journaling for mental health

Journaling for mental health is a powerful, private practice that can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression by providing a space to process emotions, identify triggers, and gain clarity, fostering self-awareness, better emotional regulation, problemsolving, and overall well-being through expressive writing or gratitude.

We often look for complex solutions to the challenges of modern mental health, my goal today is to provide an introduction to journalling. How the simple act of writing down our thoughts can help us navigate stress, gain clarity and cultivate emotional resilience.

Writing especially by hand can strengthen healthier thought patterns, improving

mood and even our physical health.

Benefits

• Offloads any worries calms the nervous system and helps manage overwhelming feelings, offers a safe outlet to understand and process emotions.

  
  

• Increased self-awareness helping you recognise patterns, triggers and personal values.

  
  

• Problem solving – encourages clearer thinking, goal setting and reframing negative thoughts.

  
  

• Improved mood- can elevate mood and increase positive emotions especially with gratitude journaling, writing down things you’re thankful for boosts positivity

How to start

• Start small with just 10 mins a day, write freely just get your thoughts on paper, ask yourself what happened today? What am I grateful for? What’s on myMind?

  
  

• Track habits – monitor your mood, exercise, sleep, and nutrition to see patterns.

  
  

• You can look back and review past entries to see your growth and progress

  
  

• Self-compassion prompts – what’s one kind thing you can say to yourself today?

  
  

• Write a letter of forgiveness to yourself for a mistake you’ve made.

  
  

• What does self-compassion look like to you?

  
  

• Describe a time when you showed yourself patience and understanding, how can you be gentler with yourself when you’re struggling.

Journaling prompts for anxiety – why are you feeling anxious, are your worries based on facts or assumptions?

When do you usually feel most anxious, what triggers those feelings?

If you were giving advice to a friend with these anxious thoughts, what would you say?

What challenges have you overcome before that can remind you of your resilience?

What are you grateful for right now, and how can you focus on the present moment?

What do you need from yourself or others right now to feel supported?

Own your story, it’s all about progress, not perfection to help you extract what’s important and what’s not.