We all have days when we feel overwhelmed, emotionally distressed or just feel “off” sometimes. On such days we may also feel low, isolate ourselves, be irritable, less focused in our work and feel unsatisfied with ourselves or our lives. As of today, there are multiple resources for information on mental health online and many of them suggest journaling as a way to process ones thoughts and emotions. But how do we start journaling? What are the ways in which it can benefit us?
Journaling is the process of writing down your thoughts and feelings in order to gain perspective, process difficult emotions and regulate one’s thoughts and behaviors. The simple act of writing itself is very therapeutic and leads to insights in one’s own psychology. It has been used as a simple and effective technique for processing situations since years. It has many benefits such as:
- Distancing oneself from one’s thoughts can help us deal with them logically.
- Increases introspection
- Helps in expressing emotions
- Helps reduce anxiety
- Makes one less prone to become overwhelmed with emotions
- helps with acceptance of the present moment or life situation
- Stress management
- can improve coping skills
There are many ways that one can use to start journaling. Different formats with focus on different aspects of one’s mind can yield varied outcomes for one’s mental health. But there are few key things to remember while doing any form of journaling. Firstly, allow yourself to express freely. It may be challenging sometimes but try to get your vulnerability on the paper. Secondly, don’t judge whatever comes up and keep an open mind. You are trying to create a safe space for yourself to express and process. So no need to make it harder by negatively evaluating your thoughts and feelings. Lastly, give it time. You may not have anything on your mind when you begin and that’s okay. Put your pen to the paper and start writing. Eventually something or the other will come up provided you give it enough time. Now, let’s look at some of the ways in which you can start journaling.
- Freestyle writing
As the name suggests, this method is simply you allowing yourself to write whatever comes up in your awareness. Be the conscious space for it and express openly. You may wrote about situations in your life, your thoughts and feelings about them, your behaviors, ideas, beliefs, helpful suggestions to yourself, etc. Even if what is coming is negatively charged for eg. Anger, frustration or even hatred, let it flow out of you. This technique is very cathartic and can calm you down when you are overwhelmed.
- Writing thought records
There are many formats of writing thought records that are freely available on the internet. You can start with making columns and writing the date, the situation, the thoughts you had about the situation, your emotions and how intense they were on a scale of one to ten, and what can be a more helpful or positive alternate thought you can practice about this situation. This makes five columns. If you simply wish to note down the situation, thoughts and emotions, that is also fine. Be genuine and identify what your thoughts are and whether they helped you deal with the situation or made you feel negatively. This technique will make you aware of some dysfunctional negative thought patterns and give insight into your cycles of thinking and feeling.
- Emotional inventory
Write the emotions that you felt in the day and how intense they were. Note down bodily sensations and outcomes of the emotion on your behavior. If this leads to freestyle writing then allow yourself to do it. If you are having trouble identifying the emotion, use the emotional wheel which has names of many emotions and is freely available online. Don’tjudge your emotions. Remember: your emotions are valid. They may not be a good guide for behavior but they are valid. This method will make you more aware of emotional patterns, triggers of emotions, and can bring suppressed, unconscious emotions on the surface.
- Writing about past events
There may be events from your past which you are still carrying the weight of and unconsciously suppressing emotions about them. Resentments, regrets, anger, fear are all connected to some past experiences that were painful. Write them down without judgement. Start with writing only the incident as is happened, no interpretations or thoughts, then after that note down your thoughts about it now and the emotions you felt then and what u are feeling as u write now. Remember to be kind to your past self and others. Do not write for more than half an hour at a time as it may trigger you a lot. After writing, Do a relaxing activity that brings you in the present moment instead of remaining in the thoughts of the past, for eg. Meditation, breathing exercises, walking in nature, dancing, etc. This is a great way to process and let go of old attachments, thought patterns and pent up emotions and helps one in taking responsibility for their emotional baggage.
- Visual journaling
This involves using art to express what you write. You can draw, stick cut outs from magazines that represent a thought, idea or emotion, use colors, draw characters, whatever you feel like doing to visually express what you feel. It’s a calming method which makes the process fun and creative!
- Stream of consciousness journaling
In this method, you start writing and you keep going. Try not to pause too much and just allow your stream of consciousness to spill out on paper. It doesn’t have to always make sense, it can be as random as you want it to be. You keep writing until you are ready to stop. No judgement, but an attitude of acceptance will help you understand your mind better. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous or weird it is, just keep writing. A very useful method to gain insight and become aware of your mind in the present moment.
There are many more journaling techniques online. Whichever you pick, or dodiffdrent oneseach day, It is important to make it a daily or a regular practice. Consistency is key here. To gain insight and become aware, we need time. To allow suppressed baggage to come up, we need time. In our mental health treatment program at Zorbacare rehabilitation center, we focus on different writing methods to help a person introspect their own patterns, helpful and unhelpful. Treating addiction, depression, anxiety or any other mental illness or problem requires us to provide the person with an array of tools and resources to delve into their own psychology and understand their own mind. It is only through understanding it can we begin to solve it and go beyond it.