How to Start Journaling for Mental Health ✍🏽

How to Start Journaling for Mental Health ✍🏽

Learn about the Journal to the Self® workshop here: https://bit.ly/41RPxMe

Whether you're new to journaling or looking for ways to support your mental health, in this video we're going to explore the concept of mental health and why journaling is such a transformative practice to enhance emotional well-being and self-awareness.

Discover different journaling techniques such as Clustering, Positive Affect Journaling, and Expressive Writing to help you process emotions, reduce stress, and cultivate positivity.

Lastly, I also provide simple and actionable steps to help you start journaling for mental health right away.

0:00 Journaling for mental health
1:00 What is mental health
2:09 Why is journaling good for mental health
3:43 Journaling ideas for mental health
6:26 Positive Affect Journaling
8:16 Expressive Writing
10:01 How to start journaling for mental health

Subscribe to my channel so we can stay in touch: https://bit.ly/3tE6oQN ❤

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// MENTIONS

▸ Writing by hand vs typing | https://www.anajuma.com/journaling-writing-vs-typing/
▸ Andrew Huberman on Expressive Writing | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZn9dF3XTo
▸ Journaling Music Playlist (20 minutes) | https://youtu.be/LSS7lJ64gao?si=E8zmIwS7IAdbbZJN
▸ Journaling Music Playlist (30 minutes) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrRmAQx5TVw
▸ Journaling Music Playlist (60 minutes) | https://youtu.be/yCHDGlnH2vc?si=GHmWly1wKAzYh3EL
▸ Your Brain on Ink Book | https://amzn.to/4dfvvyU

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// WATCH NEXT

▸ Journaling for Manifestation | https://youtu.be/pz8Q3sPfZaw
▸ What is Journaling and How to Do It | https://bit.ly/3C6tG58
▸ Journal vs Diary Writing | https://youtu.be/KgMyWD6OKf4

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// RESOURCES

▸ The Journals I Create | https://www.prophsee.com
▸ Journaling Playlist on Spotify | https://spoti.fi/2YI3ajU

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// FOLLOW

▸ Instagram | http://instagram.com/anajuma
▸ Spotify | https://open.spotify.com/user/juma_wo…

#journaling

if you're new here welcome my name is anuma I am a certified journal to the self instructor I have been hosting journaling sessions since 2019 so you can say that it is my calling to support people like you to keep a journal for self- growth and healing and today we are going to explore journaling for mental health including what is mental health to begin with why is journaling good for mental health I'm also going to give you three powerful journaling techniques that you can use anytime and at the end of this video I'm going to give you a step-by-step guide on how to get started and as a disclaimer this video is about mental health not mental illness I'm not a therapist so if you are struggling with your mental health I would invite you to seek professional support so let's get started first what is mental health by definition mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of Life realize their abilities learn well and work well and contribute to their Community Mental Health can be broken down further into three major components first your cognitive Health which is the ability of the brain to function effectively in areas such as memory learning thinking decision making and attention then we have emotional health which is the ability to understand manage and express one's emotions in a constructive and healthy way and then we have Behavioral Health which is as the name suggests all about your behavior including your daily habits how you react to different situations and so on now something that I want to highlight is that mental health is not something that you have it is something that you practice and this is when journaling comes in journaling is a science-based practice that uses words and writing as a vehicle for selfawareness and awareness of what of the three components of mental health thoughts emotions and behaviors and also journaling is a practice for self-directed change meaning it is the bridge between self-awareness and actions which is what allows you to change your behavior now my mentor and the author of journal to the self she says this in a beautiful way that the journal is like the moon emitting a magnetic Tu that draws information from your unconscious and subconscious minds and brings it to the surface where you can work at a conscious level and the fact is that the majority of who you are what you say how you express yourself in the world is highly impacted by your subconscious and your unconscious minds and now using uh Freud's Iceberg Theory analogy it is under the water meaning that you do not see it unless you intentionally have a practice that helps you with that just like journaling so if you are serious about understanding more about who you are and make a change then journaling may be the practice for you and this is not so much of the deer diary kind of journaling which definitely also has its purpose but this is about therapeutic journaling as a tool for mental health one page at a time so now let me give you three journaling techniques that you can use anytime to cultivate your mental [Music] health the first journaling technique is called chering it's also known in business as mind mapping and has gained popularity as a management tool for brainstorming now as a journaling technique clustering is a fun spontaneous quick way of having access to a lot of information quickly and now how do you apply it for mental health it's used or it can be used as a way for you to understand what's on your mind on that day in specific specific including your thoughts your emotions and your behaviors so how does it work to begin with you write a keyword or phrase in the middle of the page and draw a circle around it in this case you can write the day or the date inside of the main Circle and then it begin to free associate the different thoughts that are present in your mind at that moment for example things that you have to do or a conversation you had with the special sone and how that made you feel another thing that may be on your mind is a dream that you had last night so you understand the drill but in the end it's going to look something like this the frequent question that I receive is should I go back to my journal and read my entries and the answer is it's depends but in this case this is something that I highly recommend you to do so after you have written your CL cluster you're going to take a look at it and reflect on the information that you see and I would encourage you to write a short paragraph and you can start with as I read this I am aware or I noticing or I am surprised by blah blah blah and over time as you start writing your cluster maybe on a daily or maybe on a weekly basis you're going to start seeing patterns in your thinking on the things things that are present in your mind and as you start seeing patterns you're becoming aware of them which means that then you can apply self-directed change now this is one out of 18 journaling techniques that we explore in the journal to the self program created by my mentor K Adams so if you want to learn more about it you can find a link in the description below now the second journaling technique is called positive effect journaling which is a technique that is emotion focused and involves writing about positive experiences emotions and aspects of life with a tension of enhancing your overall well-being and mental health and why is that important because it allow us to rewire our brain for positivity and break the cycle of negativity bias because our brains by evolutionary default are designed to focus on negative and while it serves a purpose because it keeps us safe the problem is that it's not always based on our current reality and so it is important for you to find a balance between the positive and the negative in your Journal because where your attention goes your energy flows so now let me share some journaling ideas that you can do for positive effect journaling the first one is what are you thankful for this is also known as gratitude journaling is probably one of the most popular types of journaling out there so remember to focus on the feeling more than what you think you should be grateful for the second one is what was the best moment of the day if you're journaling in the morning can think about the day before and again remember to describe why that was important for you how did that make you feel and the third is to describe one act of kindness that someone did for you and how did that make you feel if you want to learn more about how you can rewire your brain for positivity through journaling I recommend you to read this book this is one of the books that we studied in my journal facilitator degree last but not least it is impossible not to mention the work of Dr James pener Baker when we're talking about journaling for mental health P bicker is the creator of expressive writing which is a therapeutic journaling practice that involves writing about your thoughts and emotions related to an emotionally significant experience in your life in order for you to process them and make sense of those experiences now this is not a journaling technique this is a writing protocol meaning it is a method to heal from difficult challenging life uh situations and how does it work it's actually very simple once a week for four weeks you dedicate 15 minutes to writing about the same challenging event and you write about what you felt your emotions now this is a proven practice that Taps into the power of self-reflection of self- understanding and of processing emotions and it has many benefits including improving your immune system it also improves your sleep it has also been shown to decrease levels of stress and anxiety and it also enhances mental Clarity and what is the total cost zero except for one hour of writing if you want to learn more about expressive writing the huberman's lab uh podcast has a full episode dedicated to this so I will leave the link in the description below if you want to learn more about this if you'd like to start journaling today here are three simple steps that will help you with keeping a journal effectively first choose the right supplies and why is that important because your Journal is going to be the home for your practice and therefore choosing the right materials is Paramount and by write I mean a journal and a pen or pencil that work for you because that is different for everyone one and we have three options when it comes to choosing the right Journal first you can use a journal that you are already using and why because that has the benefit of taking pressure off from writing the first perfect journal entry I don't know about you but throughout the years I kept journals in um my shelf that were left unused and untouched because I was afraid of messing it up by writing a journal entry that wasn't that beautiful or aesthetically pleasing the second option is for you to use a brand new Journal that is dedicated to your mental health practice and that can also symbolize your self-care the third option is for you to journal on a digital device and if you want to understand more about the difference between writing on paper and writing on a digital device I wrote an article about that and I'll drop the link in the description below the second step is to create a calm environment and ideally free of interruptions so if you're someone who tends to have a couple of notifications popping out on your phone then it's best to keep it away while you Journal another tip is for you to have a dedicated space in your home for your journaling practice so then you connect your practice with that space which helps to build the habit another thing that helps to build the habit of journaling is called habit stacking habit stacking is about coupling one old habit with the new one for example what I do is I journal in the morning while I have my cup of coffee there are many people who like to set a timer for their journaling time but honestly for me it creates anxiety so what I do is I have three different music playlists to go along with journaling one is 1 hour the other one's 30 minutes and the last one is 20 minutes and so I can choose according to the time that I have available on that day the last step is to start writing and you can begin by taking deep breaths to Center yourself and to cultivate an open and curious mind and then you can use one of the journaling ideas that I shared with you in this video and let me know how it goes so to conclude remember that mental health is not something that you have it is something that you practice and while some guidance is needed especially in the beginning when it comes to journaling there is no wrong there's only right so if you are still watching this video Until the End thank you for being here drop a heart in the comments below so I know that you are here and I will see you very soon

#Start #Journaling #Mental #Health

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