Here Is How Journaling Can Help Manage Stress, Anxiety And Depression

Times are changing and we all are learning much more about mental health, which really means our overall well-being. There is content all over the internet nowadays that advocates mental health and the treatments around it. However, it is always better to learn more about your mental health from a professional.

So, now that more and more people are understanding the advantages of taking therapy, the people who have actually taken counselling would know how journaling is highly recommended by every professional.

What is journaling?

As per Ms Meghna Karia- Senior Psychologist from Mpower, "Journaling is a powerful tool for giving a voice to our inner experiences and emotions. Writing down our thoughts, feelings, and actions allows us to reflect on them and realign them. Every written word has power. It helps in making us more mindful of our moods and regulating our emotions. It is a creative outlet for self-expression. Additionally, journaling makes one feel better and adds a sense of wholeness to your routine."

As per a study by Harvard University, it was determined that journaling can be an effective tool for managing mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, and stress.

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What are the benefits of journaling?

Health professionals do tend to recommend journaling because it is overall a great tool for mental health. Here are some benefits you can reap from journaling:

Journaling helps in discovering and understanding oneself better.

When you start to write your thoughts and emotions in one place, you will ultimately find yourself discovering things about yourself that you wouldn't have had in general. Seeing things written on paper about you helps you become more self-aware.

Provides insight into experiences, feelings, emotions, and behaviours

You may have gone through things and places and you wouldn't have given a second thought about how you felt about them at the moment. But when you sit and write about your experiences, you tend to understand your feeling and the emotions attached to them. Again, which is a great means to understand oneself better.

Helps in giving a structure to our thought process.

A lot of time you can't really understand how you are feeling or why are you feeling the way you are. Journaling helps you give some direction to it. When you pour out your emotions and feelings on a piece of paper, you tend to understand what is bothering you in reality through it and get clarity.

Facilitates problem-solving and decision-making in different situations.

Since writing down one's thoughts and emotions gives clarity, it becomes easier for one to solve their own problems or find solutions to their issues. It also helps one make decisions that in general, they have a problem deciding upon.

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Enables us in breaking recurring patterns and self-limiting beliefs.

One of the reasons health professionals recommend journaling is because it helps break all the negative habits one has. People especially those with anxiety tend to fall into recurring patterns of overthinking and overanalyzing things negatively. They also tend to self-limit themselves by thinking negatively of themselves. Journaling helps break those thought patterns.

Improves our communication in terms of how to express ourselves more clearly and effectively.

A lot of people with anxiety don't know how to communicate how they are feeling because they are not too sure about it in the first place. Writing about one's feelings and thoughts can also help communicate the same out to maybe a person you are with, a colleague or anyone you are having a hard time communicating your thoughts to.

It helps with your anxiety.

There are several studies that suggest that journaling is really good for your anxiety. A 2018 study by the National Library of Medicine determined that emotion-focused journaling decreased anxiety, depressive symptoms, and distress. The study concluded that journaling improved the well-being of patients with medical conditions in a month's time.

It improves the general well-being of a person.

A 2020 review titled "A Meta-Analytic Review of the Relationship Between Dispositional Gratitude and WellBeing" associated gratitude journaling (journaling all the things you are grateful for regularly) with well-being indicators which includes life satisfaction, happiness, and stress.

Another study by Harvard Health Publishing shared that journaling and gratitude writing is associated with happiness. This makes one feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, and build strong relationships.

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What are the several tools for journaling?

As per Ms Meghna Karia- Senior Psychologist from Mpower, there are several methods and techniques that can be utilised when a person starts journaling to make the most of the experience:

Morning Pages

This technique enhances the journaling experience. "Without thinking about whether the information being written is right or wrong, you write three long pages of a free-flowing, hand-written stream of consciousness. The goal is to write down whatever comes to mind at that moment, without judgement. The three pages are then torn and discarded immediately after completion, without being read again. It is often referred to as a "brain dump" and is intended to clear the mind and set a positive tone for the day. Morning pages are believed to inject clarity, focus, creativity and direction into your daily life."

Colour Palette

A colour palette is a valuable tool for those who are having trouble expressing or comprehending their feelings. These can have different colours which can indicate different emotions as well. "For example, red is frequently associated either with love or anger, blue with melancholy, black with sadness, green with harmony and new beginnings, yellow with pleasure, and white with serenity and peace. This tool aims to help people comprehend their emotions, moods, and feelings when they are confused and hesitant to express themselves."

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Gratitude Journal

Gratitude is known to shift focus to the positive aspects of a person's life. "Additionally, gratitude has been proven to be a powerful tool in managing emotions and moods. To create a gratitude jar, one can take a transparent bowl or a jar and write down notes of things they are grateful for. Furthermore, at the end of each month or year, the notes can be reread to remind oneself of all the things they have to be grateful for. Consequently, this can help to shift perspective and see that one's "glass is full" rather than empty, which is a common feeling when someone is upset, depressed, or anxious."

Doing affirmations

Affirmations are basically statements that help to overcome self-sabotaging and negative thinking patterns. "One can pen down in the morning or at other times of the day to reflect on how one wishes to perceive, feel, and conduct. This can also be a part of journaling. Furthermore, creating intentions is another method to feel more empowered and in charge of one's day. This can be done by penning down objectives for sentiments, behaviours, thoughts, and emotions. In this process, one can choose how one would want to think, feel, and behave on that day which can aid in feeling more content and efficient."

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Journaling may not be a substitute for therapy but it is a great tool for help.