JOURNALING FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND HAPPINESS I’ve just finished writing 52 Weeks to Better Mental Health, which should be out by the end of the year. It’s a workbook with prompts to help you create a mental health journal. The topic is on my mind. I often encourage my clients to keep a journal, whether hand-written, in a beautiful blank book, scribbled on scraps of paper or saved on your computer. A journal is one of the best ways to examine and sort out your feelings. Writing can help you put your life (past, present, and future) into perspective. Writing can help you figure out what’s important to you and where you want to go next in your life. Writing is a great flow activity; When you write, you no longer feel the pressure of the clock. So it doesn’t matter at all how old you are when you start. Dare to take the first step, which is to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and express yourself in words on paper. When you’re torn by a lot of ideas swirling around in your head, such as what others want you to do, what you want to do and all the choices you have, writing things down helps you sort out all the facts, eliminate the bad ideas, and reach a conclusion that you can feel confident in. After writing and analyzing your thoughts, you know that your solution is the right one for you. If you make your decision without the benefits of this process of self-awareness, you may not feel certain that your decision is truly yours. And if people you respect or care for have voiced an opinion about the decision, consciously honoring your own perspective is all the more important. Writing, expressing eases pressure and it can heal old wounds. It can focus, support, and enhance our lives and well-being. By trapping all the conflicting, elusive thoughts on paper, we can understand more about ourselves, and each other. Keeping a journal can help you: • Reduce stress, because it calms your mental process and prevents you from obsessing and worrying fruitlessly. • Set goals, because you get to write things down and arrange them in an orderly fashion. You can prioritize them once you have them down on paper. • Organize: Written notes, lists, plans and instructions can be in random journaling and then become a cogent plan. • Focus: By getting your thoughts in cogent notes on paper, you can easily track them and figure out what you want to know. • Improve your well-being: Because it reduces stress, expresses pent-up emotion, and helps you organize your thoughts, journaling can make your life work better. • Make time for you: Journaling is like a love letter to yourself, and it makes it clear that you care about you, which is a boost to healthy self-esteem. • Create a personal reminder: You can look back in old journals to remember important dates, make lists of what you need to do, and write down numbers, names and details so you don’t forget them. • Become a treasured keepsake: I routinely recommend that couples keep a marriage journal: (simpler than photo albums and scrapbooks) just a few notes and a picture or two of each special or significant occasion. You don’t have to be coupled to create a keepsake journal, you can chronicle your college years, your career, or a significant pastime or hobby. The journal becomes a treasure that can be used at any time to refresh and enhance your memories, and remind you of how much you’ve experienced and accomplished. A personal journal can help an individual chronicle the path to success, or become a resource for a future memoir. You can wait for my new book to come out, or you can just start a journal of your own whenever you want to. ©2022 Tina B. Tessina adapted from: The Ten Smartest Decisions a Woman Can Make After Forty Author Bio: Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D.is a licensed psychotherapist in S. California since 1978 with over 40 years’ experience in counseling individuals and couples and author of 15 books in 17 languages, including Dr. Romance’s Guide to Finding Love Today; It Ends With You: Grow Up and Out of Dysfunction; The Ten Smartest Decisions a Woman Can Make After Forty; Love Styles: How to Celebrate Your Differences, The Real 13th Step, How to Be Happy Partners: Working it Out Together; How to Be a Couple and Still Be Free and her newest, Money, Sex and Kids. . She writes the “Dr. Romance blog, and the “Happiness Tips from Tina” email newsletter. Online, she’s known as “Dr. Romance.” Dr. Tessina appears frequently on radio, TV, video and podcasts, including on GenerousMarriage.com. She tweets @tinatessina.
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