Journaling For Mental Health

 

I love to make journals and I love the idea of what you can do with a journal, however, until this year I wasn't one who wrote in a journal on a regular basis.  In the past I've done journaling for events or vacations and I've also done a gratitude journal, but to write down my thoughts on a daily basis just wasn't something I did.

 

I use my dayplanner all the time

I knew this year was going to be a hard one for me.  I had been struggling with my health, my job was a major source of stress, my youngest child was going to graduate high school and head off to college and my closest friend was in the end stages of ovarian cancer.  I knew 2022 was going to be a year of a lot of changes and high emotions and let me tell you, it has not disappointed in that respect.

 

One of the things suggested to me long ago by a friend of mine who was a therapist was to write things down in order to get it out of my head.  I loved the concept, but I never did it, which is crazy as I am an avid list maker and dayplanner user.  I write those kinds of things down so I don’t forget and I don’t have to try and remember everything in my head.  It worked great and I have been doing it practically my entire adult life.  I menu plan, I map out my projects and my goals.  I've seen how writing these things down leads to success.

 

This year I decided, with all that was going on and all that was likely to happen, it would probably serve me well to write my thoughts into a journal every day.  There is not right or wrong way journal.  You just write down whatever you want.  And now that I've been doing it I can honestly say this simple exercise has been a true game changer.  It really does help.  I don't have to carry all of these thoughts, concerns, anxieties or fears around with me.  I just write it down and leave it in my journal.  I write down what I'm thankful and grateful for.  I write down quotes that inspire me, scriptures that touch me, wonderful things or sad things that happened that day.  I even doodle.

 

My new daily journal I made for 2023

Journaling declutters my mind, my soul and my heart.  It is just as freeing and liberating as when I declutter my home.  While I don't sit down and read my prior entries I can see as I flip through my pages just how much my journaling has evolved since the beginning of the year.  At first I just wrote down insignificant things like what I ate or the weather.  But as time went on I found myself really enjoying the process and letting go of a lot of emotional thinking that really weighed me down mentally.  I'm really glad I finally decided to take that step.  I've even prepared my journal for 2023 because I think it is that important.  Journaling is definitely good for my mental health.