How Journaling Helps You Take Control of Your Mind and Emotions

For many of us, life can get very busy. We can have many thoughts and emotions that we have not processed yet. Bottling up your emotions can have consequences for many people. 

Journaling is a really good tool for letting out your emotions in a healthy way. It can help you to understand why you are feeling the way you are, what emotions you feel (cause sometimes we don’t know), and work through your feelings and emotions. 

The best thing about journaling is that you can write whatever and however you want on a piece of paper. It’s for you. Journaling doesn’t have to take long, you can literally journal for 5 minutes a day or an hour a day its really up to you. 

Your brain processes a lot throughout the day. Whether you have a stressful, long, messy, or great day, you still have thoughts and emotions that the brain has to go through. You can think of your brain like a long playlist. Each song is represented by a thought or feeling. When you play one song (feeling or thought), this will cause another song (feeling or thought) to play automatically. Your thoughts, feelings,q and emotions become tied together.

When you journal, you create your own “playlist.” You create it instead of your brain creating a random playlist.  Writing down how you feel and working through your emotions helps your brain become a little bit more organized, and it helps you be more in control of your emotions and your mind.

 In other words, it can help you develop emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence allows you to respond to situations instead of reacting. It allows you to be aware of how you feel and take charge of your emotions. 

Journaling also helps you to see problems differently. Working through your emotions can help solve problems in a way that you wouldn’t have before. For example, if you normally come home and get upset with your family after a stressful day, journaling can help you to process those emotions, and maybe instead of yelling or getting upset with others, you may take a moment for yourself first. 

As I mentioned earlier, sometimes your feelings can be confusing, and you may not truly understand why you feel the way you feel. Journaling forces you to go within yourself and figure out the reasons why you have certain emotions or feelings. When you write them down, it makes it easier for you to understand. 

Having control doesn’t mean pushing your feelings away. 

We are all human. I know this sounds so clique but we are all humans, meaning we all have feelings. Our feelings are not the problem, but ignoring them or pushing them away can create a big problem for you. Journaling prevents you from suppressing your feelings. It helps you notice them and respond calmly.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you with this:

• What emotions am I feeling right now? 
• What part of my body am I feeling these emotions in?
• What happened today that triggered this emotion? What was it?
• If this emotion were a person, what would I say to them?
• What do I need right now? 
• Think about your emotions from the past couple of days. What situations, people, or thoughts tend to trigger them?
• What is this emotion trying to teach me about my needs, boundaries, or desires?
• Did I react to my emotions in a way I’m proud of? If not, how could I respond differently next time?
  How did my emotions affect my choices today?
• What small action can I take today that respects this emotion and my needs?

Being aware of your thoughts and emotions can help you make better choices and decisions. 

There isn’t just one way to journal. There are different ways to journal. Here are some journal techniques that you may want to try: 

• Free Writing: With this, you are just writing whatever comes to your mind. Don’t worry about your handwriting being neat or grammar mistakes. Whatever you feel, write it down. Was there a situation that you just experienced that you need to process? Write it down. Or maybe you ran into your ex, and you don’t know how to feel. 
• Gratitude List: Write down everything that you are grateful for, no matter what it is. Showing thanks for what you have puts you into a positive mindset and can shift your energy from negative to positive very quickly. Try to aim for 3-5, if you can do more, that’s even better!
• Mood Tracker is exactly how it sounds. It’s a way to track how you feel every day. At the end of the week, you can come back and review it. This is a great way for you to become aware of your thoughts and emotions.
• Brain Dump: This one is very similar to free writing, except you write down anything that is at the back of your mind that needs to get done. Like your to-do list or anything that you are consistently worrying about, so that you can move forward and relax.
• Prompt Journaling. These are already made questions you ask yourself and writing exercises. I gave you a few earlier. They make you reflect on your day and get inside your head so you can address what has been bothering you or things that are getting in the way of where you want to be.

As mentioned earlier, journaling can help make better choices and decisions, and it can make you feel more confident in them. But how can journaling help you make better choices? 

Let’s explore them:

• It helps you identify patterns. Many of us have patterns of behavior, some negative and positive, and some of us don’t know where the negative patterns come from. Some examples of these patterns are being defensive when receiving criticism or expecting the worst-case scenarios in certain situations. Journaling sheds light on your triggers, behaviors, and emotions and helps you face them.
• It helps you pause before acting. Being impulsive can get you into some serious trouble. When you’re someone who reacts based on how you feel in the moment, most of the time, you may not make the best decision. Journaling helps you to slow down and think about your emotions before reacting. It allows you weigh out the pros and cons to make a better decision for yourself. 
• It provides a safe space for you. Because you are journaling, these are your feelings, and it is yours to read unless you choose to share them. It allows you to explore “what if” scenarios without worrying about being judged. 
• It helps reduce stress. This one goes without saying. Pouring your emotions into a piece of paper allows you to empty your mind. You are transferring your stress or anxiety onto a piece of paper instead of keeping it bottled up inside. 
• It supports your goals. When you write down your goals and you have actionable steps on how to reach them, then you are more likely to reach them. Journaling doesn’t have to only be about how you feel; it can be about things that you hope to accomplish. 
• It helps you track your progress. Seeing how you are growing as a person is a good feeling. When you go back to your previous journal entries, you can look back at how you used to handle things and compare them to how you handle them now.

1. My typical advice when starting a new habit is start small for a short amount of time every day. Start off with journaling for 5 minutes a day and eventually increase the amount of time you journal every day. Eventually, journaling will become second nature, and you won’t have to think about it. 
2. Pick a time that works best for you. Is it early morning, during your lunch break, or right before bed? Identify a time when you are able to have a quiet time to yourself to journal. 
3. Keep your notebook where you can see it. If something is easily available to you, then that gets rid of one barrier. It makes it more likely for you to get that thing done. 
4. Focus on consistency. Consistency is the key to change. Show up every day for yourself. If journaling is something that you want to get into, dedicate time every day to make it happen. 

Journaling is a great way to take control of your mind, feelings, and thoughts. Its a great tool to grow as a person and develop emotional intelligence. There isn’t just one way to journal, and I hope you found the journaling techniques helpful. Whether it’s your first time journaling or you identify as an expert, this is helpful for most of us. 

Keeping a journal will change your life in ways you’d never imagine.

Oprah Winfrey