Why is journaling good for your anxiety and can having a journaling practice
actually help to reduce your anxiety? Hello, my name is Clare and welcome
again to Generation Calm where you can learn to reduce your stress and anxiety
naturally in your own time so that your mind and body are feeling great.
Todays video is all about journaling and how it can help your anxiety. By the end of this
video you'll have three good reasons to start a journaling practice when you're
experiencing anxiety. And make sure you stay till the end of the video because
I'm going to give you a couple of bonus tips, some red flags and cautions to look
out for if you're starting a journaling practice with anxiety.
Now some psychologists and counselors use therapeutic writing or narrative
therapy as an actual tool during therapy sessions but is journaling helpful for
someone who is not seeing a therapist? Can it be a useful tool for you to use
at home?So let's take a look. Firstly by writing things down it helps you to
understand your feelings and thoughts more clearly. You can tease out your
thoughts from your emotions about what's happening to you.
This is a psychologists bread and butter. We've known for a long time that thoughts, feelings and
behaviors are all interlinked and writing it down makes that link clearer.
2. Writing can be a form of meditation and if you're not the kind of
person that likes to sit still, writing can be a good way to do that. It provides
a moment of stillness, quiet, calm and you might actually notice that your
breathing becomes slower. If writing becomes something that you get really
into and enjoy you can actually notice yourself going into a flow moment where
nothing else matters at that moment. You're really present. That means you're
not in a state of anxiety for that present moment.
3. Writing in a journal helps you to track your thoughts, feelings and behaviors over time.
You can start to see improvements that you might otherwise not notice. If you notice any
patterns of behavior or thoughts it might actually help you in dealing with
future situations. So thanks for sticking around here are my two cautions for you
if you're going to start a journaling practice. Number one, if you are a
perfectionist you might find that journaling is more anxiety provoking
than a help. You'll notice this if you're the kind of
person who agonizes over writing in a brand new notebook for fear of making a
mistake. That you worry about what your writing looks like or whether you're
using the correct grammar. If this is you start by writing in a cheap, unimportant
looking notepad and let yourself make mistakes in it. Just get started and then
you'll get into the habit of doing it and you'll start to realize that nobody
else is going to be looking at this and that your true self does make mistakes
and that's okay. And my second caution for you is please
do not get caught up in only noting down the negative events and thoughts that
happen to you. As a person with anxiety you may dwell on negative thoughts that
crop into your mind and that's great write it down by all means but don't
forget to tease out the good stuff that happens as well. You might be pleasantly
surprised that even on a day that has been really terrible for you and anxiety
provoking that there's been a glimmer of hope that there's been one good thing
that has happened to you or one good thought that you've had. Please write
that down too. Don't only focus on the negative. So as you can see there are
many benefits to writing in reducing your anxiety but the biggest plus is
becoming aware of your thoughts feelings and behaviors and seeing how they're
interlinked. Journaling is such a low cost activity all you need is a pen and
paper to get started. I encourage you to try it for a month and just see if it
helps reduce your anxiety. If you enjoyed this video please give me a thumbs up
and share it with other people that you think will find it helpful. Thank you, bye!