Effective journaling can result in many positive outcomes and improvements to your quality of life.
It can help you clear your head, make important connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and even buffer or reduce the effects of mental illness, Journaling uses the analytical, rational left side of the brain; while your left hemisphere is occupied, your right hemisphere (the creative side) is given the freedom to wander and generate. Overall, journaling/expressive writing has been found to:
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Journaling doesn't have to be just writing words on paper. Here are a few ways to journal:
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Here are some journal prompts to get you started:
- Write About Your Day.
- Identify Things You're Grateful For.
- Write a List of Your Coping Mechanisms.
- Describe a Goal.
- Write About How Different You Were 5 Years Ago.
- List and Describe Your Emotions.
- Write About How You'd Describe Yourself to a Stranger.
- Describe your perfect day.
- Discuss 5 things you wish others knew about you.
- Write one paragraph about what made you happy today.
- What inspires you?
- Make a list of 15 things that make you happy.
- Write about an important person in your life who you are grateful for. What do you admire about this person, why have they had such an impact on your life, and what would you like to tell them?
- What are your best character traits?
- Write down three to five things that trigger feelings of anxiety in you and identify one to three coping strategies you can attempt to implement in response to these.
- Pick one positive word you'd like to focus on today and describe what it makes you feel or what you associate with it.
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