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Did you know you can improve your mental health by journaling? It sounds too good to be true, but it is. While you may still need to visit a therapist or counselor, journaling can help you clarify your thoughts and feelings. Here’s how to get started.
Can You Improve Your Mental Health by Journaling?
Tell me I’m not the only one who read Anne Frank’s diary and promptly started a journal (with ‘Dear Kitty’ starting each entry). I’ve come a long way since my uninspiring journal entries. Ok, maybe my journal entries hold little inspiration, even today, for the average reader. Not that I would ever want anyone to actually read my journals.
I have boxes of journals in storage, filled with hundreds, maybe thousands of pages. Why? Journaling provides a way for me to process my feelings, emotions, and angst in a non-destructive manner. Most people don’t know I struggled with door-slamming and other emotional outbursts as a child. Journaling helped me learn to self-regulate. If I can improve my mental (and emotional) health through journaling, maybe you can improve your mental health the same way.
After writing in a journal for ten decades, I’ve discovered I turn to my blank pages whenever I feel the need to process strong emotions. If you’ve never tried to improve your mental health through journaling, this podcast will walk you through the steps to get started. Don’t worry, you don’t have to address your journal to ‘Dear Kitty’ in order to reap the benefits of journaling for your mental wholeness!
Show Notes
This article shares what researchers have discovered about journaling and mental health.
SCH 081 explains the concept of mental wholeness and why we should seek it.
Here are some links to the journals I use (and love).
Come Back Next Week!
Join me next week when I share self-care hacks for finding your pod (not your iPod…do they even make those anymore?).
Want to start journaling to improve your mental health? Find out how! #mentalhealth #mentalwholeness #selfcare Click To Tweet
I love my journal! I want to do a better job of making time to go back over old entries.
Every New Year’s Eve I read over my year’s entries in my Journal. It’s always a time of fruitful reflection to see God’s workings in my life for that year.
Journalling is a fruitful exercise & a great tool in the Therapist’s therapies kit too.
Bless you,
Jennifer
Tea With Jennifer recently posted…The Art of the Slow
I love journaling. I have quite a few journals too that I look through from time to time. It helps me remember what God was teaching me in the moment and what He was doing, how I clung to his promises. It is a form of therapy for me.
Karen Friday recently posted…Valley Promises From God Himself
Journaling has always my been my best way of processing all the things in my head! I also have bins of them in basement storage. I don’t write in journals often anymore because I sort of use my blog for that process now. But I do resort to it sometimes because it really is a wonderfully therapeutic resource.
Shelbee
I love journaling both writing and art journaling! I did not realize there were refillable journal covers. I might have to look into those. Blessings to you!
Journaling is something I like to do, too. I don’t have all my past journals as did throw many away. However, the therapeutic value of them still resides!
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I’ve got lots of journals in boxes in my attic. Nowadays I journal mainly with my computer, but I need to periodically print them out. Hmm…maybe that’s an item for my to-do list. 🙂
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This is such a struggle for me. I know journaling is good for me and I even enjoy it. And still I don’t make time for it.
Lauren Renee Sparks recently posted…My Top 10 Books of 2021
I’ve journaled since I was a teenager. And you’re right. Journaling has helped me identify and process through emotions in a way speaking never has. And God has a way of speaking to my heart when I take time to write down all that’s going on. I need to be more intentional in this season of my life to journal more often than I do.
I enjoy journalism and can definitely see the benefits but I’ve never been able to do it consistently. I’m usually only good at sticking with it when I need to process certain things.
Hi, I used to write in my diary regularly as a child, and I still sort out my feelings by writing them down. My poor husband has often received entire dissertations by email (or even WhatsApp) whenever I try to work out something, both in myself and in our relationship. I have also found blogging to be cathartic – in a way it is like journaling but using a different medium 🙂
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