How to Improve Your Mental Health with Journalling
Poor mental health can affect your physical health, so work towards improving it now.
Your unconscious mind can be as dominant as your conscious one, mainly regarding trauma. Carl Yung was the first to study this; he discovered that many of us are unaware of thoughts that affect our everyday lives.
One way to address these thoughts is to examine these memories and work through the feelings they initiate. Many studies have recently connected trauma and physical illnesses, so it is clear this is a valuable practice for both mental and physical health.
Think of your mind as a trash can. We place trauma and upset in the can, and when it gets full, we stick our foot in and push those feelings down further. But this can only last so long; eventually, the trash will overflow. That is when you explode.
It is best to deal with the trash before it gets to an overflowing state, and one of the best ways to do this is through journalling. There are many techniques I have tried, but here are some that I still use today.
Long Form Journalling
This has always been my consistent journalling practice. I sit down and write about my day. I don’t edit; I rarely read it back but throw all my feelings onto the paper.
I tried morning pages, which is a form of this, but it didn’t work for me; most of my journalling is done in the evening. Maybe I should use the term evening pages.
When I write, there are no rules and little control. Unlike the prescribed three pages for morning pages, I have no page limit. Not a minimum or maximum number when I have completely emptied my brain, then I am finished.
I will occasionally look back on the journals and see how far I have come, but rarely. The critical point is getting the ideas out of my head, not what I write.
Prompts
If you Google journalling prompts, you will be inundated with ideas. Some of them are beneficial; some are a little lengthy for me. To keep a consistent journalling practice, it has to be something you can do even at your lowest.
Prompts work well when your mental health is at a level that you can’t think straight and need help starting.
I bought a journal that had prompts for every day to complete. This didn’t work for me. I was not too fond of the pressure of having to fill it in daily; it might work for you.
Instead, I ask myself three questions, calling it my 3–2–1 method. Feel free to use it if you think it would work for you:
3 daily gratitudes
2 activities that went well
1 event that I should have done better at.
When you write the last one, be compassionate with yourself. Remember, this is your mental health journal, and if you are not kind, who will be?
Accomplishment Journalling
This is not a journal I use extensively; however, I have seen the benefit this had on one of the women I worked with, who had severe mental health problems.
Sometimes, it is hard to get anything done when you feel overworked and overwhelmed. However, we still do accomplish small steps on our path. When you accomplish one of these, write it down.
This could be as simple as getting up, dressed, or bathed. On your worst days, these are accomplishments. The lady I worked with wrote down everything she needed to do daily — basic activities such as dressing the children or feeding the animals.
She would then cross these off as she achieved them. It wasn’t the process of having an organised to-do list; it was the process of seeing what she had achieved daily, which helped her mental health.
Write daily what you have accomplished, and acknowledge the hard stuff. You could make this part of your bullet journal or a separate book; it is your journey, so it is up to you.
Memory Keeping or Gratitude Journalling
When we looked at prompt journalling, I mentioned a gratitude list. I have been doing this for years before the other journalling I have adopted.
Every day, I write three things I am grateful for; these can be simple, but they keep you grounded in the positive. Here are some of mine over the last five years:
My daughter’s hug
My daughter learning to speak after four years
Diet coke
A warm bath
A roof over my head
Food on my table
My dog
Reading
Whatever brings you joy, write it down. Don’t judge, but sometimes, for me, there is nothing better than a nice cold Diet Coke from the fridge.
This form of journalling centres your mental health firmly in the positive and can be an excellent way to chase that dark voice away. Even on the worst days, find three things you are grateful for.
The second part of this journal practice is more for my children than for myself. I write an entry for special occasions or places we have visited. I usually paste pictures and tickets with the entry, which helps the memory.
I hope it will provide a lovely record for my children to look back on when they are older and remember some days out we enjoyed.
Ugly Journalling
I found this concept recently, and I loved it. Ugly journalling is where my personality’s worst thoughts and parts are put. If you want to strangle your partner, write it down. Did the person in the shopping queue make you want to scream? Write it down.
This is a place to keep all the parts of yourself that you are ashamed of — a place for negative thoughts to be unloaded to improve your mental health.
Write down if you have intrusive thoughts due to your mental health. If you are in a place where you can not positively journal and are not grateful for anything, then this is the place to write it down.
You can choose any notebook you like; for me, this is a tiny, thin book that gets burnt every time I fill it. I never look back on it, and I never keep it. This is where I dump the toxic part of my brain.
How to Choose Your Method
There are, of course, many other forms of journalling that I have not mentioned here. For example, I keep a reading journal to record the books I read. Reading is good for my mental health, but the journal is not specifically for a better life.
I have also not mentioned every stationery addict’s favourite journal, the bullet journal. I keep one of these for tasks. It is not decorated; there are no fancy spreads; it is practical and my lifeline.
I advise you to try as many techniques as possible and see which fits you. One may fit now and will not fit next year, and you travel towards stronger mental health.
You are a work in progress and deserve time to spend with your thoughts in whatever journalling practice you adopt. Try it for a month, then give it up. What is important is finding something to improve your mental health rather than adding to the pressure to find the perfect system.
The perfect system is the one that works for you.