There is nothing new about journaling, there records of the stoic philosophers keeping journals from Epictetus to Marcus Aurelius. Through history people such as 1. Leonardo da Vinci · 2. Frida Kahlo · 3. Marie Curie · 4. Anne Frank · 5. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) · 6. Charles Darwin 7. Albert Einstein have all kept a journal.
Who is journaling for
So who is journaling for? it’s for anyone who can write! It is a form of self-expression that can lift and empower people to understand they’re complex feelings and find humor with it. In the past I have created journals for different things as many of you know or may not I published a gratitude journal and I still keep one, combining the two things together is a great way to start a journal, take five minutes in the evening and write down three things that you give gratitude for that day, it can be as simple or complex as you like, from the simple things such as having clean water, a roof over your head to anything that you are grateful for that day.
Each morning I journal as well, I write down how I want to feel that day, one thing I can do to make that happen, one person who I need to show up for that day, that can be your children, spouse, a friend or work colleague to your boss. I note down that I have done my meditation, drank my water.
The Benefits
How Can We Use Writing to Increase Mental Health?
Whether you’re keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it’s the same thing. What’s important is you’re having a relationship with your mind.
Natalie Goldberg
You might be wondering how writing in a journal can have a significant impact on your mental health. After all, it’s just putting some words on a page—how much can that really do for you?
It turns out that this simple practice can do a lot, especially for those struggling with mental illness or striving towards more positive mental health.
Journaling requires the application of the analytical, rational left side of the brain; while your left hemisphere is occupied, your right hemisphere (the creative, touchy-feely side) is given the freedom to wander and play (Grothaus, 2015)! Allowing your creativity to flourish and expand can be cathartic and make a big difference in your daily well-being.
Overall, journaling/expressive writing has been found to:
Boost your mood/affect;
Enhance your sense of well-being;
Reduce symptoms of depression before an important event (like an exam);
Reduce intrusion and avoidance symptoms post-trauma;
Improve your working memory (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005).
In particular, journaling can be especially helpful for those with PTSD or a history of trauma.
Guides on Journaling
A good set of guidelines on effective journaling can be found on the Center for Journal Therapy website. When you journal, remember the simple acronym: WRITE!
W – What do you want to write about? Think about what is going on in your life, your current thoughts and feelings, what you’re striving towards or trying to avoid right now. Give it a name and put it all on paper.
R – Review or reflect on it. Take a few moments to be still, calm your breath, and focus. A little mindfulness or meditation could help in this step. Try to start sentences with “I” statements like “I feel…”, “I want…”, and, “I think…” Also, try to keep them in the present tense, with sentence stems like “Today…”, “Right now…”, or “In this moment…”.
I – Investigate your thoughts and feelings through your writing. Just keep going! If you feel you have run out of things to write or your mind starts to wander, take a moment to re-focus (another opportunity for mindfulness meditation!), read over what you have just written, and continue on.
T – Time yourself to ensure that you write for at least 5 minutes (or whatever your current goal is). Write down your start time and the projected end time based on your goal at the top of your page. Set a timer or alarm to go off when the time period you have set is up.
E – Exit strategically and with introspection. Read what you have written and take a moment to reflect on it. Sum up your takeaway in one or two sentences, starting with statements like “As I read this, I notice…”, “I’m aware of…”, or “I feel…” If you have any action items or steps you would like to take next, write them down now (Adams, n.d.).
For me, writing is a way of thinking. I write in a journal a lot. I’m a very impatient person, so writing and meditation allow me to slow down and watch my mind; they are containers that keep me in place, hold me still.
Ruth Ozeki
Why is it so beneficial for anxiety?
There’s simply no better way to learn about your thought processes than to write them down.
Barbara Markway,
She notes that to address our problematic thought patterns, we first have to actually know what they are! Journaling is instrumental in helping us identify our negative automatic self-talk and get to the root of our anxiety.
Writing in a journal can positively impact your anxiety through:
Calming and clearing your mind;
Releasing pent-up feelings and everyday stress;
Letting go of negative thoughts;
Exploring your experiences with anxiety;
Writing about your struggles and your successes;
Enhancing your self-awareness and teaching you about your triggers;
Tracking your progress as you undergo treatment (Star, 2018).
Through mechanisms like those listed above, journaling has been shown to:
Reduce physical symptoms, health problems, and anxiety in women (LaClaire, 2008);
Help students manage their stress and anxiety and improve their engagement and enhance meaning found in the classroom (Flinchbaugh, Moore, Chang, & May, 2012).
It is yours
Your journal is for you and you alone, and keeping this in mind can make you feel impossibly free to pour your authentic self onto the page. Give a try! All you have to lose is a few minutes of your time, and you already know all you could gain.
It has been a while since I wrote on here and as are coming out of covid all be it to a very new “normal”. I thought I would write a bit about how I have been the last few months since last writing here. Many of us have had a pretty shit year in one way or another, from job loses, to isolation working from home to the other end and working through. I have no issues writing about mental health and my fights and battles with it.
Through all this last lockdown I have been working, in the first one I was working form home so as much as I do like my own company I had no social interaction other than my daughter on weekends. This time I have been in an office and this has brought its own issues and more than a few anxiety issues. During the first lockdown we had surprisingly good weather for the time of year so I was getting out for walks, swimming in the Usk. I firmly believe that being in nature has a positive impact on mental health. This time we have been in winter and as is becoming the norm not a particularly cold winter but rather wet. We have had more frosts in April than through winter. The strangeness of the Great British weather.
Hobbies
I have taken up a new hobby as we are coming out of covid, and all though people say that my photography, cooking and writing is artistic I have never thought of my self as artistic. I have started painting and in some of the pieces I have done they have been very dark which at times has portrayed my mood. Other pieces have been very bright and upbeat. You can see some of my art at ArtbyIan.
The art and mannequins that I have been creating are taking over my home though I have sold a few to friends, and as you can see above I have created a website to highlight my art work.
Conversations
During the last few months I have had quite a few conversations with friends regarding mental health and it is good that more people are willing to talk and open up. Sadly there is still a stigma surrounding men’s mental health and it only gets talked about during world mental health day or week. I know from personal experience the difference it can make from bottling up your feelings and emotions and to actually talking about them. Yes it can be hard to talk to those close to you I fully understand that. It can also be hard to open up to a stranger. As we are coming out of covid I strongly believe that mental health issues have and will be a massive increase on resources from the NHS, mental health charities be them MIND or forces charities.
I have continued to post on social media my struggles and my victories. Writing and sharing them has been a method of getting things out of my head. Friends have talked of their struggles in the last year and how they have overcome them. Sadly I have at times resorted back to self medication and drank way to much, eaten junk and neglected my self care. My meditation and mindfulness has at times lapsed, my exercise has been non existent. So the drink, diet and lack of self care has taken its toll and the scales recently said one at a time you fat bastard, but eh its covid weight so doesn’t matter is not a good excuse and does not wash lol.
Moving On
So where do we go from here as we are coming out of covid. Personally I need to make some lifestyle changes. Drinking has to be cut down even though the pubs are now open again, I need to get back to my cooking making meals from scratch and avoiding the junk. My mindfulness and mediation needs to be mad a regular practice as it definitely helps my mental health. I will continue to talk to those that have been there for me through all of my struggles, it’s good to talk and yes sometimes I do shut myself down and respond in single words and short sentences. I can promise each of you that I have no intentions of doing anything daft, yes I still have those days and thoughts but I manage them now. I truly give gratitude to each of you for being there.
Mental health we all have it the same as we have physical health, if you brake a bone you seek professional advice, if you feel your minds broken then seek professional advice regarding that.
Don’t bottle up your feelings and emotions, let them out and talk. Please do not ever suffer in silence, I have on times not taken my own advice but I am and always will be here for anyone that wishes to talk, I don’t judge I would be a bit of a hypocrite to do so.
Covid and My Mental Health. This is by no means an exhaustive post of how I have gotten through this year so far, just a quick post listing a few of the tools I have used to manage my mental health. During this year I have had several episodes if that is what you wish to call them from anxiety attacks in supermarkets to those very dark thoughts.
Like for many this year will go down as a pretty shit year, pandemic, lock-downs, job losses, isolation, weight gain, alcohol consumption increase and the list goes on and on. Just as we think things are on the up along comes more of the shitstorm, led by what for many seem inept, incompetent, lying, contradicting imbeciles. They are following the science they say, yet on our little island in the Atlantic, we get conflicting stories, rules, restrictions and guidelines. Why can it not be one song sheet one storybook rather than the individuals having silly little power games?
From day one bungling Boris, wee Jimmy up in Scotland and Dripford here in Wales have all said different things, I long ago gave up on the news and its constant negativity and bickering. Limiting social media as much as I can also, friends arguing with friends over the smallest thing.
Limit The Media
My circle is small and have I limited social interaction, the shop, the occasional visit to the pub.
I don’t mind my own company and can generally occupy my time. For the main part of this, I have been working from home with a few trips to the office in West Wales, that contract ended last Friday so its back to looking for more work to pay the bills.
Ideally, I would build the coaching business, I know that the skills I have and tools I have learnt over the last few years would be of so much use in these unprecedented times. From school children with anxiety to adults with the whole gamut of mental health issues from depression to anxiety. Over the last several years I have suffered from mental health issues, unlike many men of my age I have no qualms or issues in speaking about it. All the man up, get on with it shit is the past, we need to end the stigma, the taboo that surrounds mental health.
Covid and My Mental Health
I believe that mental health issues will be a far bigger burden on our struggling NHS than the virus over the coming years. We need to be teaching everyone how to manage their mental health, coping strategies, teaching them that it is OK to talk. From starting teaching mindfulness in schools to teaching it for the now growing work from home numbers. Teaching simple yet proven strategies for coping with anxiety and panic attacks.
Through various courses and self-taught practices, I have built a toolset that I use for my mental health.
The routine from something as simple as making the bed straight away.
Mindfulness first thing, our minds are better suited to doing meditation and mindfulness shortly after waking this is down to the different brain waves, from Delta which we experience during sleep to Beta which we experience during most of our waking day. Doing mindfulness or meditation shortly after waking our brains are in Alpha state, we are awake and aware but doing a thoughtful activity.
Breathing Exercise
Simple breathing exercises are great for when we feel anxiety or panic rising, by taking deep breaths we change our whole physiology and the body calms.
Something as simple as a
Breathe in for 3
Hold for 3
Exhale for 3
Hold for 3
Repeat, this is called box breathing and a 3 count is a great place to start with it as you practice you can increase the count. Carry out the exercise for 3-5 minutes to start and focus on the breath, that is as simple as mindfulness is. It is not about emptying the mind and transcending realms, we are not monks that sit in caves in the foothills of Everest. Mindfulness is about being in the moment and by focusing on the breath then we enter a state of calm.
Anxiety Coping Exercise
There is a simple exercise that you can use to help cope with anxiety it is called the 5-4-3-2-1 method
5: Acknowledge five things you see around you.
4: Acknowledge four things you can touch around you.
3: Acknowledge three things you can hear.
2: Acknowledge two things you can smell.
1: Acknowledge one thing you can taste.
By doing the above simple exercise it takes the focus away from whatever is causing the anxious moment.
Find a new hobby to occupy the mind, be it drawing, colouring, craft, learning a new language, playing a musical instrument whatever it is that interests you. With so many restrictions in place, it is hard to take up a new sport at the moment, but you can still exercise at home doing simple bodyweight exercises. Read more no matter what it is.
The Outdoors
Get outdoors, no matter how short a period there are proven benefits for both mental and physical health from being among nature, it makes no difference where your green space is, be it a mountain or local council park, fresh air, vitamin D and nature really are wonderful tonics for the mind and mood.
Try to eat as healthily as you can, I know it can be difficult during these crazy times we find ourselves in but please try. Cooking could be a new hobby, involve the children, cook from scratch even if you make your versions of their favourites, trust me they will enjoy them so much more.
Another good thing to do is journaling, you can look back and see how you got through similar things in the past. Keep a gratitude journal each day write down what you have been grateful for that day, some days you will think well I can’t think of anything today, but even the simplest of things can be written down, I woke up, I have a roof over my head, I have clean water to drink, when you make a practice of it then you notice that you give gratitude for all that you do have.
Try to limit your time watching the news, reading the papers, scrolling through social media and comparing yourself to others, don’t forget what we see online is what people want us to see, what the media portray as to how you should look, act, live is total bollocks and nonsense. If things are outside your circle of control put them in the fuck-it bucket and forget about them, they have no control over you unless you allow them to.
I am going to journal more on covid and my mental health on here as we continue through this bizarre time of our lives.
Take care, love yourself. Practice self-love and self care both physical and mental.
