Journaling can be about reflection, goals, practice writing, and remembering special days and events. Writing daily or weekly in a journal can also help with your overall mental health. It doesn’t have to be the type of writing that you need to turn in for a letter grade in school. It’s just for you.
Writing down what’s in your head, clears your thought processes. It doesn’t matter if you write a story, poem, what you did for summer vacation, or just spilling your guts about an argument you had with your kids, parents, or a friend. JUST WRITE!
Dear Diary
It may have been a diary as a teen but as an adult we “journal”. Did you have a diary when you were young? I did and one day I came across it as an adult which wrote about missing my boyfriend because my family was going camping. (I think that it was only a week, but I swear it was for a month!) My teenage angst was very apparent to me as an adult. But as that adult, I read my words and felt it now. Reflecting on your own words is powerful.
Whether you’re keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it’s the same thing. What’s important is you’re having a relationship with your mind.
Natalie Goldberg
Writing down your thoughts on a regular basis can help with your mental awareness. Whether you are an adult, teen, or child it is beneficial for your mood, reduces depression and anxiety, improves your memory, increases creativity, and understand those crazy feelings you may want to reflect upon as a teenage girl missing her first boyfriend.
ABC’s of Writing
Writing for our Mental Health is more than putting words onto paper. We are putting our souls out into the world; our world.
We began our writing journeys in school because it was a part of learning. Write your ABCs; write your proper sentence structure; learn proper spelling and definitions of words; learn a “proper” three to five-paragraph essay. We have always been writing never putting it into action outside education. But, it’s outside of formal education that it can be most beneficial for our mental health education.
Writing Education
There is more than one way to write. A book that was recommended to me about writing, Writing to the Bones by author and writing teacher, Natalie Goldberg. Each short chapter is about different subjects and writing techniques to “free the writer within”. Here are a few of her ideas from the chapter “First Thoughts” about how to start writing:
- Keep your hand moving. (Don’t pause to reread the line you have just written. That’s stalling and trying to get control of what you are saying)
- Don’t cross out. (That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn’t mean to write, leave it.)
- Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, and grammar. (Don’t even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.)
- Lose control.
- Don’t think. Don’t get logical.
- Go for the jugular. (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.)
There is more than one subject to tackle but we are talking about journaling for mental health and clarity. Here are some ideas to prompt your words to flow to a page:
- Your Life – What do you want to change in your life? What are you happy about?
- People or objects around you – How do you react to others? If it is poorly, what do you want to change?
- What makes you feel happy, wonderful, excited, grateful? Start with I feel…
- What are my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats? It’s called a S.W.O.T. analysis. Write down something in each of these areas and write more about each point.
Each Day is a Journey
Some days they really suck but some days are fabulous. You were not the same person that you were the day before. Your thoughts, beliefs, and actions can shift every day based on experiences. Write about it. Reflect on your writing. It will bring a great new look at what you felt yesterday, the day before that, a month ago, a year ago. It’s a constant and ever-changing look at you.
Drop a comment and let me know what you have learned from your writing experience.
