Journaling Your Thoughts

If I were to ask a room of people, “How many of you would like to reduce anxiety, reduce negative rumination, improve your awareness, regulate your emotions, feel less closed off and speed up healing?” I would imagine many people would raise their hands. However, if I were to tell that same room of people about research that shows that journaling can give them those benefits and then ask them, “How many of you would like to start journaling to make that happen?” I assume many of those same hands would go down. While there are people who have already experienced and enjoyed the benefits of journaling, there are also plenty of people who hear about journaling and think it sounds strange. Journaling does not have to be like keeping a diary. Journaling can look like constructively typing out all of your inner tension on a computer or phone and walking away feeling lighter, more clear headed and more resilient. It can be a helpful way to sort through challenging thoughts, reduce distress and keep a sharper mind. If you are a person who cringes at the idea of journaling but has never done it, I challenge you to try journaling once per week for a month. You may like it more than you would expect.
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Free Flow Journaling
If you prefer to have a free-flow, no-filter journal session to process and purge your thoughts and feelings, go for it!  However, if you are planning to journal about a traumatic experience, talk to a trauma therapist before doing that. If you are planning to write about something that makes you angry, try ending your journaling session by listing steps you can take to calm and support yourself during this time.  
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Journaling Prompts
If you prefer journal prompts, choose an option below to journal about:

• What is a stressful circumstance you are facing? If you had a loved one go through the same situation, what advice would you give them?
  
• In what ways are you letting your circumstance determine your stress levels?  Name 3 things you can do to take charge of how you feel.
  
• What are ways you can adjust to and cope with challenges while remaining grateful for small, medium or large things in your life?
  
• What was a problem you had this week and how did you handle it? Brainstorm other solutions that also could have worked.
  
• What’s one thing that you feel scared to do, but know it’s important?  How would a close friend encourage you to overcome that?
  
• What is one expectation you can stop pressuring yourself to meet?
  
• What is one thing you can forgive yourself for?
  
• How can you better use your words and self-talk to build yourself up? What words should you stop using?
  
• What expectations of others can you let go of?
  
• What is one thing you can remove from your everyday or every week schedule to create more space for rest and self-care?
  
• How would you spend a full day doing things that make you feel relaxed, happy and fulfilled?  Choose one or two of them to do asap.
  
• If you are noticing self-criticism, pretend a friend or loved one went through what you did and was having the same thoughts and feelings you are.  Write a letter to comfort and encourage them.  Read that back to yourself but replace their name with yours.