Emotional Journaling
Are you in touch with your emotions? Do you ever experience emotions you don’t understand, or feel something without being able to trace it to a particular cause or event? If so, you’re not alone. Emotions can be complex, and sorting them out can be slow work.
The worksheet above describes emotional journaling: writing down your emotions as fully as you can, then re-reading it later for insight. Practicing mindfulness can help you become more aware of how you’re feeling, and greater awareness of your emotional states can, in turn, support your mindfulness practice.
Mindfulness Exercise for Emotional Journaling
In this exercise, you’ll take time to record your thoughts and reflections about your emotional states. The worksheet suggests these steps:
- Choose a journal you can use on an ongoing basis: a plain notebook, a fancy handmade one that brings you joy, or even an anonymous blog. Guided journals can be a helpful place to start if you feel overwhelmed. The goal is personal exploration, so there’s no need to worry about how it sounds or whether it’s “perfect” prose.
- Try writing for ten or fifteen minutes, nonstop and without self-judgment. Re-read it afterward for insight, rather than analyzing as you write.
- Start with a recent event: who was there, what happened, where and when. Use all five senses, then write about how the event made you feel. This connects the exterior world with your interior one.
- Next, turn to an interior feeling instead of an event. If you’re anxious, consider the situations where the anxiety arises and what its triggers might be, and follow the thoughts and feelings toward their root.
- You can also examine experiences from your past, or use your journal to express relationship troubles without hurting your partner’s feelings.
- Notice the words you use. Highlight or underline words and feelings that recur, and consider why they might matter.
Many people write before bed to process the day. If you work with a counselor, your journal can be a helpful starting point for those conversations.
Where This Practice Comes From
According to the worksheet, diaries and journals have existed for millennia, and using one for emotional exploration became common mainly in the 20th century, as in the journals of Carl Jung. It also points to psychologist James W. Pennebaker, whose experiments on expressive writing, especially about undisclosed or unexamined trauma, the worksheet says showed benefits for mental wellbeing and even physical health.
Journaling can bring up words and phrases that might not otherwise surface. It is a self-reflection practice, not a treatment. If writing stirs up distress, or if anxiety or low mood is affecting your daily life, it complements, and does not replace, support from a licensed mental health professional.
