Journalling is a common recommendation that you might see when you are looking for strategies to support mental health. It is something that is preached to help you feel happier and more authentic…. but it is something I have always struggled with in my life! As an Occupational Therapist, I know getting your emotions out of your head, whether through writing or speaking or creating, can truly help you process your emotions and make things seem less big and scary.
Journaling can help you get your thoughts out of your head so they don’t grow and become all encompassing. It can help you step away and assess your situation, and maybe come up with a solution or come up with questions to help you figure out what direction you might need to go in! There are studies about journaling helping with anxiety and depression symptoms. It could support preventing catastrophizing of a situation and holding onto trauma, guilt and shame. Theres a study I came across about journaling deepest thoughts and how this can support reducing of needing sick days (I always think sick days are important but sometimes this can become too much). I believe writing things out can help us accept what we are going through, which is one way to deal with a problem especially when there may not be a clear solution.
If you want to read an article going more in depth, check this one out – https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling/
All that stuff sounds great and as an OT, I am always offering journaling as an option. But as an anxious girl who has challenges with perfectionism, I have always struggled myself in journalling. I love notebooks and I love the idea of keeping a journal or diary, but I often stress myself out more about doing it “right” or writing “enough”. Lately I have been going through a stressful shift on top of work and everything else happening in the world and I am trying to foster strategies that I can not only use right now but in the future. And so I am back to written journaling.
In the past few months I have really connected with Junk journaling or art journaling (depending on how you approach it), in order to express how I am feeling. Painting and art are some of my coping tools and interests, and with junk/art journalling, I feel less pressured to make something incredible because it is just in a book! I will add some pictures of my art to show how I approach this journal style, but you can find so many different versions on social media and make this your own!
For this post, I was inspired to try a journal challenge for myself to help build my journalling skills, so I thought I would start a running list of journal prompts that I found beneficial for me! If you are interested in joining along with this journey, please feel free to use the prompts I add to this list and share some of your strategies and prompts in the comments !
Happy journalling 🙂
- Give a brief update about your life right now (don’t start from the beginning, just your thoughts as if the person you are talking to already knows the backstory)
- What are some of the most important milestones on your healing journey so far
- Make a list of things about yourself that bring you joy
- How do you feel about yourself today, at this moment?
- Create a dopamine list – things that you can do regularly to increase your joy!
- Write down 10 affirmations for yourself related to where you are in your healing.
- Check in with each of your senses. What can you feel, hear, smell, taste and see? List everything you can sense right in this moment
Be Your Own Sunshine 