Keeping a Journal During COVID-19 to Nurture Your Mental Health

Journaling provides many benefits, including relief from stress, anxiety, and depression. There’s no better time to nurture your mental health than during COVID-19. Here’s how keeping a journal can benefit your mental health, and a few suggestions to get you started.

Mental Health Benefits of Keeping a Journal

• Journaling provides clarity. By writing down what’s happening in your life, you can create order from what feels like chaos.

• Journaling allows you to relax. Many people find the act of writing or organizing photos and other records soothing.

• Journaling helps you keep a record. This can be useful in tracking how you feel and what triggers those emotions.

• Journaling can be therapeutic. Writing gives you an opportunity to practice positive self-talk and give yourself encouragement.

• Journaling gives you perspective. It’s helpful to be able to look back on your record and know that you can make it through hard times.

How to Journal

• Choose your medium. Journaling isn’t confined to the written word. You can use words, artwork, or photos, and your journal can be either physical or digital.

• Make time. Ideally, take a few minutes every day to keep up your journal. You’re better able to reap the mental health benefits of journaling as you make it a habit.

• Make it personal. As well as using your preferred medium, you can choose whether you want your journal to have a theme, and whether you want it to be public or private. It’s completely up to you.

• Don’t worry. There’s no right or wrong way to keep a journal. The important thing is to use it in a way that works best for you.

Journaling is a great tool to help you get in touch with yourself and nurture your mental health. It’s also extremely flexible, so it can be completely personalized to meet your needs. As you create a habit of journaling, you’ll find that you look forward to it as a time to take care of yourself.