Keeping journals of any kind helps to improve mental health problems. However, if you want to tackle a particular problem, it helps to keep the right type of journal. Keeping a specific type of journal may be best suited to your problem.
Boosts your mood
If you genuinely want to boost your mood, keeping a gratitude journal is just the thing. All you need to do is write down once a day, preferably before bedtime, what you are grateful for today. It may not seem like much, but it is potent to go to sleep and think positively about your life.
Increases your sense of well-being
Writing down your thoughts will begin to see problems from a new perspective just by opening your mind to think about them. This writing will make you feel better able to cope with whatever is happening.
Reduces the symptoms of depression
Understand that depression is different from sadness and that you probably need a counselor. If you write everything down, it can make you feel less horrible so that you can feel better. You can also look back on days when you thought life was “over” and see better days afterward.
Reduces anxiety
The problem with anxiety is that it is meant to help us escape from immediate danger. It triggers the “fight or flight” response. If you write in your journal every time you feel this fear, how you feel, and why, you will begin to control it better.
Reduces avoidance behavior
Many people with mental health problems practice avoidance behavior, such as not going to places that scare them or not doing the things they need to do because of their feelings. If you write it down, it will help you to express your feelings but do the thing anyway.
You will sleep better
Pouring your heart into a journal is an excellent way to get things off your chest. However, if you want to sleep, go to the gratitude journal and write down what you are grateful for today and go to sleep with that in mind.
Makes you a kinder person
As you explore your emotional state and accept your feelings as you work through what makes you who you are, thanks to your journal, you will naturally be more sensitive to others. Letting go of the judgment for yourself also improves your thoughts for others.
Improves your memory
This is almost a situation where you want to say “duh,” but it needs to be said. Writing things down helps you remember them because you can go back and read them, but also because the act of writing them down allows you to retrieve them.
One thing that can help you make your journaling work is to learn how to keep one effectively. Make some rules for keeping journals, do it every day to get into a habit, and keep it to yourself unless you decide to show it to your therapist or you decide to use it to help others. This is for you and mostly just for yourself.