10 Ways Journaling Helps Anxiety
Journaling
Let me guess… you either love it or you hate it.
It seems like there is not much middle ground when it comes to people’s feelings about journaling.
If you love it, then you are going to love this blog post!
If you hate it, I hope I can make a case for you to consider giving it a try sometime.
Why does journaling help?
Your brain likes to solve problems. When you have problems to solve, your brain will keep spinning on them until it feels resolved. Writing down the problem is one way to let your brain know, “I’m on it.” It’s like giving your brain permission to stop rehashing all the details because you did something with all of that information.
Often, once you get the details written down, you can go back and read it without all of the emotion that got you writing in the first place. Sometimes, when I am writing in my journal, I will even write “I am sobbing as I write this” because I want to remember how greatly it impacted me emotionally. I have come to learn that this emotion is not always evident in the re-reading of a journal entry. While I may want to remember the level of emotion I felt, there is great merit to being able to look at your thoughts without that emotional layer. Seeing your thoughts and feelings in a journal can help you separate fact from interpretation.
Writing slows you down. Most of our thoughts happen automatically. We don’t question them, we just assume something is so because we thought it was so in a split second. It takes time to write your thoughts. When you slow them down, you gain awareness of what you are actually thinking so you can better evaluate those thoughts. Sometimes you will be surprised to see what thoughts are actually in your head!
Journaling is a way to express your emotions. Many of us keep our emotions bottled up inside. We need to find healthy ways of letting them out. Optimally, we may need to have a conversation with someone. Realistically, this might not be feasible. Maybe that person has passed away or it could unnecessarily hurt someone if you expressed your feelings. Maybe you are new to expressing feelings and don’t quite know how yet. Journaling gives you that outlet without the consequences of impacting others.
You may be working on boundaries or assertive communication – journaling is a great way to practice what you want to say. It helps you get clear on what you need to say, what the other person needs to hear, how you want to say it, and how you definitely don’t want to say it.
You can gain a sense of control over your circumstances when you journal by focusing your brain. After getting all your thoughts and feelings out, you can journal, “How do I want to think about this?” Then outline what would need to happen for you to be able to think about it the way you want to. There’s your action plan!
Journaling is a way of bearing witness to whatever you are going through. Looking back through old journals someday, you can be reminded of how you got through that hard that season of life.
Journaling can help set your brain in a positive direction. Like Hawk Nelson sings, “You’re gonna find the good if you’re good at lookin’.” Numerous benefits have been connected to the practice of gratitude. Many people journaling to cultivate that practice. Someone who experiences negative self-talk can journal things that they did well. The act of writing down the good things can send the message to your brain that this is what is important. This is what you want your brain to pay attention to.
Journaling sorts out what is going on in our heads. Engaging this practice can take the jumbled chaos of thoughts, current feelings, future fears, and history that feels like one big overwhelming mess and separate those things out into different categories. I like to use my FACETS model to unravel the mess. Everything feels much more manageable when you can get it all sorted out.
Journaling can find things that are hidden in the depths of our brains. One of my favorite ways to journal is to write a ridiculously long list about something. For example, if I am stressed about something and I don’t know why it feels so stressful, I will pick a number of possibilities that feels a little preposterous. I make my brain come up with that many possible reasons I feel stressed. This practice forces my brain to do a deep search to come up with that many reasons. Some will be utterly silly and clearly not the reason. But, others on that list will jump out and help me say, “Ohhhhhh, yeah, that’s it.” Now I have some clarity and direction on the problem I may need to solve.
Often people who don’t like journaling have some legitimate barriers to adopting this practice.
Common Obstacles to Journaling
I don’t have time. Start slow. Figure out where you might be able to fit some journal time into your schedule. It doesn’t have to be a zen ritual with a candle and a cup of coffee every morning. You could journal in the carline while you are waiting to pick your child up after school. In the waiting room of the dentist’s office. Take 10 minutes of your lunch break. Jot down 5 things you are grateful for on the back of a receipt while you are waiting in line somewhere. Get creative!
What if someone reads it? Unfortunately, this reason may not have a suitable workaround if you are someone who lives with an abuser or someone who is extremely controlling. If this is you, you may want to explore the safety tips at womenslaw.org or the National Domestic Violence Hotline, or talk to a therapist about how to navigate life with such a person.
For those who just want to protect their thoughts from accidental discovery or general nosiness of others, there are some possible solutions. Some people journal on an app on their phone. Yes, they have an app for that! You can set your phone security so that a password or fingerprint is required. If you don’t want to use an app, you can journal by emailing yourself. You can journal on a laptop and save it in a password protected way. You can write something down and then destroy it – this can actually be extra therapeutic if you are writing thoughts you want to tell someone but can’t. It can be a symbolic way of releasing those feelings, by burning the paper or ripping it up to tiny shreds. You can also keep your journal locked up or find a good hiding place.
I don’t know what to write about. It doesn’t actually matter what you start writing about. Your brain will tell you what to write about. I’ve even started journaling with, “I don’t know what I want to even write about today” and 3 pages later ended up surprised that I had so much on my mind. Just start writing. Write how you are feeling and why, what you’ve got going on that day, describe why you blew up at your husband last night, what are the most important things for you to get done today. If you don’t have something particular on your mind, write about what you hope to do someday, what you like, what you do well. Google “journal prompts” and you will get no shortage of ideas if you need them. If you have a particular situation on your mind, you might want to use my FACETS approach to sorting out the facts from your actions, context, emotions, thoughts, and body sensations to gain some clarity.
Perfectionism. If you are someone who struggles with perfectionism, you may be hung up on doing it “right.” You want to organize your journal into the perfect categories, and use exceptional penmenship, spelling, and grammar. You can’t find the right pen. Or should you use a pencil, so you can erase things? Girl, your journal is the perfect place to start getting over some of this. To be “perfect” at expressing your emotions, all you have to do is get them on paper. The bar is low for this one. You are the only one who will see it. Letting your journal be imperfect can be a step towards tolerating the discomfort of imperfection and recognizing that imperfection can get the job done. Sometimes it gets the job done better because it gets it done quicker and gives you more time for other things.
Clearly, I can’t speak highly enough about journaling.
I consider it to be part of my self-care. I don’t have rigid rules around making sure to do it daily, but I can tell when I need to do it. Some days I journal more than once. When I take that time to sort my thoughts and feelings out, everyone seems to benefit. Journaling helps me be more present, more clear about my own thoughts and feelings, and how I communicate them.
Taking time to journal is a perfect companion to counseling. Noticing what repeatedly comes up in your journal is valuable information to share with your counselor, especially if you are engaging in EMDR therapy. It can help you sort out your thoughts so you can make the most of the time you spend with your therapist. I am here if you want some help getting started.
References:
Nelson, H. (2015). Thank God for something. [Official lyric video] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOYXyzE7KRA
womenslaw.org (2021). About abuse/Safety tips. womenslaw.org. https://www.womenslaw.org/about-abuse/safety-tips
National Domestic Violence Hotline (n.d.). Home. thehotline.org. https://www.thehotline.org/
Jennie Sheffe is a National Certified Counselor ™ who helps women find freedom from anxiety and peace in their chaos. She sees clients virtually in the state of Pennsylvania, or in her downtown Carlisle, PA office. She offers Christian counseling and EMDR Therapy.
