How To Start Journaling for Mental Health

Journaling has long been a recommended strategy for dealing with all sorts of mental health related difficulties. Whether you’re dealing with anxiety and depression, processing trauma, or wanting to start documenting your feelings more often, journaling can help you. Journaling for mental health doesn’t have to look pretty; you don’t have to have Pinterest or Instagram worthy aesthetic layout. Simply putting pen to paper can be enough.

Today I’m going to talk you through how to start journaling for mental health. We’ll cover what you need to get started, the benefits of journaling, and how to journal for mental health. Let’s get started!

The Benefits of Journaling for Mental Health

When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and struggling to manage stress and anxiety, it’s time to start journaling for your mental health. There are numerous benefits associated with journaling, and a journal can become an extremely helpful tool when it comes to managing your mental health.

Journaling can help to manage your anxiety, reduce your stress, help you cope with depression, and provide you with an outlet to express fears and feelings that you’d otherwise keep to yourself.

Additionally, keeping a journal can help to control your mental health symptoms and improve your mental health by allowing you to understand your thought patterns and track your problems, fears, and concerns. On top of this, tracking your day-to-day experiences will help you to recognise triggers and learn ways to control them.  Finally, having a journal provides you with an opportunity to focus on positive self-talk and identify the areas in your life that you’re grateful for.

What You Need to Get Your Journal Started

Journaling for mental health can take many forms. Traditionally, and perhaps still the most popular way to journal is to use pen and paper. There are lots of journals out there on the market, so depending on how you intend to use your journal, you may wish to consider purchasing one.

When looking for paper journals, be mindful of what you need. Do you have the time to spare in order to create a beautifully laid out bullet journal, or would you rather be able to easily write and express your emotions without worrying about neatness?

If a paper journal doesn’t appeal to you, worry not! Journals are whatever you make them. They can be a Word Doc on your computer, a Google Doc on your Google Drive, or even simply the Notes app on your phone. iPad users can even download digital pre-designed journals that have been digitally created to look pretty but the user doesn’t need to worry about neatness, as all journaling is still done using the tablet.

To put it simply, all you need is a pen and paper, or your phone!

How To Journal for Mental Health

There’s no one-way to journal for mental health. As I’ve said before, there’s no need to make your journal a creative landscape, however, some people find that letting their creativity shine through in their journal layouts is cathartic and beneficial. Others prefer to simply pour their words onto the paper and go with the flow, focusing less on making it look ‘pretty’, and more on using it as a space to share raw feelings and emotions.

Try these tips when journaling for mental health and remember to do what feels right for you.

Try to write in your journal every day.

This will help you to journal regularly and better able you to track your thoughts and emotions. It also means that you will set aside a few minutes each day to focus on yourself.

Access to your journal should be easy.

If you’re looking for a notebook, make sure it’s small enough that you can take it with you easily if you need to go away for a night or two. Remember that your journal should suit you, so if pen and paper isn’t right for you, try keeping a journal on your phone or tablet instead.

There’s no right or wrong way to journal.

You should journal however you see fit; do not feel like there’s a certain structure that you need to follow in order to journal correctly. When journaling for mental health, your journal is your own private space to discuss and express your feelings. My advice is to just let the words flow, even if it seems chaotic. There’s no need to worry about the neatness of your handwriting, your grammar, spelling, or structure.