Arije-Aike de Haas
A Simple Mental Health Journal » for Self-Awareness & Balanced Thoughts
As a dyslexic, simplicity and enjoyment were really important to me when it came to my mental health journaling. In the beginning, I also was not sure how to even start. Writing was never my go-to activity to reduce stress, but this simple journaling method has been working for me. And research has actually established that there are all kinds of benefits to journaling. Many people that are neurodivergent encounter mental health struggles from time to time. However, this way of journaling is a great way to gain clarity and improve our well-being. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a well-researched approach that helps a variety of people. Thought records are a staple within this approach. Through this type of journaling, I was able to help myself in mentally challenging situations, and it is a tool I will keep using in the future. If you are a beginner when it comes to your journaling, you might want to try this method. Since it does not involve too much writing, it is a good option for dyslexics or anyone with little time to spare.
⏰ Timetable:
00:00 – Intro
00:09 – Benefits of Journaling
01:00 – How I Journal (Thought Records)
02:11 – Questioning Beliefs
04:25 – Noticing Patterns
🙋🏼♂️ My name is Arije, and I am a dyslexic with an MA in Education Studies. I aim to share all my tips for learning, coping, teaching, and more on my channel. For dyslexics, educators, and parents alike, I want to make videos that inform and inspire you to reframe dyslexia.
COACHING & CONSULTATION
Have a look at my website: https://dehaas1on1.com
☕️ If you'd like to support me, feel free to do so one coffee at a time! via https://ko-fi.com/arije
Here's some of the literature I consulted to create this video:
Dimitroff, Lynda J., et al. “Change your life through journaling–The benefits of journaling for registered nurses.” Journal of Nursing Education and Practice 7.2 (2017): 90-98.
Satterfield, Jason M. Cognitive behavioral therapy: Techniques for retraining your brain. Great Courses, 2015.
Satterfield, Jason M. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Daily Life. Great Courses, 2020
Attributions for the videos in the intro:
ModernHealthMonk: “I Journaled Every Day for 365 Days. Here's What I Learned.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCgck7K5KOs&t=6s
Rich Bracken: “Health Benefits of Journaling – Rich Bracken – Fox 4” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmZQfCifosU&t=5s
eseo space: “Jennifer's Brodcast Clips 2018 2” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0bdj8g1KdU&t=1s
Sarah Weber: “Journaling Tips and Tricks 📖 – How to Start and Enjoy Journaling ✍️” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkJKsvepk_A&t=102s
I've tried out mental health journaling for the last 30 days and this is probably something that has been suggested to you as well all right thanks a lot Michelle there is a new craze around journaling journaling can change your life journaling is one of the best ways to learn about yourself this is what I've got according to a academic article on the benefits of journaling it can help us to become more self-aware make more reasonable decisions and it also is likely to improve or in General Health but for some reason I didn't really like the idea of staring at blank pages without any idea where to start as a dyslexic I would say I've always been naturally skeptical it's always the idea of reducing stress by writing but because I'm also coaching dyslexic adults I felt like I should at least give it a try and I think I found a way so if you naturally don't really gravitate towards writing or if you simply don't have that much time I think the method that I've been using might work for you as well a while ago I discovered CBT so cognitive behavioral therapy and in this type of therapy there is a Central Tool called thought records and that is what I have been using for the last three months so how does it work first I create a table with the situation that I'm in the feelings that I'm experiencing and my thoughts let's take the example that you're in right now you're learning something new about journaling you might be feeling hopeful and also kind of sad when you write down these feelings it's a good idea to also rate the intensity level I normally use a scale from 1 to 10 to do that 10 being the highest intensity level and then you should ask yourself what are you thinking that is creating this emotion of sadness and the thought responsible for this feeling might be I can't use journaling to help myself because my writing isn't any good now your thoughts are often connected to a certain behavior and in our case if you were to think like this it is likely that you don't give journaling a try if you would stop at this point and you wouldn't do anything else then you would have already created more self-awareness but if we take a look at actual therapeutic sessions of the founder of cognitive behavioral therapy so add-on T back then you would see that thoughts and beliefs are being questioned he did that because he believed that we can improve our mental health by counteracting negative thinking with reality so how do we do that well one option is to look at arguments that either proof or or disprove or initial thought arguments in favor might be I make a lot of mistakes when I write and I tend to get frustrated when writing arguments against might be well I only tend to get frustrated when I write something for other people and that is not really what this is for maybe you have experienced that when you get an editor then people actually like what you write another tool that you have to get to a more balanced view of the situation is to pretend that you're your own best friend and since I also struggled with the idea of starting to write I actually have a entrance from the time when I just started doing just this you have always been judged by others for your writing do not become that judge or that judgmental teacher yourself don't do to yourself what has been done to you in the past I feel like especially this exercise has helped me to gain perspective and to get to a deeper level of reflection and ultimately it helped me to let go of some of the negative thoughts that I had now sometimes we might be in a situation where you actually have to recognize that there is some truth to your initial thought and in a case like that it's good to recognize that and what you can do is say yes but and then you fill in the blank so for example yes but I could use speech to text to get me started when it comes to journaling at this point you can reformulate your initial thought taking into consideration everything that you've written down so far and you might find that your level of sadness went down and that your feelings of hopefulness went up now when you do this long enough you will start noticing certain patterns and for me one pattern was that I noticed that I tend to get really frustrated when I don't speak my mind freely so that made me realize that I should work on that some more but there's certain thinking mistakes and thinking errors that we all tend to make another very common and I actually made a video about those so if you want to head start on that then have a look at that video so that you can avoid those
#Simple #Mental #Health #Journal #SelfAwareness #Balanced #Thoughts
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Another takeaway: I found that I really should not believe everything I am thinking, and maybe neither should you. Let me know how you feel about this method.
Thank you 🇬🇧
This has really helped me thank you.✨
Evidence-based approaches to mental health have helped me the most over my many years on this journey!
Thank you great video
I am going to give this a go starting right now!
What about sketching journals? I am taking online art classes and find very little info about Dyslexia and the use of a rules…hello to number problems. Please help with the visual/art journals.
Hello my name is abdallah and I am dyslexic and the maid problem I have is here in my country there’s not much awareness about it and people are usually ashamed of it
Like me I’m in college right now and no body knows I’m dyslexic and honestly speaking is very hard and I want you to help me create more awareness in my country about it
I hope you reply me and we get to talk thank you very much
Been using cbt diary’s for years. It’s great to come away from any situation and write in cbt diary. It doesn’t happen straight away, but you do start changing how you think.
An example someone calling you fat. You would go away and write, it only reflects on that person how unkind they are, when a situation happens instead of first thought, you think the second thought they are unkind.
It’s amazing, it doesn’t happen straight away but over time suddenly your in the situation and thinking wow did I just think the second thought. 🤔
I have heard for some people it doesn’t work, and for some need to do it with a councillor/therapist to talk through situations and feelings along side cbt diary.
You can use bullet points and you don’t even need to write it down, you could just talk through how your feeling, and think how you wanted to feel. ☺️
Hi Arije, I was fortunate to be diagnosed with dyslexia when I was 8 years old. I didn’t have to go through school wondering why I couldn’t read or spell. However, going through New York’s public school system in the 70 & 80s there was not much to offer in terms of educating students with dyslexia. To this day I still read and write on a 5th grade level. I learned early on that I needed to hide my illiteracy from people around me in fear of being considered dumb. I have carried this shame with me my entire life. As an adult I struggle financially to support myself. It’s not easy to keep up with family and friends anymore. This has caused me to withdraw and isolate. The depression dyslexia has caused me now as an adult in many ways is far worse than the learning disability itself. I was happy to come across your channel this morning. Finally, a discussion on the toll learning disabilities have on your mental health. Thank you so much for all the content you are creating. As much as I hate to write I will try journaling. Thanks again.
Thank you for making this. Impressive video editing too!
as always, thank you Arije
Great content Arije 😊