Journaling

The therapeutic benefits of writing

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

Journaling has long been used as a means of putting down onto paper our thoughts, feelings, and personal experiences. It can also be used as an effective tool for self-reflection, self-awareness, goal setting, and managing stress. Many people have kept diaries since childhood, writing down appointments and what occurred each day, and this is a wonderful way of capturing memories and prompting us to recall events that may otherwise be forgotten. Journaling however, invites us to be more reflective, writing not only about what happened but how we felt about such experiences, our thoughts of the events, and actions we may have taken as a result.

There have been studies into the therapeutic benefits of writing, and in his book opening up: The healing power of confiding in others James Pennebaker documents the writing experiment he undertook with college students. The results found that writing about a difficult experience for 15 minutes over 4 days showed benefits for the students mental health, but maybe more surprisingly a decrease in the amount of visits to the GP over subsequent months for physical ailments as well. It is important to note that this experiment was done under careful monitoring and study conditions. If you are new to journaling, it may be helpful to begin using one of the methods below as a gentle introduction, rather than writing about a particularly traumatic event at the outset.

As a counsellor I often invite clients to consider journaling as part of the therapeutic process, and sometimes a client will bring along their journal to share an important insight they have gained through writing. People can be daunted by the thought of journaling, and a blank page can seem intimidating, especially if you haven’t put pen to paper in a while. There are many ways to approach journaling, some lending themselves to situations more suitably than others, and each with their own therapeutic benefit. Below I introduce several ideas to consider.

A gratitude journal

Capturing parts of our lives that we are thankful for on paper can have surprising benefits. Along with mental health benefits such as lowered stress levels and improved mood, writing regularly about what we are grateful for can create new neural pathways in our brains as we learn to focus on what is going well in our lives, rather than being drawn instantly to the negative, which is the brains natural bias. Over time our brain will search out things to be thankful for which has a big impact on our feelings of wellbeing, connectedness and presence. Journaling three things for which we are grateful in the morning sets the tone for the day ahead and writing these in the evening can aid our sleep. Being specific about what we are thankful for helps bring our thoughts into focus and engages our senses into the practice. For example rather than ‘I am thankful that I saw my friend today’, we might write ‘When Sue gave me a hug today I felt loved and cherished and my heart softened’, or instead of ‘I’m grateful I had enough food to eat today’, we might write ‘The warmth of the hot chocolate I had at bedtime helped me feel comforted and I found it really soothing’

.

Journaling answers to specific questions

Dr Rangan Chatterjee talks about this practice in this episode of his podcast ‘Feel better live more’. In it he recommends three important questions we can ask ourselves at the beginning of each day and three different questions we can answer towards the end of the day. One of the morning questions is ‘What is the most important thing I have to do today?’ which helps us to focus on one specific action that is the top priority for that particular day. This isn’t necessarily an easy question to answer because many of us live busy lives and there are lots of people and events clamouring for our attention. However, answering this question before we begin our day can help us to remember what truly matters and practised over time can help us reflect on what we truly value and if we are living lives that reflect these values.

Of course we can create our own questions, the important thing is to evaluate them occasionally, and to streamline them to our own situation. An important point made by Dr Chatterjee is that if at the end of the day we find we didn’t do the most important thing, rather than feeling guilty or that we have failed (something most of us are good at), we can simply acknowledge this, be compassionate to ourselves and maybe readdress this tomorrow.

Regularly asking ourselves questions such as these, and more importantly writing down the answers makes us more intentional in our daily lives and is an effective way of highlighting what matters to us and ensuring we aren’t simply living our lives on auto pilot. This is also a good tool to improve our self-awareness and be accountable to ourselves.

A daybook journal

I came upon this way of journaling many years ago on a blog that I followed which is no longer published. This is a lovely way of capturing the essence of our days and helps to engage our senses, which is a good way of bringing ourselves into the present moment. The daybook journal contains sentence starters and then we complete the sentence depending on the day we have had and where we are physically situated. We can tailor the sentences to fit our own lives and what it is about them that we want to record. Some example starters from my own daybook are:

From my window…..

I am reading…..

I can hear….

For tea today we had….

I am feeling….

Something that brough me joy today was….

I am creating….

The weather today was….

A memory I would like to record today is….

I enjoyed spending time….

The music I listened to….

As you can see the sentences may reflect any aspect of our lives and can help create a journal that captures precious details of our daily lives which might otherwise be forgotten. Reflecting occasionally on our daybook can highlight patterns and areas of our lives where we may be stuck in a rut or struggling. It can also draw to our attention to what brings us fulfilment and what we would like to see more of in our lives. Reflecting on the minutiae of our lives is important because moments make our days, which make our weeks, our months, our years, our lives.

Morning pages (Julia Cameron)

In her book ‘The artist’s way’, which has been a bestseller for over 30 years Cameron encourages us to practice writing ‘morning pages’, as a way to unblock our creativity and put onto paper our first stream of consciousness as we begin each new day. Freud wrote that ‘dreams are the highway to the unconscious’, Cameron believes that writing is the quickest, and most accessible way to reach what lies below the surface of our conscious mind, and practising morning pages has helped many people get unstuck and move forward with their lives, helping them find guidance and free up their creativity.

The morning pages are three pages of A4 written by hand, rather than typed. As a struggling writer Cameron found that getting down onto paper all that filled her mind on waking helped her become unblocked and she has gone on to become a prolific writer, playwright, and musician. Encouraged by a friend to share her ideas with other artists Cameron wrote what later became ‘The artist’s way’. It is important to note that this practice is not just useful for blocked creatives (though Cameron believes each and every person is a creative being) it is useful for anyone feeling ‘stuck’ in life, and getting down onto paper some of the dross, anxiety, and first thoughts of the day, has therapeutic benefits because it helps put some distance between our self and our thoughts (we are not our thoughts!). The pages are to be kept in confidence as they may contain personal material, however, there may be recurring themes that can be brought into therapy.

For those not seeking therapy but wanting a better understanding of themselves and some guidance in their lives the artist’s way is written as a 12-step program to be worked through in 12 weeks. If you would like to hear more there is a podcast here in which Cameron talks about ‘The artist’s way’, and her own ongoing practice of writing morning pages.

Keeping a nature journal

A nature journal can be a useful way of putting down onto paper our observations of the natural world around us. Time spent in nature has physiological and psychological benefits. Using a journal to reflect on our connection to nature can enhance these benefits. Taking photographs to add to our journal can cause us to pause and really focus on what is in front of us as we spend time in nature, though it is good to leave the camera at home sometimes. Collecting items such as leaves or flowers to press and add to our journal is another way of slowing down and taking in the intricate details and patterns to be found in nature.

Observing seasonal changes through nature connection often remind us of the changing seasons in our own lives and there are many metaphors to be found in the natural world that reciprocate our internal experience. Capturing on paper not only what we see in nature but how we connect with this through our senses is an excellent way of documenting precious moments. Noticing how our feelings are stirred by the landscape can tell us important things about ourselves, and our perspective on life’s issues often shift when we are outdoors. Nature journaling marries together the therapeutic benefits of writing, along with the therapeutic benefits of spending time in nature. A match as it were, made in heaven.