Living with an anxiety disorder can be very challenging.
Counseling, medication, and coping skills play an important role in managing the often complex symptoms.
But you may be surprised to hear that there is a simple and very effective tool to ease your mind – and the good news is, it is completely free!
This tool is the activity of ‘journaling’ — writing down your feelings, thoughts, and experiences as they arise. This tool is personal, it is available any time, and all you need is pen and paper or your iPad or laptop.
So how does journaling work and what are its benefits for those who are living with an anxiety disorder?
- Become the author of your own story (again)
Whether it is a book with a precious key or a file on your laptop, your journal is there to ‘listen’ in the sense that it receives and preserves the thoughts that you write in it. Many people write a little bit in their journal every day (morning or late at night is most popular), which gets them into a soothing routine. Others write when they are upset, or when something happens that disturbs them. Writing, putting your feelings into language, forming sentences and paragraphs, structures the processes in your brain. They are immediately less chaotic and overwhelming.
You are the author of the journal entry. You can also become the author of your life story (again), something that anxiety may have taken away from you.
- ‘Better out than in’
It may sound counter-intuitive, but writing down your fears or other ‘unwanted’ emotions like anger is actually the beginning of a healing process. These feelings already exist inside you. Instead of suppressing them, don’t be afraid to put them into words – one of the benefits is that you don’t have to carry them around anymore exclusively in your head!
- Just write
At the same time, writing is a release of excess energy, another symptom of anxiety in the form of an elevated stress response. The main point is not to think too much and certainly not to put yet more pressure on yourself by trying to write perfect prose. The more you allow yourself to ‘just write,’ the more it will ease your mind by processing your memories and emotions.
- The flow state
If you get into the habit of journaling, you may even sometimes enter the so-called ‘flow’ state of mind when you are fully engaged with your writing and focused on something positive outside yourself. In this state you literally forget your troubles because your mind is engaged with something more important. Long term research by world famous Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Chicago) even suggests that the flow state is the path to human happiness – and happiness is the opposite of anxiety.
- Different writing methods
Some people use the journal to try out different ideas, different ways of looking at their own story. You can try to explore a new ending to an old, fearful tale. Or you can acknowledge the reality of what is happening. Journaling often provides a new and sometimes surprising perspective.
- An ‘anchor’ in times of trouble
Your journal is always there for you.
Whatever you feel, whatever you think, even if there is no one else there to share it with, you can share it with your journal.
If you are living with an anxiety disorder, you know how important it is to have an ‘anchor,’ something that can stabilize you, available to you any time you need it.
- Express yourself without fear of criticism or rejection
Your journal is not just always there for you, it is also a safe place where nobody will attack you. There are no overwhelming demands. There is no suggestion that you are not good enough. Your journal is your witness, and your unconditional friend.
- Physical health benefits
The health benefits of journaling extend to your physical health as well. James Pennebraker from the University of Texas in Austin has found that journaling can improve your immune system by strengthening your T-lymphocytes by reducing your stress levels. Other research suggests an improvement in auto-immune conditions like asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
If you have a few minutes, why don’t you try journaling right now?
Write whatever is on your mind – after all, nobody but you will ever read it!
For further information, please take a look at my specialty page on individual counseling.
