If you are FINALLY Ready to FIX Your mental Health, Start Journaling Today!!!
In our teenage years, maybe we all kept secret diaries under our pillow. For me, the diary was my secret repertoire. I would pour out my deepest secrets, hidden fears, or guilty pleasures.
Why did I write there? I did not want anybody else to see it and judge me. But when I wrote about those, I felt lighter. I felt all the more clarity.
Now I’m grown up. I don’t use my diary anymore. But the process remains the same. The everyday secret diary entry process is called journaling. It has many health benefits, too.
The NIMH reports that 57.8 million Americans have mental health issues. So, it’s a real issue we’re dealing with here. However, psychologists say that small habits can build significant changes in mental health.
At VoiceOfAction, we believe that small actions, efforts, or gestures can result in significant changes. Hence, I stress that the journaling process is one such effort. Let’s see how it can improve mental health.
Journaling can be BENEFICIAL.
Is there any overwhelming emotion stressing you? It’s time you found a healthy way to do so. At a glance, journaling can:
- Help you manage your brewing up anxiety
- Reduce your chronic and abrupt stress levels and
- Help you cope with any depression
That’s not all. We need journaling to suppress or alleviate the symptoms that mark adverse mental health. There’s only 1 way to do that. And that is by making your mood lighter. If there’s anything that stresses you, try to get it out of your mind.
Suggestions like self-counseling, shadow speaking, or talking with the mirror often occur. But nothing helps, like journaling. It can lift your mood by:
- Helping you focus more on your latent problems and fears by writing them down
- Tracking improvements or downfalls in mental health daily, though documenting those
- Identifying what’s causing the negative thoughts and trying to avoid those
Often, you don’t see the red flags when you write your thoughts in the diary. But when you read them, you understand better. Then, you can see the actual problem in the larger picture.
As a result, it can make you calmer and happier. Maybe you will also become healthier. The benefits of journaling are immense. If you are thinking of this, here is how to do it.
Here are The 6 Tips To Start Journaling
Overview
- Write every day
- Write in easy and simple words
- There’s no right or wrong. Write, draw, or doodle whatever comes to your mind
- Do write things you are grateful for
- Read and re-read whenever you have time.
- Track your symptoms
1. Write every day
The first tip to start journaling is to write daily in your journal. We understand your schedule is busy, but you need to set aside a few minutes every day for your mental health and write.
It can be in the morning after you wake up to go over the previous day and make a to-do list to accomplish your daily goals. Or you can journal every day at night before bed to recap the entire day and figure out how you feel about things. Do this every day at a specific time, and jotting your thoughts in the journal will become a habit.
2. Or journal when you can
Don’t stress yourself out because you must make a diary entry promptly. Instead, think of it as a way of expression. If there’s any off thought you want to revisit later, just note it down.
But try not to complicate your expressions. Write in plain and simple words. Most importantly, write in your language.
Some of us don’t prefer writing daily. They can write whenever they want. Here, the key is not letting a thought slip. Once you can do that, you can do journaling easily.
Not a Wordy Person?
If you are someone who is not comfortable with writing every day, bunk it. You can journal when you can or need to. Of course, the former is a better option.
Yet, if you cannot do that, write when things get overwhelming, or you need to clear your mind. Writing when you need or can ensure you have a place to vent and sort through emotions without letting the situation get out of hand.
The tip to remember here is to keep a journal with you always. So, you don’t have to bottle the emotions up. Instead, buy the best one from https://www.thedreamlifestore.com/.
3. Write anything or even sketch
Your journal is a judgment-free zone. Therefore, don’t worry about what you are writing or how you are writing. There doesn’t need to be a proper structure to your journal. All you need to do is be honest to ensure the journal does its job- help you be at peace mentally.
It’s even recommended to sketch if words are too overwhelming for you to write. Many people sketch to let their thoughts known, and it does the job beautifully.
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4. Do write things you are grateful for
Finding things you are genuinely grateful for is challenging, and it’s harder when dealing with mental health issues. Yet, finding things or people to be grateful for is the key to getting better.
When you focus more on things that are going well instead of things that are not, your thoughts shift, making things ten times better.
It aids in developing a positive mindset, and isn’t that what we are striving for in order to restore our mental health?
5. Write a letter to someone who did you wrong
Often, a close friend or family member does us wrong, messing with our mental health. We expect an apology, which doesn’t come, worsening our state of being. Yet, letting go, forgiving, and moving on is critical for your mental health.
Therefore, one thing you can do is write a letter to them in your journal. You don’t have to show it to them, write whatever you feel. It will give you closure and a way to forgive them even if they don’t feel guilty.
6. Track your symptoms
Journaling is not only for venting your emotions. You can use it to track your symptoms as well when dealing with any mental health issues. For example, note down when you felt anxious and the situation leading to the same. Had a panic attack?
Write the same! Taking any medication, write about it to determine if it’s helping you out or not.
Keeping a dairy sounded cool when we were kids, right? Yet, journaling for our mental health seems too much or embarrassing to few people? Why? If it’s benefiting your health, peace, and life, why bother what other people think? It’s high time that everyone starts journaling, regardless of whether they suffer from mental health issues.
How has Journaling helped me to cope with mental stress?
As a blogger, I have to live a double life. I grind with the trending social issues, molding myself to get into the awe. But doing that, I feel I often lose myself bit by bit.
I am constantly either researching topics or trends or doing groundwork. Trust me, once I was in an incredibly broken place. But I gradually found respite in journaling.
I started by documenting the small emotions, triggers, happiness, and grief that mattered less to me outwardly. But the inner me was permanently moved by them. At one point, I realized I could find the balance.
When I read my diary often, I cherish my inner self. It’s as simple as that. We usually don’t want to revisit some of our negative triggers. But journaling opens up a way to do that passively.
Start your DIARY Today
Journaling can be the key to better physical and mental wellness. So, nurture yourself and dedicate the “me-time” that the person in you wants.
Once you stop doing that, you meet strange alter-selves of the same you in your mind. To prevent that, journaling can be the key you are looking for.
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