You keep seeing articles on social media about journalling, half your friends are doing it too, but why? The answer is simple: because it has big mental health benefits! Read on to find out more…

Reducing anxiety

Keeping a journal can help reduce anxiety and enable you to take control of anxious thoughts. Writing down your feelings can help you to work through complicated emotions that can otherwise feel overwhelming.

If you are having anxious thoughts that just won’t go away, writing them down is a way of acknowledging them and getting them out of your head onto paper – usually bringing immediate relief. Once your problems and anxieties are down on paper it frees up space in your mind, making it easier to think of solutions.

In the same way, you can overcome self-limiting beliefs by writing down negative thoughts and reflecting on them. For example, a negative thought might be ‘I will never be fit enough to walk into town’, but once it’s written down and you’ve had chance to reflect on it, you may realise that it’s not entirely true. Maybe you will be fit enough to walk into town one day, you just need to build up your strength, stamina, or confidence. Your reflection might read, “If I try to walk a bit further every day for the next 3-4 weeks, I should then be able to walk into town’. You could even use your journal to chart your progress each day, to encourage you to keep at it.

Improving your physical health

In reducing your anxiety via journalling, you may notice a knock-on effect on your physical health also. Reducing anxiety can have a positive impact on your blood pressure, boost your immune system and lead to fewer headaches.

And of course, you can use your journal to set goals, keep track of your progress and motivate yourself to become fitter, eat healthier, quit smoking, or reduce how much alcohol you drink … all by writing it down.

Learning more about ourselves

Once repetitive negative thoughts have been transferred from out of your head onto the page (or screen) you can begin to relax. Used regularly you may start to identify triggers for your feelings, which can be quite a journey of self-discovery. Maybe you start to notice that your mood is always much lower the day after a night out with your friends – once you see patterns like this, you can do things to lessen the impact, such as building some time into your day to take a calming walk so that you can reset.

And you don’t just have to document what makes you feel stressed, angry or sad – knowing what makes you happy, excited and what makes you feel good about yourself is important too.

Other benefits…

Other benefits of journalling include:

• It can help boost your memory – writing something down can help you commit it to memory, as well as giving you the opportunity to recap later
• It can contribute to a good night’s sleep – getting those thoughts out of your head allows your brain to switch off at night
• It’s great for tracking and evaluating your goals and achievements
• It can improve your communication skills – there is thought to be a link between writing and verbal communication.

Ways to journal

Remember journalling is personal to you. You don’t have to confine yourself to paper, there are journaling apps you can download, you can set up your own blog, or you can use a basic word-processing programme on your phone, tablet or laptop.

Whatever format you decide to use, here are some ideas you might find useful:

• Journalling can be as simple as an idea journal – grab a notepad and write down your random thoughts and ideas as and when they come to you. Also know as a brain dump or brainstorming.
• You can use your journal in bullet points fashion – making lists or bullet pointing your thoughts and goals. The bullet journal (or Bujo) takes this technique to a whole new level.
• You can keep a traditional diary, especially if you are looking for that self-discovery – this might be the details of your day-to-day, a record of your mood, or it could be something like a reading or movie journal, where you write about the books or films you’ve read/watched in order to remember the storyline, and your thoughts and feelings about it.
• Or, if you are looking to turn your negative thinking around, you could keep a gratitude journal – this can be done in one of two ways: either by listing the things you are grateful for every day, or by writing a positive thing for every negative thing you’ve experienced that day; for example, if your negative thing is “was late leaving for work today, felt stressed” you might include the positive: “grateful I was running late because the bus was late too, so I didn’t have to stand in the cold as long”.

You can, of course, devise your own way to keep a journal. It can be as messy or as neat as you like. Add some stickers. Write in different colours. Even if it’s battered and covered in coffee rings… it doesn’t matter. Be consistent, and if you can’t think of what to write, draw a picture, write a poem, scribble down song lyrics that have meaning for you at that moment. Your journal is personal to you. Use it as you wish – but set those thoughts free from the cage in your head and enjoy the benefits it brings.

You can find more information about journalling here:

Journalling | Sheffield Mind

Journalling | Trauma Research UK

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