5 Ways Journaling Can Improve Your Mental Health (And Change Your Life)

I never thought I’d be the kind of person who kept a journal. In fact, I used to think that journaling was only for tween girls. I pictured pink books with gold locks and pages filled with descriptions of cute boys written with bright-colored gel pens that smelled like fruit. As an eleven-year-old boy trying to find his place in the world, it didn’t look like a road I wanted to walk down.

Man, was I wrong. Journaling can be one of the most beneficial things you do for your mental health. It has been an integral part of managing my mental health for nearly four decades. I have to credit much of my stability to this useful tool.

Here are five ways journaling can improve your mental health (and change your life):

1. Get the words out

Journaling gives you a safe place to vent. We all need to vent sometimes. When you’re feeling angry, frustrated, or just plain fed up, journaling can be a great way to get those negative emotions out. You can think of it as cathartic self-therapy.

When bipolar irritability walks me down the rage path, the words in my head are ugly and sharper than swords. As awful as they are, those words fight to get out. Spending a few minutes (or hours) scribbling those terrible thoughts into a book gets them out of my head.

No, Aunt Nancy doesn’t need to know how awful she looked in that green dress on Sunday. And Uncle Tom? It will accomplish nothing to tell him how sick you are of hearing him talk about Trump. Your journal is the place to have those conversations.

2. Process the past

Journaling is excellent for dealing with painful experiences. It can be a way to make sense of past trauma. Through its pages, you can work through your feelings and come to terms with what happened.

In my early twenties, horrible memories of past abuse flooded my brain. The impact left me a sobbing puddle of emotions, but journaling (and a skilled talk therapist) helped me work through the trauma. It also helped me overcome the anger I had for my parents, even though they knew nothing of the abuse until I told them as an adult.

When you work through the pain on paper, you face it head on and learn how to leave it behind. It takes time, but the relief will eventually set you free from the past.

3. Track your moods

Another benefit of journaling is it can help you track your moods. If you’re like me, you might have bipolar disorder or another mental illness that causes mood swings. Keeping a journal can help you track your moods and see patterns. This can be helpful in managing your mental health.

For example, in the early days of my bipolar journey, I was clueless about the influence of toxic people, alcohol, and sleepless nights on my mental health. As my journey progressed, I saw trends of, “I did this, then that happened.” It helped me weed harmful people from my life and focus on the things that were beneficial to my stability.

4. Change your life

A journal is valuable for helping you make positive changes in your life. Journaling can help you identify areas of your life that you want to change. It can also help you brainstorm solutions and come up with a plan of action.

As you take steps to move toward your goal, a journal will provide you with living testimony. The record will show you have far you’ve come and what trials you overcame along the way.

Besides managing my physical and mental health, I use my journal to keep track of my weight, writing goals, and professional development. It’s also full of inspirational quotes and stories. These gems keep me motivated and inspire much of my online content.

5. Boost self-esteem

Finally, writing in a journal can boost your self-esteem. Recording your accomplishments, goals, and successes can help you feel good about yourself. This can be a great way to boost your self-esteem and confidence.

Living with a physical chronic illness and bipolar disorder, self-esteem is a daily struggle for me. To fight it, I record three wins in my journal every night. The success may be as simple as making my bed or taking my meds on time, but I still record it.

When I feel like my life has no value, I page through those success lists to remind me of what I’ve done. The positive messages written in my handwriting help me pull out of the negative whirlwind spinning me around.

Conclusion

Journaling can be a valuable tool for improving your mental health. It can help you process painful experiences, track your moods, change your life, and boost your self-esteem, but that’s not all. It can also improve your relationships, help you stay true to your values, reduce stress, and so much more. The power is yours only if you put it to use. Give it a try and see how it can help you.

If you’re not already journaling, I hope this post has inspired you to start today. It might just change your life.

Until next time, keep fighting.