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Does journaling really help to maintain a profound psychological state? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've( 22M ) been an overthinker for almost my entire life. Not only that, I have hyper-anxiety and overwhelmness. I haven't been scheduled with a psychiatrist so far.

A few months ago, I seriously realized that I was wasting my time on devices( phones, laptops etc) and haven't been paying attention to real life and responsibilities. Because I had made devices as a way to escape from reality.

Then I made a schedule to maintain that included low and controlled use of devices and some other things. Journaling was also a part of that.

I began to write my daily events on a journal app in my phone. I had a physical diary that I started to use to write down advices, methods, facts, important instructions that I was gathering from youtube. That diary is now filled around 60%.

I continued writing my daily journal in the app for 1.5 months and then lost the drive to continue for unknown reason. Consider this one of my main psychological problem. I lose drive very quickly.

Then I realized that, when I continued journaling, I had more control of my overall daily activity that I used to do. I had less laziness, more energy, more drive, healthy sleep schedule etc. And now, it seems that I've sunken into my peak rabbithole again.

Now I'm seeking advices from people who turned their life in a positive way by writing journals as a first step. Any other advices except journaling is also welcomed.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've been journaling for a few years, starting with a Mind Journal in COVID which I found really useful. It's built to ease you into it, get you reflecting more and introspecting as well as build the habit by making it as easy as possible to note something down each day.

I don't use their products any more as they are quite expensive but I'd definitely recommend looking into them for trying to turn journaling into a habit. I do use the system though which is for each day you note your feelings, 3 (or more) achievements which can be anything from got up and showered to got a promotion, 3 (or more) things your grateful for and a happy hour where you have or plan to do something good for yourself.

This is a really useful prompt I find because those bits only take a few minutes and are a great way to track things over time. For example looking back at my COVID journal I can spot when I started getting burned out by having feeling: tired every day for several months. Noting down what you're grateful for is also proven to help your mood, basically you start looking for positive things more and it's a happy feedback loop.

Once I've done those bits I write stream of consciousness style, anything that's playing on my mind, details of my day, stuff I hope might or might not happen, things that made me angry. For me it's a really useful medicine practice which has definitely helped keep my mental health more stable over the years.

I like having a nice book and pen to write in too, I'm looking forward to finishing this journal so I can upgrade the book to something more fancy, maybe going leather bound next time.

My main advice would be to stick with it, habits take a good 3 months or so to bed in. The mind journal is good for this as it makes it really easy to journal something and gradually builds you up to more free form writing.

Good luck with your journalling I hope you find something which works for you. There are loads of methods out there from billet journaling which helps like a load of work to me but looks amazing like an art project, to the VOMIT method to just get your thoughts onto the page. Keep at it, try to find what works for you and build the habit, but don't stress if you miss a day or two.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Noted. ✍️ .

I used an app called "My Diary". While I don't particularly seek customization and colorful theme in the way, upon testing multiple diary app, this one caught my attention. Maybe because of its simplicity.

The last time I wrote an entry in this app was in 2nd February. The developing matter is that, from last week, I've started to write entries again but in a different note-taking app. I skipped the last 2 days but after getting responses from you guys, I think I CAN continue.....

Thank you for sharing your experiences in details.🤝