THE WELLNESS SOCIETY | WWW.THEWELLNESSSOCIETY.ORG
Introduction
The purpose of the journaling is to be able to identify and analyze your thinking, emotional and
behavioral patterns, but also to nd ways to adapt, change and manage them.
Writing promotes self-awareness and self-understanding, as well as personal development,
unconditional self-acceptance and goal achievement.
It can also help you release tension and bring clarity about the situation you’re in or the problem
you’re facing.
Journaling can be used in many dierent ways and situations, but the one we’re addressing here
is writing things down when you’re experiencing distress and challenging emotions.
Benefits of Journaling
It helps you slow down your thoughts
You cannot write as fast as you think. Writing can slow down your thoughts, helping you feel less
overwhelmed by the number of thoughts you’re being ooded with.
It helps reduce rumination
Rumination refers to the tendency to repeatedly focus your attention on distressing thoughts,
mental images, stories, memories and emotions. You spiral deeper and deeper into repetitive
cycles of mental suering. This spiralling process impacts your mood, increases anxiety, and
leads to uncomfortable physical sensations.
You may ruminate because you believe that if you keep analyzing things in detail - going over
them again and again and again - you might nd a solution or have a way to x or change
something. But this is rarely the case!
Rumination can be very intense and extremely dicult to get out of. By slowing down your
thoughts, journaling helps you reduce this unhelpful thinking habit.
It helps you gain clarity
Your thoughts can move extremely fast, and by deciding to write things down, you can choose
what to pay attention to.
After you’ve nished writing, you can look at what you’ve written and decide what you want to do
with what’s there. Remember: you don’t have to solve or manage every single thought right then
and there.
Very often after looking at your written thoughts, you’ll nd yourself thinking: “Yeah, I might be
catastrophising here” and “That thought might not actually be true”. In this way, journaling helps
you gain clarity and put things into perspective.
It helps you feel calmer
After your journaling session, you can often feel that a burden has been taken o your shoulders.
You have a clearer mind and a calmer body.
