Journaling for your Mental Health

Compartmentalization is a short-term tactic, so journaling is an excellent release for things that are gnawing away at us. “It’s great to have friends or therapists that can help you through that process,” said Laura Rubin, founder of AllSwell. “And maybe you do. But having as many tools in our toolkit as possible to take care of ourselves is incredibly important. Journaling is so wildly accessible; you don’t need to have a special outfit, there’s no copay, and it’s available 24/7."

Rubin has been a longtime journaler (she can remember journaling as far back as an 8-year-old). But she started AllSwell, which facilitates workshops around the world to teach people how to journal, specifically because she felt journaling had such a bad PR problem. “It had given me so much in my life and I recognized that it was considered an effective way to ruminate on the page or have sort of a teen angst explosion,” she noted. “And it’s so much more than that.” 

Rubin believes that reinforcing and validating ourselves from within is an opportunity that the page provides with prompts. “We require six pieces of positive affirmations to balance out one piece of perceived criticism; six to one,” she said. “Also, our brains have a natural negative bias; it’s evolutionary, where we’re scanning for potential threats. That’s pretty tough. So, this idea of guided journaling towards things that make us feel good about ourselves through our own creativity provides this bedrock of self-worth. And self-worth is so important; it is the basis of all good decision-making—who you’ll work with, how you’ll be spoken to, how you’ll conduct yourself, what kind of jobs you’ll take, what kind of pay you’ll accept, all those things.”

To that end, journaling doesn’t require a fancy notebook or a certain ballpoint pen (but if that’s your jam, explore that further); it’s about consistency. “It’s great to choose a goal that’s realistic for you,” said Rubin. "It’s one of the reasons why I came up with what I call the micro dose method, four by four by four, journal for four minutes a day, don’t try to do it every day, try to do it four days a week, and then stick with it for four weeks. Give yourself this structure, which will make you feel good because you’ve accomplished the goal. So you get a little dopamine hit, as well as the positive, mental, emotional, and physiological experience of journaling.”

In no thanks to social media, there are a lot of preconceived notions about what journaling is supposed to look or sound like. “Journaling for 25 minutes at a time in the perfect environment with your adaptogen-laden matcha in a cashmere throw sounds great, but it’s just not realistic for most people most days,” she added. “Let’s take the pressure off. It’s not about Instagrammable moments here. It’s about your mental health. If you just need to write your grocery list today, that’s fine. It’s not about journaling guilt or journaling stress because nobody needs that. And if you can permit yourself to show up however you need to show up that particular day, it will help you be more consistent.”