Writing Lessons & Advice: Journaling (for Mental health)
I kept diaries as an adolescent. I imagine them as something like a rite of passage, a tradition practiced during certain stages of life. The teen diary is something popular, yet sacred. On one hand, works like Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl to the Princess Diaries and to Diary of a Wimpy Kid show how literature and entertainment have embraced both the diary-keeping act as well as their contents at times. Yet on the flipside, some diaries are marketed with key locks or combination locks to invoke a sense of security or privacy. Additionally, a young diary-owner might also stow it in a safe place or have it on their person often. In some situations, their worst nightmare is for their possession to be found, land in the wrong hands, and/or read by an unintended audience.
Teenage years are rife with changes, emotions, and experiences so keeping a diary can be a helpful habit through the gauntlet of growing up. But it doesn’t have to end with adulthood (which is just as much, if not more, of a gauntlet). Pop culture has given us adult-authored diaries like Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman and the Bridget Jones’s Diary series. At some point, the same practice may just be called journaling. In a society that’s pushing for self-care and mental health care, journaling is actually one of the oldest and most widely-practiced forms of self-help through writing.
The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) names several wellness benefits to journaling, like how it provides a place to confess struggles and fears without judgment or punishment. In turn, the practice can help one manage anxiety, reduce stress, and cope with depression. Also, one’s mood can be improved and certain issues can be managed by tracking any day-to-day symptoms or triggers, prioritizing problems, fears, and concerns, and identifying any negativity in mind or in life. To even speak from a bit of personal experience, journaling/writing is one of few things my neurodivergent brain will focus on without a lot of issue. It helps me “see” and organize my thoughts.The habit has also been a friend to me at lower times of my life, one I’ve entrusted things I couldn’t/shouldn’t/didn’t express to anyone else or any other way.
Journaling can be simple; it's typically just an act of taking one’s thoughts and feelings from their head to down on paper. A specific diary or notebook might be purchased or designated for the purpose if you want to keep one by hand. For something digital, you might designate a word document or platform. Journaling can also be done with or without writing prompts to guide your thoughts. As long as it's private, it's one medium where proofreading and writing conventions aren’t absolutely necessary to maintain. To make the most of it, the URMC also suggests making it an easy habit, one you manage as you see fit, look at it as a personal relaxation time, and keep up with other healthy lifestyle practices as well.
Hopefully, you understand a little more about journaling or even feel inspired to try it!
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