A Complete Guide to Writing a Thought Journal to Help Battle Depression
Depression can be one of the most restricting of all illnesses. The condition affects around 300 million people worldwide and is become renowned as an epidemic as it’s the most common cause of disability. However, as an individual suffering from depression, there are several things you can do to reduce the effects, and even combat it all together.
One of the most effective methods is through writing a thought journal or diary. Here, you can write down your thoughts, feelings and emotions, getting them out of your racing mind, enabling you to manage, cope and address them in a positive way. Not sure where to start? Here’s a complete guide to getting you started.
Get a Dedicated Book
The first thing you’re going to want to do is to find yourself a personal book for you to write in. You might be tempted to use a computer, but it’s far more therapeutic and less distracting to purchase a book and write by hand, but if you feel more comfortable using a computer, to begin with, this is highly recommended.
This gives you a dedicated and private place to vent and to get everything down. Of course, writing about your thoughts and feelings for the first time can seem daunting and somewhat overwhelming, especially if you’ve to address thoughts you’ve been trying to avoid. Here are some things to get you started.
Settings Your Goals
One of the best things you can do to help you combat depression is to write down your goals. This is a great way to help you stay motivated, inspired and aiming for something in your life. Once you’ve achieved a goal, the rewarding feeling and sense of accomplishment are unparalleled for your wellbeing.
“It doesn’t matter if you write goals, for now, the next day, the next week, or even five years ahead, it’s completely up to you and whatever you feel comfortable with. This will help dramatically when it comes to getting out of bed in the morning,” explains Anita Watson, a health writer for BigAssignments.
Write About Gratitude
At the end of each day, try writing a list of five things you are thankful for throughout the day. This is a great way to start off each entry on a positive note and helps you to learn how to appreciate things in everyday life, no matter how big, or small they are, from someone being nice to hearing the birds sing in the trees.
This is considered one of the most difficult things to write about in a thought journal, but with practice, you’ll soon excel, bringing this level of awareness for appreciating things into every hour of your day.
Write About Positive Things
Hand in hand with the consideration above, try writing 3-5 positive things that happened in your day. These are things that have happened in the day that have made you smile or stuck with you as a positive thing, again, no matter how big or small they are.
Drawing your focus to positive things in this manner can help to remind you when you’re writing, and through your day to day living, that not everything is negative.
Enhancing Your Writing Skills
One of the biggest problems people face when starting a thought journal is the fact that writing in this style isn’t something they often do. You might even have trouble writing if it’s not something you’ve done in a long time. Here are some online tools that can help;
- Writing Populist and Academadvisor: These are two blogs you full of posts you can use to improve your grammar skills.
- EliteAssignmentHelp: This is an online proofreading tool to improve the accuracy of your writing.
- Let's Go And Learn and My Writing Way: Here are two blogs you can use as writing guides to help you structure your thought journal.
- OX Essays and Academized: These are two online editing tools you can use to perfect your writing style and methods.
- Studydemic: An online tool you can use to add quotes to your digital journal or to track the word count.
- Essay Writer: This is an online writing community where you can meet and talk to other like-minded writers and talk about all things writing, as reviewed in Australian Help.
Recording Your Emotions
Since you suffer from depression, there are going to be times where your feelings will get the best of you, and it can make you feel immobile. However, when these overwhelming feelings strike, the best thing to do is to jot them down in your thought journal.
“These notes can be as vague or as detailed as you feel comfortable with. When writing them down, you are able to express yourself in such a way that you’re free from judgement and concern and can purely be yourself, with yourself. Thiss will dramatically help when it comes to dealing with and addressing your emotions and feelings, helping you combat the traditional symptoms of depression,” shares Tulia Smith, a health writer at UK writing services reviews.
Keep At It
It’s so hard to build a new habit, especially when depression takes hold. However, the more you write and the practice getting things down on paper, the easier it gets over time. Stick with it, and you’ll be amazed at how much better it can make you feel.
If you want to learn how journaling can help you tackle life's challenges, please download the free eBook, Overcome The Stresses and Strains of Life With Journaling Power.
Author bio:
Grace Carter is a proofreader at Revieweal and AustralianReviewer, services that review online writing communities. Grace also teaches writing skills improvement techniques and creates online writing courses.
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