What to Write when Journaling

Goals and Ambitions – having a focus in your life is so useful in centring your mental health. It can boost your motivation and give you reason for all the hard things you go through/have gone through in life. Not only that, but it means that in the future you can look back at how many goals you have achieved since you first wrote them down. These goals can be anything and it is often best to have goals that aren’t too hard to achieve, so that you can feel the satisfaction of completing a goal more frequently.

Values – as you’re reflecting on what has happened that day, consider values that you used or thought of or picked up along the way. This can help you feel in control of who you are, and teaches you which values you maybe talk about more than you act upon; giving you the chance to grow as a person (without harsh judgement!).

Gratitude – write down things you are grateful for. This can be things you thought of during the day or whatever comes to your mind as you write and reflect. Being grateful for what you have can be a great way to have perspective and feel better about who you are and where you are in your life. Perspective is often lost these days, especially with social media (How social media Impacts your Stress), and how busy people’s lives are. Journaling is a great way to gain perspective.

Highlights – the basis of a lot of people’s journaling is noting what they did that day, however this can be expanded upon by including things that you did which improved your mental health. This gives yourself recognition for difficult things you did that day, and also motivates you to do things during the day specifically to benefit your mental wellbeing. You can also keep track of symptoms you had that day – if you have health anxiety this can be good to ensure you don’t forget what your symptoms were and when. Equally, you could record your diet, your food intake it central to how your body functions, read What to Eat for a Calmer Mind and Body to learn more.

Visuals – sometimes it can be easier to describe your emotions with diagrams. It can also make it easier for you to understand how you were feeling when you look back through your diary pages. Some people’s brains are more visual than others so if you’re struggling to find your words, picture the scene or the emotion in your head and draw it! If you’re stuck on what to draw, consider giving each emotion an animal or colour or food and draw it alongside words – or change the colour of the writing depending on the emotion behind it!