Journaling For Anxiety Relief
If you’ve ever gone to therapy before or know someone who has gone, there’s a good chance that they owned a journal. This is probably one of the most stereotypical moves while you’re in therapy, and while it can be tedious and very vulnerable, I’m here to share the advantages to utilizing one now while we’re dealing with quarantine and COVID-19, but also in the future.
Journaling Benefits
- Journaling helps you confront irrational feelings or thoughts in a different light. Leaving anxious thoughts in your mind where they were also manifested makes it hard to change those thoughts. Writing down on paper elicits a different response from your brain!
- It helps keep yourself up to date between therapy sessions, you’ll never forget an important update if you write down significant events, feelings and thoughts.
- It provides release from emotional strain and buildup because you have to confront the logical part of your brain in order to journal effectively.
What are some ways I can benefit from using a journal?
- Write down goals & the progress toward each goal.
- Daily download of what happened today, what was good and what was bad.
- Gratitude prompts to start or end the day/week.
- Write out dialogue for hard conversations, for closure, for grief writing to those we’ve lost.
- Exploring values and identify concepts in activities or open questions like, “what do I value in my relationship”?
- Collecting data! This is a very significant CBT method I utilize. This helps those increase their awareness of anxiety or depression, their triggers, fears, etc.
- Mood tracker to better help understand emotional patterns.
Just For You
The beautiful part of journaling is that it can be an entirely unique and intimate experience for you. Find a consistency that works for your schedule, or right now lack there of. Set a timer for 10 min each night, or free write on a Sunday morning. It’s entirely up to you, but some consistency is key. You’ll be able to look back at your progress throughout the year. There’s no better time to start than now!
If you or someone you know would find more benefit in talking through journaling prompts, or have found patterns you’d like to work on with a therapist in Orlando. Reach out to a counselor at Orlando Thrive Therapy today. Keep calm & remember to thrive on!
The direct author of this article can be reached at mallory.orlandothrivetherapy@gmail.com!
