Journaling

This narrative form of writing is therapeutic in nature. The simple act of journaling lowers one’s breathing and decreases the heart rate, thus fostering a sense of calm. Journaling is a powerful coping tool to express thoughts and feelings. Moreover, it lends itself to regulating emotions and provides an avenue of personal growth and emotional maturity. Additionally, journaling provides an opportunity to reflect for the purposes of problem-solving and to have a historical snapshot of your accomplishments in life. A significant benefit of journaling is to decrease stress and build emotional resilience.

Should an individual decide to incorporate journaling as a part of their mental health wellness routine, there are many formats to choose from.

Bullet Journaling

This form of journaling combines planning and a to-do list in an organized method to express your thoughts. It is flexible because it can be geared toward any topic and the journal entry can be any desired length.

Bullet journaling is ideal for those who like to be precise and are fond of time management. It’s a great way to keep a log of your goals, accomplishments and gratitude lists. It helps with emotional tracking, such as notating your mood states and emotional stressors. Also, creativity is a huge component of bullet journaling. Designing your journal with color codes, pictures, and graphs is another way that bullet journaling appeals to some.

Guided Journaling

Contrary to the free-form journaling that may first come to mind, guided journaling offers an ordered approach for you to convey your thoughts and emotions in a deep and meaningful way. This form of journaling provides the writer with a prompt or question to promote personal reflection and encourage introspection. The writing prompts or questions can be tailored to meet the therapeutic needs of the patient. For example, it can address trauma, attachment concerns and/or interpersonal relationships.

Guided journaling engages the writer with structure and takes away the stress of brainstorming topics to write about. Guided journaling promotes deep contemplation on recent events, emotions and decision-making. Additionally, this format of journaling helps to process emotions and obtain clarity of your thoughts. This is also good practice to remain grounded and present in your thoughts and emotions.

Collage Journaling

Collage Journaling is a creative and therapeutic tool used to explore your thoughts and feelings. This format combines both written and visual art as an artistic approach of self-expression.

This format of journaling is open to the creator’s interpretation. Many visuals can be used in collage journaling such as photos, glitter, fabrics, paint, magazine and/or newspaper clippings.

For the creative individual, collage journaling can be a liberating and healing avenue to express the deep emotional wounds often associated with trauma. Aside from collage journaling being a method of emotional processing, it also guides one to creative expression and a visual way to present goals and accomplishments.