Dear Dumb Diary

How do you cope with difficult situations? How do you navigate and respond to positive emotions? What about negative ones?

I’m sure your answers to these are different from mine, and different from your other peers as well. And this is why I’ve been sort of putting off writing a post about emotional health.

Because while health is a very individualised practice to begin with, this is especially true when it comes to maintaining and improving emotional health. So what works for me, may not (probably won’t) provide the same benefits in the same ways to you.

I’m also no professional on the topic, so it feels almost wrong giving “advice”. So take this information as simply an idea, opposed to a recommendation. Anyways, here’s how (and why) I use writing and journaling as one way to maintain my emotional health.

My Relationship with Journaling

“Journalling” can be defined as writing down your thoughts and feelings in order to understand them better (University of Rochester, 2022).

For me, “journalling” does include writing down my thoughts and feelings, but also recounting things that happened to me (like you would in a diary), random concepts and epiphanies that come to me that I feel I must document and work through on paper, mediocre attempts at poetry, and any other thought that’s living in my mind that day.

Personally, I find that when I have an overwhelming amount of feelings, and emotions swirling around in my head, the best way to work through them and gather my thoughts, is through writing them out.

I will often start with pouring the first things that come to mind onto the page, without any direction. However, as I write and read it back, it’s usually surprisingly easy to make sense of my feelings, and come to some sort of conclusion.

I’m sure other people find the same success by talking through the situation with a trusted friend or family member. The benefits to talking it through with someone else would be access to alternate opinions on the situation, as well as potentially receiving advice and comfort from the individual.

However, journaling should not be seen as a replacement for communication, as both internal and external emotional processing are important and have their place.

For example, over the years I have personally found that I have to work things through and completely understand myself first, before I can then allow others into the situation and receive advice, support, or comfort.

Benefits to Journaling

Now that we’ve got my personal anecdote out of the way, let’s dive into some research to back-up and support journaling as a tool for emotional wellbeing.

There is significant and growing evidence to support the mental health benefits of emotional expression through writing, especially in adolescents (Utley & Garza, 2011).

Journaling is most commonly used better understand oneself, as well as to manage and cope with anxiety, depression, and stressful situations (University of Rochester, 2022).

Journaling helps with these issues because the practice involves tracking one’s day-to-day symptoms. This log can then help one identify the root causes of their stress, fears, and triggers, and develop effective ways to deal with them (University of Rochester, 2022).

Moreover, these benefits are enhanced for introverted individuals, who are more comfortable with introspection, opposed to verbal communication (University of Rochester, 2022).

In addition to using journaling for everyday maintenance of emotional wellbeing, journaling has particular utility for healing purposes as well. Using specified prompts can be therapeutic, and help individuals work through grief and other traumatic experiences (University of Rochester, 2022).

How do I Start?

The most important thing to note is that there is no right or wrong way to journal. As previously mentioned, I use my journal as a dumping ground for pretty much anything and everything that crosses my mind.

The most important piece is to just write.

Trying to write everyday is a good goal and can help you stay consistent. However, that might be too much for you, maybe you just reach for your journal when you’re dealing with particularly difficult situations. Maybe you just write when you feel called to do so.

YOU make the rules here.

That being said, many people utilise prompts to help guide their thoughts and writing. In the resources section, I’ll link some thought provoking prompts to get you started, if you’re interested in taking that route.