Jornaling - Things You Can't Say Out Loud
September 07, 2021, by Psychosexology W/ Gayatri
Journaling - Things You Can't Say Out Loud
Do you remember writing a diary about your own feelings, thoughts, daily routine when you were younger?? But, as we grow up, most of the people stop writing a diary or find it useless or waste of time. But, let me tell you, journaling or writing a diary is the best thing you can ever do to take care of your own self. And, once you try it, you won't find it useless. Take my word. There are so many little things or moments which we can't describe with anyone or we don't know if they are worth sharing, so we just keep it to ourselves but, writing down those moments in diary gives you a chance to let out your emotions and express it in your own way.
Journaling is a tool that allows you to process complex thoughts and emotions, which helps promote positive thinking and self-talk. Journaling is the act of keeping a record of your personal thoughts, feelings, insights, and more. It can be written, drawn, or typed. It can be on paper or on your computer. It’s a
simple, low-cost way of improving your mental health. Starting a journal for mental health is a great way to promote mental wellness, build resilience, and ultimately leads to a healthier mind with increased gratitude. Keeping a journal is a way to express yourself without any judgment or rules. It allows you to channel both positive and negative experiences into an outlet that creates a meaningful connection with yourself. Keeping a journal helps you create order when your world feels like it’s in chaos. You get to know yourself by revealing your most private fears, thoughts, and feelings. Look at your writing time as personal relaxation time. It's a time when you can de-stress and wind down. Write in a place that's relaxing and soothing, maybe with a cup of tea. Look forward to your journaling time. And know that you're doing something good for your mind and body.
Journaling is a powerful tool that can promote mental health benefits. Writing out your thoughts will give you clarity and focus that enables you to problem-solve more effectively and resolve disagreements in your relationship. You will notice a reduction in stress because you can process your thoughts and emotions in a healthy way.
One of the ways to deal with any overwhelming emotion is to find a healthy way to express yourself. This makes a journal a helpful tool in managing your mental health. Journaling can help you:
• Manage anxiety. Journaling about your feelings is linked to decreased mental distress. In a study, researchers found that those with various medical conditions and anxiety who wrote online for 15 minutes three days a week over a 12-week period had increased feelings of well-being and fewer depressive symptoms after one month. Their mental well-being continued to improve during the 12 weeks of journaling.
• It helps with brooding. Writing about an emotional event can help you break away from the nonstop cycle of obsessively thinking and brooding over what happened — but the timing matters. Some studies show that writing about a traumatic event immediately after it happens may actually make you feel worse.
• It creates awareness. Writing down your feelings about a difficult situation can help you understand it better. The act of putting an experience into words and structure allows you to form new perceptions about events.
• It regulates emotions. Brain scans of people who wrote about their feelings showed that they were able to control their emotions better than those who wrote about a neutral experience. This study also found that writing about feelings in an abstract way was more calming than writing vividly.
• It encourages opening up. Writing privately about a stressful event could encourage some to reach out for social support. This can help with emotional healing.
• It can speed up healing. Journaling may also have an impact on physical health. A study on 49 adults in New Zealand found that those who wrote for 20 minutes about their feelings on upsetting events healed faster after a biopsy than those who wrote about daily activities. Similarly, college students who wrote about stressful events were less likely to get sick compared to those who wrote about neutral topics like their room. Women with breast cancer who wrote positively or expressively about their experience with the disease had fewer physical symptoms and fewer cancer-related medical appointments. But researchers also noted that writing about negative emotions may increase anxiety and depression levels.
Journaling helps control your symptoms and improve your mood by:
• Helping you prioritize problems, fears, and concerns
• Tracking any symptoms day-to-day so that you can recognize triggers and learn ways to better control them
• Providing an opportunity for positive self-talk and identifying negative thoughts and behaviors
• prioritizing your fears, problems, and concerns
• creating a springboard for daily recovery
• generating clarity and congruence
• reducing mental clutter which gives space and time to focus
• allowing you to detach and let go of the past
• creating positive self-dialogue with yourself
• providing insight into your thought patterns and behaviors
• try to express your thoughts and emotions
• write judgment-free and avoid censoring
• write in a stream of consciousness
• separate yourself from your thoughts and evaluate from an external view
• feel your thoughts by releasing negative emotions
• document symptoms you experience (consider both physical and emotional symptoms such as anger, anxiety, or numbness)
• track your mood (with a scale of 1-5 or descriptions such as happy and sad)
• read and reflect on your entry after you finished writing to process thoughts and emotions
When you have a problem and you're stressed, keeping a journal can help you identify what’s causing that stress or anxiety. Once you’ve identified your stressors, you can work on a plan to resolve the problems and reduce your stress.
Journaling is a powerful tool that can promote mental health benefits. Writing out your thoughts will give you clarity and focus that enables you to problem-solve more effectively and resolve disagreements in your relationship. You will notice a reduction in stress because you can process your thoughts and emotions in a healthy way.
One of the ways to deal with any overwhelming emotion is to find a healthy way to express yourself. This makes a journal a helpful tool in managing your mental health. Journaling can help you:
• Manage anxiety. Journaling about your feelings is linked to decreased mental distress. In a study, researchers found that those with various medical conditions and anxiety who wrote online for 15 minutes three days a week over a 12-week period had increased feelings of well-being and fewer depressive symptoms after one month. Their mental well-being continued to improve during the 12 weeks of journaling.
• It helps with brooding. Writing about an emotional event can help you break away from the nonstop cycle of obsessively thinking and brooding over what happened — but the timing matters. Some studies show that writing about a traumatic event immediately after it happens may actually make you feel worse.
• It creates awareness. Writing down your feelings about a difficult situation can help you understand it better. The act of putting an experience into words and structure allows you to form new perceptions about events.
• It regulates emotions. Brain scans of people who wrote about their feelings showed that they were able to control their emotions better than those who wrote about a neutral experience. This study also found that writing about feelings in an abstract way was more calming than writing vividly.
• It encourages opening up. Writing privately about a stressful event could encourage some to reach out for social support. This can help with emotional healing.
• It can speed up healing. Journaling may also have an impact on physical health. A study on 49 adults in New Zealand found that those who wrote for 20 minutes about their feelings on upsetting events healed faster after a biopsy than those who wrote about daily activities. Similarly, college students who wrote about stressful events were less likely to get sick compared to those who wrote about neutral topics like their room. Women with breast cancer who wrote positively or expressively about their experience with the disease had fewer physical symptoms and fewer cancer-related medical appointments. But researchers also noted that writing about negative emotions may increase anxiety and depression levels.
Journaling helps control your symptoms and improve your mood by:
• Helping you prioritize problems, fears, and concerns
• Tracking any symptoms day-to-day so that you can recognize triggers and learn ways to better control them
• Providing an opportunity for positive self-talk and identifying negative thoughts and behaviors
• prioritizing your fears, problems, and concerns
• creating a springboard for daily recovery
• generating clarity and congruence
• reducing mental clutter which gives space and time to focus
• allowing you to detach and let go of the past
• creating positive self-dialogue with yourself
• providing insight into your thought patterns and behaviors
• try to express your thoughts and emotions
• write judgment-free and avoid censoring
• write in a stream of consciousness
• separate yourself from your thoughts and evaluate from an external view
• feel your thoughts by releasing negative emotions
• document symptoms you experience (consider both physical and emotional symptoms such as anger, anxiety, or numbness)
• track your mood (with a scale of 1-5 or descriptions such as happy and sad)
• read and reflect on your entry after you finished writing to process thoughts and emotions
When you have a problem and you're stressed, keeping a journal can help you identify what’s causing that stress or anxiety. Once you’ve identified your stressors, you can work on a plan to resolve the problems and reduce your stress.
How to journal
Try these tips to help you get started with journaling:
• Try it on paper first. Writing with pen and paper helps you process your feelings better. It’s also easier to add drawings to paper. But go with whatever you’re more comfortable with and is more convenient for you.
• Make it a habit. Pick a time of the day that’s good for you. It could be the first thing you do when you wake up or the last thing you do before going to sleep.
• Try to write every day. Set aside a few minutes every day to write. This will help you to write in your journal regularly.
• Write or draw whatever feels right. Your journal doesn't need to follow any certain structure. It's your own private place to discuss and create whatever you want to express your feelings. Let the words and ideas flow freely. Don't worry about spelling mistakes or what other people might think.
• Write on anything. While a beautiful notebook might inspire some, it can intimidate others. But it doesn’t matter what you write on. It could be a specific journal, random scraps of paper, or your phone. If you don’t feel like writing, you could even try a voice memo. You don't have to share your journal with anyone. If you do want to share some of your thoughts with trusted friends and loved ones, you could show them parts of your journal.
• Try to be creative. You might not be sure where to start with journaling or you might be reluctant if you’re not fond of writing. But, journaling doesn’t have to be just about writing sentences. Try different formats. Write lists, make poetry, compose a song, write a letter, draw some art, or try bullet journaling. You can also find journaling prompts online that might inspire you.
• Try expressive writing. Writing about an event that was stressful or emotional for you may be more beneficial to your mental health than just diary writing.
• Don’t set your expectations too high. A journal isn’t going to solve all your problems. It isn’t a therapist or counselor. But it can help you learn more about yourself.
It isn’t easy to start journaling. It can feel like work, and the expectation of writing every day may deter some people. But the positive effects of journaling can be felt even if it’s not done daily. But, by journaling for self-discovery and making it a part of your daily routine, you can change your mindset, enable personal growth and shift your mind towards gratitude.
Try these tips to help you get started with journaling:
• Try it on paper first. Writing with pen and paper helps you process your feelings better. It’s also easier to add drawings to paper. But go with whatever you’re more comfortable with and is more convenient for you.
• Make it a habit. Pick a time of the day that’s good for you. It could be the first thing you do when you wake up or the last thing you do before going to sleep.
• Try to write every day. Set aside a few minutes every day to write. This will help you to write in your journal regularly.
• Write or draw whatever feels right. Your journal doesn't need to follow any certain structure. It's your own private place to discuss and create whatever you want to express your feelings. Let the words and ideas flow freely. Don't worry about spelling mistakes or what other people might think.
• Write on anything. While a beautiful notebook might inspire some, it can intimidate others. But it doesn’t matter what you write on. It could be a specific journal, random scraps of paper, or your phone. If you don’t feel like writing, you could even try a voice memo. You don't have to share your journal with anyone. If you do want to share some of your thoughts with trusted friends and loved ones, you could show them parts of your journal.
• Try to be creative. You might not be sure where to start with journaling or you might be reluctant if you’re not fond of writing. But, journaling doesn’t have to be just about writing sentences. Try different formats. Write lists, make poetry, compose a song, write a letter, draw some art, or try bullet journaling. You can also find journaling prompts online that might inspire you.
• Try expressive writing. Writing about an event that was stressful or emotional for you may be more beneficial to your mental health than just diary writing.
• Don’t set your expectations too high. A journal isn’t going to solve all your problems. It isn’t a therapist or counselor. But it can help you learn more about yourself.
It isn’t easy to start journaling. It can feel like work, and the expectation of writing every day may deter some people. But the positive effects of journaling can be felt even if it’s not done daily. But, by journaling for self-discovery and making it a part of your daily routine, you can change your mindset, enable personal growth and shift your mind towards gratitude.
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