Journelling ‘How To’

Journelling or expressive writing can be a great way to privately explore feelings and emotions and to learn about yourself. Writing things down can be therapeutic for a range of reasons. It can be a helpful way to help your mind organise things, or just to think things through. Exploring different feelings and emotions can enable you to get a better handle on what is going on for you or what is trying to emerge. Studies hasve shown positive long-term benefits of expressive including health benefits such as reduced blood pressure, improved mood and even improved working memory and sports performance (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005).

If you are more confident you can go ahead with your expressive writing. However, if you’ve never done it before it can be a little daunting.

There’s several ways you can start.

Freewriting: This is a form of expressive writing, but without any aim. Just start writing with no particular direction and see what happens. Don’t worry about grammar or sentence structure.

Writing your story: By writing your story you can explore it and whilst doing so, investigate or jot down your emotions - see what comes up for you. There is no right or wrong.

Drawing/colouring: That’s right, colouring pencils are not just for children and artists… go for it. Get the colouring pencils out and see what takes your fancy. You could write in colour or create any way you wish. Drawing or colouring allows you to express yourself in a way other than words and is equally beneficial.

Research shows that there is little evidence to suggest hand writing is better than writing on a computer, tablet or phone, so go with what works for you.

Writing about things might not always be fun if you’re going through a difficult time, but curiosity could be helpful. After all, if it doesn’t work for you, at least you’ve learned that about yourself.

Baikie, K, A. & Wihelm, K. (2005) Emotional and pysical health benefits of expressive writing. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 11, 338-346.