Journaling is a simple yet effective tool for navigating stressful and anxious moments. It can be a significant part of your treatment plan, or simply a useful hobby to help cope with negative or intrusive thoughts.
It is an excellent tool for improving mental health. All you need to get started is a little bit of time and the writing medium of your choice.
Understanding how and why journaling works can help you leverage its usefulness in your daily life. In this article, we’re exploring how to start journaling.
How Does Mental Health Journaling Practice Work?
At its heart, journaling is just about writing what comes to mind. It doesn’t always need to be structured or sensible. It doesn’t always need to serve a purpose outside of creating a safe and private space to vent. You can set yourself a goal for the day or choose not to.
You can aim to fill a page, hit a word count, or just put a single sentence on paper per day. Some people use journaling to create stream-of-consciousness rants, channeling a little bit of frustration away from themselves and expressing their thoughts and emotions openly.
Other people make lists, create dreams, write stories, or use their journals as a way to chronicle how they feel, examine and re-examine their thoughts on paper, and create rebuttals to all their negative and unwanted emotions, in an attempt to deal with the feelings they dislike. Journaling is also a valuable tool for exploring your feelings and emotions, helping you gain insight into your inner experiences. When dealing with unwanted emotions, journaling can help you process difficult emotions by allowing you to be honest and authentic about what you are experiencing.
There are multiple ways in which journaling seems to provide a benefit not only to people struggling with their mental health journey but to everyone, especially during challenging times. The act of journaling can be cathartic, providing a sense of relief by creating an outlet for whatever is on our mind.
Journaling is also one of the most effective exercises in overcoming rumination, a common issue for many anxiety disorders and different mental health issues, where a person is caught in a cycle of negative thoughts, one leading to the next, like an ouroboros.
To recap:
- Journaling requires you to put words on paper, whether physical or digital.
- Journaling can help you vent about your day and provide cathartic relief for frustrating thoughts and feelings in the present moment.
- Journaling allows you to take the time to explore your unwanted or intrusive thoughts and break them down.
- Gratitude journaling gives you the chance to break free from a cycle of negative thoughts and challenge them objectively, on paper, to move on to a healthier sense of self-awareness.
- Journaling encourages positive self-talk and helps you gain perspective on your situation, allowing you to detail everything you’re worried about and angry about, while also taking the time to note down things you’re grateful for, happy about, or things that inspire you.
- Journaling helps you organize and declutter your mind amidst negative emotions, address issues that bother you, and work through problems in your head that preoccupy you and keep you from focusing on the tasks at hand.
- Journaling can elevate your mood, enable personal growth, and improve your well-being regardless of your mental state, and is particularly effective for patients with anxiety and anxiety-related symptoms.
Here’s how to start journaling for mental health.
Creating a Comfortable Space for Expressive Writing
Creating a comfortable space for your journaling practice can make a significant difference in how you feel and the mental health benefits you experience. When you set aside a dedicated, comfortable space for journaling, you give yourself permission to slow down, relax, and truly focus on your emotions and thoughts. This positive environment encourages you to express yourself openly and honestly, which is crucial for processing emotions and promoting your overall mental well-being.
Start by choosing a spot where you feel at ease – this could be a cozy corner of your room, a favorite chair by the window, or even a quiet spot outside. Make your space inviting by adding items that help you feel calm and inspired, such as soft lighting, a warm blanket, or your favorite mug of tea. Reducing distractions, like turning off your phone or letting others know you need a few minutes of privacy, can help you stay present and focused during your journaling sessions.
Remember, your comfortable space doesn’t have to be elaborate or perfect. The goal is to create an environment that feels safe and supportive, where you can freely express your thoughts and emotions. By making your journaling space your own, you’re more likely to look forward to your journaling practice and experience the many benefits it can bring to your mental health and emotional well-being.
Getting Started with Journaling Prompts
If you’re interested in giving mental health journaling a try on your own, it helps to add a little bit of structure to your journaling efforts by giving you a quick explanation of how to set up a journal of your own. Consider using journaling prompts to guide your writing and help you explore your thoughts and emotions more deeply.
It’s usually best to choose a writing style that suits your personality and the issues you’re addressing. How do you like to organize your thoughts or tackle issues? Do you prefer to tackle questions in your mind via bite-sized bullet points, or are you more comfortable writing and making things up as you go along?
When journaling, the choice on what to write or how to write it is entirely up to you – and best of all, you can easily switch and swap styles, try out new ideas, or go completely off-script and incorporate poetry or storytelling as a way to work through your worries. Developing positive habits through consistent journaling can enhance your overall well-being. A few ideas to improve your journal practice include:
Bullet Journaling for Clarity and Gratitude
Use bullet points to jot down crucial thoughts or emotions, especially the ones that make you angry or upset, and balance them by noting things you’re grateful for or happy about.
This approach helps you see both sides of your mental landscape and can make it easier to find perspective. You can also use bullet journaling to organize your thoughts, create to-do lists, or record details you don’t want to forget later. Over time, this method becomes a powerful tool for tracking progress and decluttering your mind.
Narrative Writing for Processing Experiences
Try narrative writing as a way to process experiences and make sense of the events in your life.
By telling your own story, you gain the ability to view your challenges with distance and clarity. Writing in a narrative format can reveal patterns, highlight lessons, and allow you to rewrite the meaning of your experiences in a way that fosters growth and healing.
Dream Journaling and Morning Reflections
Consider writing down your dreams each morning you remember them. While there’s no definitive science behind dream interpretation, reflecting on them can reveal subconscious worries, desires, or ideas that influence your daily life.
This type of journaling can help you explore what’s beneath the surface and serve as a creative starting point for deeper self-reflection. Morning journaling can also set a positive tone for your day—an intentional check-in that helps you approach your morning with awareness and focus.
Sketch Journaling for Creative Expression
Your journaling practice doesn’t have to rely solely on words. Sketching can be a powerful outlet for both emotion and creativity. Choose a daily or weekly subject—like a favorite tree, your pet, or even your morning coffee—and draw it regularly.
These sketches can reflect your mood, mark your growth, and offer a mindful break from verbal expression.
Stream of Consciousness Writing for Emotional Release
Stream-of-consciousness journaling involves writing freely without worrying about grammar, structure, or logic. Let your thoughts flow as they come, no matter how disorganized or repetitive they may seem. This practice can be deeply cathartic, allowing you to vent emotions, uncover hidden thoughts, and experience relief simply by getting everything out onto the page.
You can choose to type your journal and keep it electronically or write it down on paper or e-paper, or both. Writing is often preferred by therapists because the act of writing itself can slow you down compared to typing, provide a rhythmic exercise to work on mindfulness, and can be calming.
Typing allows you to get your thoughts down faster, making it a better choice for stream-of-consciousness journal entries, where the idea is to capture as many thoughts as possible or write whatever comes to mind.
Schedule Your Daily Journaling Sessions
Mental health journaling is most effective when practiced with consistent effort. Journaling occasionally might provide a brief moment of relief. Still, by incorporating it into your daily or weekly schedule, you can create a habit that helps you preemptively manage stress, cope with stress, keep your mood in check, tackle anxieties before they grow, and figure out what recurring thoughts or patterns might become too much for you to handle on your own before they overtake you. Journaling can also help you manage emotions and mental health by providing a structured way to process and reflect on your experiences. Additionally, journaling is especially beneficial for people diagnosed with mental health conditions, such as depression or anxiety, as it can support symptom management and overall well-being.
Set aside a timeslot each day or week to dedicate to your journal, either in the mornings or in the evening, as a start to each day, or as a pleasant mental nightcap.
Consider Seeing a Professional
Journaling can be an effective tool for navigating your thoughts and establishing different ways to work through them, examine them on paper, or release them from your system. It is often used to help manage symptoms of depression and major depressive disorder, providing a supportive way to process emotions and improve mental health.
But don’t let journaling be the only tool in your repertoire. Suppose you struggle with depressive, negative, or anxious thoughts to the point of finding it difficult to concentrate on your day-to-day. In that case, it’s essential to consider getting professional help to work through those thoughts and develop a plan that works for you. Depression journaling can be a valuable supportive practice, but it is most effective when combined with therapy or other treatments.
A recent meta-analysis of research studies supports the effectiveness of journaling and expressive writing as part of mental health treatment, especially for conditions like depression and anxiety.
While journaling can be a meaningful part of your mental health journey, it’s not always enough on its own. If you or someone you love is struggling to manage anxiety, depression, or overwhelming emotions, additional support can make all the difference.
At Visions Treatment Centers, our team provides compassionate, evidence-based care to help teens and families navigate challenges with guidance, safety, and understanding. Reach out today to discover how we can help you on your path toward healing and emotional well-being.
