4 Reasons Journaling Is Good for Your Mental Health (Plus How to Start)
Key takeaways:
Journaling has been linked to mental health benefits like lower stress, reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, and faster recovery after a traumatic experience.
You don’t need to journal every day for it to work. Instead, focus on being consistent and aim to journal for about 15 to 20 minutes a few times a week.
If you’re not sure where to start, use a prompt like “One good thing that happened today was…” or “I am motivated by….”
Humans have been writing in journals as far back as ancient Egypt. We know this because researchers have found papyrus covered in hieroglyphics about someone’s daily activities more than 4,500 years ago. Currently, we can record our experiences using journal apps, online tools, or just old-fashioned pen and paper.
Telling stories is how we make sense of our experiences. So whether writing comes easily to you or requires a bit more effort, journal writing is a great, no-cost tool to manage your emotions and potentially even improve your health.
Mental health benefits of journaling
Journaling offers a safe and affordable way to express your thoughts and feelings, rather than stuffing them down. Through the process of writing, you can take a step back and examine your ideas, beliefs, and emotions. And while it isn’t always easy to set aside the time to journal, there are several potential mental health benefits that might make it worth the effort.
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1. Reducing stress
Journaling may help you cope with stress. One study found that journaling about a stressful event for just 15 minutes twice a week reduced distress and hostility. This was true even though most of the study participants did not have a lot of experience with journaling. And many even reported not feeling very comfortable doing it.
2. Managing anxiety
While anxiety is a normal human emotion, it can easily spiral out of control and negatively affect your life. Many people with anxiety disorders experience uncontrolled worry and intrusive thoughts. They often dwell on the negative. Journaling can help you cope with this tendency to ruminate by creating a contained space to externalize anxious thoughts.
In fact, research has found that journaling for 15 minutes a day, 3 days a week, about the good things in your life may reduce anxiety and promote resilience. Another study, which focused on women with multiple sclerosis, found that journaling for 30 minutes a day reduced anxiety symptoms.
3. Coping with depression
Anyone who has experienced clinical depression knows that this condition can make it hard to do just about anything. Yet, research has linked increased gratitude to lower levels of depression and a reduction in negative thought patterns.
One way to strengthen your sense of gratitude is to journal about the positive things in your life. It’s not about ignoring or trying to erase the times life is really hard. But look for even small moments where you felt a spark of joy, contentment, or relief.
Another type of journaling, expressive writing, has also been linked to decreased symptoms of depression. Expressive writing is simply writing freely about something that carries a lot of emotional weight.
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If you’re not currently depressed but have a tendency toward depression, you still might consider picking up a pen. Journal writing has been found to reduce the risk of developing depression.
4. Recovering from trauma
Journaling can be used as a tool to support recovery from traumatic events. Journal writing may help a person to:
Organize their trauma narrative
Integrate challenging life events
Develop coping strategies
Grieve in a healthy way
How do you start a mental health journal?
If you’re interested in journaling but not quite sure how to get started, consider the following tips.
Make it easy
Even though journaling doesn’t require much planning or many resources, it isn’t always easy to actually sit down and do it. Make sure you don’t add additional barriers and make it even more difficult for yourself. Instead, figure out ways to make journaling as easy as possible. For instance, you might make yourself a cup of tea or a snack, sit in your favorite chair, and write for just a few minutes.
Make it a habit
Don’t wait to see if there ends up being time in your day to journal. Instead, block off the time in your schedule and decide in advance where and how you will write. Stick to the same time every day, whether it’s first thing in the morning, using a diary you keep by your bedside, or with an app on your phone during your lunch break. Having the logistics sorted out in advance will help turn your journal writing into a regular ritual.
Don’t forget about lessons learned
There is some evidence that rehashing the same challenging feelings over and over again in writing isn’t beneficial. So be sure to save some time in your journal writing to think about how you might solve the problems that are bothering you or make sense of your feelings. Look for any silver linings in your difficult experiences and write about different possibilities for the future.
Change the topic
If you feel like you’ve hit a wall, consider shifting to a new topic. And consider not writing about the same problem day in and day out. Spend a few days on an issue, if that feels right. But after that, or when it no longer feels helpful to write about it, move on to a new topic.
Use your journal as you see fit
There’s no one right way to journal. One person might make a list on their phone, another might draw a picture of their favorite moment from the day, and another might write about their deepest, darkest thoughts.
One of the best things about journaling is that you can make it your own. You don’t need to buy anything special or use anything fancy. All you need is a method of writing, a bit of time, and a willingness to try.
What are some recommended prompts to begin journaling?
You don’t necessarily need a prompt to start journal writing. Some people just free-write anything that comes to mind for a set period of time. You’re welcome to try this method.
However, if you’re looking for something more structured, consider the following prompts to get you started:
“One good thing that happened today was…”
“A sound that made me feel good today was…”
“My goals for the day are…”
“A main challenge in my life right now is… And I am coping with this challenge by…”
“Something I remember from my childhood is…”
“A time I remember feeling very happy is…”
“A time I remember feeling very sad is…”
“If I woke up tomorrow and had my perfect life, it would look like…”
“My favorite things about myself include…”
“I am motivated by…”
“What I regret the most is…”
“Right now I feel…”
How long should I journal for?
You don’t need to journal every day for it to be effective. In fact, much of the research described above explored the positive impacts of journaling for just a few 15- to 30-minute sessions each week. So whether it is 10, 20, or 30 minutes, and whether it’s once a week or every day, the important thing is finding the sweet spot that works for you and your schedule.
The bottom line
People have been keeping diaries since long before scientists began investigating the positive impact of journal writing. Over the past few decades, however, research has begun to demonstrate the many potential benefits of journaling. Journal writing is an accessible way to potentially improve your well-being and can help people cope with stress, depression, anxiety, and trauma. One of the best ways to get started is to build a journaling practice into your life in a way that fits with your schedule and commitments.
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References
Ali, P., et al. (2012). Impacts of journaling on anxiety and stress in multiple sclerosis patients. Complementary Medicine Journal.
Chan, K. M., et al. (2006). Emotional expression and psychological symptoms: A comparison of writing and drawing. The Arts in Psychotherapy.
Iodice, J. A., et al. (2021). The association between gratitude and depression: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Depression and Anxiety.
Krpan, K. M., et al. (2014). An everyday activity as a treatment for depression: The benefits of expressive writing for people diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders.
Mark, J. J. (2016). Ancient Egyptian writing. World History Encyclopedia.
Phelan, H. (2018). What’s all this about journaling? The New York Times.
Sloan, D. M., et al. (2016). Efficacy of narrative writing as an intervention for PTSD: Does the evidence support its use? Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy.
Smyth, J. M., et al. (2018). Online positive affect journaling in the improvement of mental distress and well-being in general medical patients with elevated anxiety symptoms: A preliminary randomized controlled trial. JMIR Mental Health.
Stice, E., et al. (2007). Randomized trial of a brief depression prevention program: An elusive search for a psychosocial placebo control condition. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Ullrich, P. M., et al. (2002). Journaling about stressful events: Effects of cognitive processing and emotional expression. Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
For additional resources or to connect with mental health services in your area, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357. For immediate assistance, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, or text HOME to 741-741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.
