but it is in fact just another habit that can be learnt and perfected over time. Adopting journalling as a morning or evening habit can help you to better manage your thoughts, feelings, and even your time.
It’s practised by people all over the world and has a wealth of benefits, including:
- Being an outlet for emotions and feelings that you feel you’re unable to process in other ways (eg, talking to others)
- A cheap way to practise therapy
- A journey of self-discovery
- journalling is a tool that you can turn to in difficult times
If you want to start journalling for your mental health, here are four things to consider.
What are Your Expectations?
Before you start journalling for your mental health, you will want to take a moment to think about what your expectations are. Be realistic.
Writing in a journal alone is unlikely to change your life, but it does give you a solid foundation from which to begin making changes. Think about what you want to achieve by journalling and ask yourself what your goals are.
Get started by using your journal to document your life.
Much like a diary, keeping a journal presents you with the opportunity to document a dialogue with yourself. It allows you to record your progress over time by allowing you to make observations about your mental health.
Whenever you want to improve something in your life, you need to be able to see progress. That is why journalling is such a useful tool for those struggling with mental health.
It provides a great source of accountability, as well as a place for you to maintain your emotional well-being. This leads me to our next point.
Be Honest With Yourself.
For some, documenting life’s ups and downs may be a worrying prospect, however, you must remember that your journal is your very own private place. Somewhere to reflect upon your day, document your thoughts, and explore your deepest emotions without the fear of judgement.
Opening up to others can be difficult for many, but writing your emotions down in a book no one else has access to can be extremely cathartic. Journalling for your mental health is an amazing form of self care that many people do not consider when working on their mental well-being.
It allows you to not only pour your thoughts and feelings into the pages, but it also provides you with the opportunity to analyse and reflect. Because of this, it’s important that you are honest with yourself when journalling for your mental health, even if that may not be something that comes naturally to you.
You can use Journalling Prompts to Help you.
If you find that you are struggling to get started, why not take a look at some journalling prompts? Journalling prompts can be found online and can be in the form of a short phrase, or even a single word.
Using prompts when journalling for mental health can help to get you used to the idea of discussing your emotions and thoughts in your journal. It can also give you inspiration on days where you’re struggling to think of what to say.
Conclusion
There are many benefits to journalling for your mental health and there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do it. Some choose to start with a blank notebook and figure it out from there.
Others opt to purchase journals that are already filled with designated sections for thoughts, feelings, and gratitudes.
Some people choose to kill two birds with one stone and embrace bullet journalling, allowing them to express their creativity whilst also working on their mental health. Whatever path you choose, there are always plenty of prompts available online to help you to get into the swing of things.
Do you journal for mental health? Let me know your preferred method of journalling in the comments.
This post was written by Tina, who blogs over at GirlsGospel and MotherGeek. She’s shared a lot of her bereavement journey, as well as her experience of social media and depression
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I would never journal in case somebody sees it at any point.
I tried writing affirmations and gratitudes on A4 paper and sticking them up on the walls in my bedroom. They helped briefly until my nephew turned up unexpectedly on my doorstep one evening to stay for a couple of weeks and saw them. Oooops!
I do it all in my head now.
I wish I could keep up a journal! I think I concentrate too much on the aesthetic of it but I guess that helps in a way as it keeps me busy
During a tough time in my life, I was advised to keep a journal. It really helped me to identify the better parts of my life and not dwell on the bad all of the time
This is something I definitely need to start doing for my mental health
This is something that would be good for me. I tend to dwell on bed days. I like to emotional moe on.
I’ve never used a journal, partly because I think it would quickly become repetitive. Perhaps the bigger reason is that my emotions are so repressed I find it very hard to identify them!
I’ve tried it in the past but I really struggle with writing my thoughts down but I had a very repressive childhood so it’s inbuilt into me not to voice my thoughts and I know it’s not heathy but it’s so ingrained into me.
I received a journal type thing from my local health Authority, that was started by them a while ago, and it had my appointment that I had l;ast week, and my next appointment, but a place called the journal where you can record stuff yourself. So I am going to use that and there is piece before your next appointment,where you can note what you may want to say to the DR, it was quite clear that my Dr had read it. Thanks for the info, great reading, not to much
I use a dated journal, rather like a diary which covers five years so you can look back over previous years and can check back if there are any triggers at certain times of the year. I won this journal a few months ago so it is early days but I try to be honest about my thoughts and feelings, after all I would only be cheating myself
I have never wrote in a journal and I would be worried that someone else would read it
I do love writing and I I do find it helps so much with processing my thoughts and containing it into a small space rather than have it scattered up as thoughts in my brain causing anxiety.