Whether you’re keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it’s the same thing. What’s important is you’re having a relationship with your mind.
- Natalie Goldberg
Journaling has been proven to be a useful tool not only for positive psychology and building up general well-being, but also for those who struggle with their mental health. When any individual works on journaling, they will see the benefits affecting every aspect of their lives. Here are at least 10 benefits of journaling and why especially those with mental illnesses need to use it as a tool for personal growth and healing.
It helps you navigate through intense thoughts and emotions- especially if you are not ready to talk about them yet.
Many mental disorders bring intense emotions that are difficult to work through. Furthermore, it’s common for those struggling with their mental health to have had past experiences and memories that lead to these emotions and feelings. However, it can be difficult to work through these events and feelings with a friend, let alone with a therapist. Journaling gives individuals a chance to work through these emotions in a judgement free zone before bringing them up to a professional.
It’s also been shown that traumatic events lead to memory loss as a subconscious way to cope. Recording these events and working through them can help you remember why it makes you feel a certain way- further helping you work through these emotions.
2. Journaling can help reduce the negative affect and overidentification with negative emotions.
Similar to the previous benefit, journaling also helps individuals detach from these negative emotions. It can be easy to self-identify yourself as what you are going through. For example, there are no suicidal people, only people with suicidal thoughts. You are not your emotions and you don’t have to be limited by them.
Working through these emotions through journaling allows you to detach from them and have a healthier relationship with your mind and emotions.
3. It increases your confidence and self-control.
Journaling is useful for breaking habits or addictions. It helps you have more confidence in yourself, rather than spending time overthinking and doubting what you have done. Being able to build up your personal image will help you be more confident as you face life.
4. It not only helps you work through bad days, but also helps you remember your highlights and triumphs!
While journaling does help work through traumatic experiences, it also allows you to record the good days! It’s important to remember to celebrate the happy days too. Being able to record those days or even just moments help you be better at positive thinking. Rather than getting stuck in a cycle of thinking you’ll never get better or things couldn’t possibly get worse, you’ll be able to remember the times it did get better or the little reasons why it really wasn’t as bad as you thought.
5. Journaling encourages positive thinking and overall emotional well-being.
A part of overall emotional well-being is being able to process your emotions in a healthy way. Focused and purposeful journaling will help you see the positive side. You are quite literally retraining your brain to see the good in everything. It’s the same way a pianist trains their fingers to tap the keys or a runner practices for a marathon. Developing the skills to be a positive thinker won’t happen overnight, but journaling will help that get better. Being better at positive thinking will help boost your overall emotional well-being.
6. It helps you connect with your “authentic self.”
Many mental illnesses feel like a battle with yourself. Whether that is literally in the form of dissociation or even just feeling like the depression, OCD, anxiety, or other illnesses just “aren’t you,” journaling can help with that. It allows you to find your voice as you are writing. It helps you think through your emotions and find who you are at the core.
7. Journaling helps you identify what is causing your stress and anxiety which in turn empowers you to take control of your mental health.
Rather than letting your mental health control your life, you can use journaling to identify what causes your stress and anxiety. Working through things helps you figure out why it’s bothering you. There is always an underlying cause for our emotions and actions. Once you figure that out, you can identify if there are triggers or if there are things you can work on to get better.
Whether that means slowly working up to doing something that makes you anxious or even just making sure you get enough sleep and drink enough water, journaling allows you to take back control over your own life.
8. It can improve your day-to-day actions and relationships with others.
Being better at processing your emotions will help you be able to better focus on your day. This means that you’ll be more productive at your school, work, and personal lives. It builds emotional reliance so that small problems (or even major ones) won’t shake your day up so much. Additionally, you’ll find that your relationships with others will improve. You’ll be able to be more empathetic and bond with others, rather than being stuck in survival mode in dealing with your own difficulties.
9. Because it helps you better process emotions, it also improves your overall physical health and immune system.
Your physical and mental health are directly linked. How you treat your mind can affect what happens with your body. Being able to have a healthier mind will therefore lead to a healthier body. Not only will you find that the physical symptoms of mental illness (like being tired, shaky, or even having a racing heart) will get better, but having less stress means having a better immune system. This in turn means that you won’t be as susceptible to other common physical illnesses. Mental and physical health goes hand-in-hand so taking care of one means you are taking care of the other!
10. Journaling is a tool that helps propel you towards your goals and bring your vision to life (no matter how big or small).
Overall, journaling can be a way to set goals in your life, whether related to your mental health or not. These can be major things or even just something as simple as working on complimenting one stranger every day. Being able to set goals can help you achieve more with your life and overall help you head in the right direction. Goal setting gives you something to work on and focus on while also giving you little reasons to celebrate.
It also helps to set goals for improving your mental health. Being in a better place mentally can be a long journey, but it is possible. Setting goals helps make that goal a little more realistic and possible.
Citations:
83 benefits of journaling for depression, anxiety, and stress. PositivePsychology.com. (2021, July 15). Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling/.
Ahmed, S. (2016). An attitude of gratitude: A randomized controlled pilot study of gratitude journaling among parents of young children (Order No. 10114813). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1802533777). Retrieved from http://erl.lib.byu.edu/login/?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/attitude-gratitude-randomized-controlled-pilot/docview/1802533777/se-2?accountid=4488
Blake, J. A., & Search for more papers by this author. (2017, August 3). Write to health: Journaling can enhance psychotherapeutic process. Psychiatric News. Retrieved October 13, 2021, from https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2017.7b20.
Goodman, J. T. (2019). Reflective journaling to decrease anxiety among undergraduate nursing students in the clinical setting [ProQuest Information & Learning]. In Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences (Vol. 80, Issue 1–A(E)).
Horton, A., Gibson, K., & Curington, A. (2021). Exploring reflective journaling as a learning tool: An interdisciplinary approach. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 35(2), 195-199. 10.1016/j.apnu.2020.09.009
Journaling for mental health. Journaling for Mental Health - Health Encyclopedia - University of Rochester Medical Center. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentID=4552&ContentTypeID=1
Kim-Godwin, Y. S., Kim, S.-S., & Gil, M. (2020). Journaling for self-care and coping in mothers of troubled children in the community. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 34(2), 50–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.02.005
Rachel Mims (2015) Military veteran use of visual journaling during recovery, Journal of Poetry Therapy, 28:2, 99-111, DOI: 10.1080/08893675.2015.1008737
Sackett, C. R., & McKeeman, A. (2017). Using Visual Journaling in Individual Counseling: A Case Example. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 12(2), 242–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2016.1246993