How Journaling Activates Your Brain For Resilience
The science of why journaling is so effective - putting hand to paper ~ as a tool and a way of being able to process and understand your experience - and to find answers and comfort. Journal writing is this tool that allows the brain to be able to both communicate and understand. Here I share the five forms of journaling together with what happens in the brain (and for you) as you experience their positive effects. Please reach out to me if you would like my help in your journaling practice. Namaste, and love to you. Love, Dorothy.
Transcript
If I can provide for you the science as to why journaling,
Hand to paper,
Is so effective,
I hope it will inspire you to begin.
I've always expressed to clients the importance and the therapeutic benefit of writing as a tool,
As a way of being able to process and understand and experience,
And to find answers and comfort in your expressive writing.
When you write about your feelings,
Research from brain scans shows us that the prefrontal cortex,
The region of the brain responsible for reasoning,
Begins to synchronize with the amygdala,
Which is the region of the brain that processes emotions.
Journal writing is this tool that allows the brain to both communicate and understand.
A 2021 Stanford study found expressive writing helps the brain recover from stress.
It does this as the mid-cingulate cortex becomes calmer and more coordinated.
Studies have shown that expressive writing,
That is,
Writing which involves expressing one's emotional experiences,
Enhances neuroprocessing in areas related to cognitive control and memory.
This isn't just about feeling better in the moment,
But building long-term mental and emotional strength and resilience.
Think of the brain as a network of interconnected pathways.
The more you use a particular pathway,
The stronger it becomes.
When you journal,
You exercise or train the brain's emotional regulation muscles.
When you put your emotions into words,
The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex turns on,
Helping to quiet the amygdala.
This process is called affect labeling.
It allows you to feel without feeling overwhelmed.
It's one beautiful way we have been designed to self-regulate.
It is through this particular form of journaling,
Called expressive writing,
That allows you to place clarity,
Reason,
Calm,
And understanding to your experience.
A 2023 study showed that handwriting activates more areas of the brain,
Creating more inner brain connectivity than typing on a keyboard or into your phone.
When your hand moves with your thoughts,
Your mind slows,
Enough to help you make sense of your thoughts and your experience.
It is a therapeutic tool like no other,
And it is always available to you.
I want to go through the five types of journaling that I have identified here,
And when it may be most helpful to use each.
And of course,
If you would like my help as you engage on this journey of inner reflection,
Resilience,
Self-awareness,
Calm through journaling,
Please reach out to me.
Let me help you.
The first type,
As I mentioned,
Is expressive writing.
Use this type of journaling when you feel overwhelmed,
When you feel heavy emotions.
And this is simply to write about your experience.
You may want to aim for about 15 to 20 minutes,
Or longer,
Until you feel a sense of ease and calm.
This works because the brain treats unfinished expression as emotional work.
We can get good at compartmentalizing our problems and our experiences of emotional duress,
But this isn't a solution.
The brain continues to try and make sense of what happened,
The experience,
The feelings,
The trauma,
And by journaling,
You are no longer storing these unfinished emotions.
They have a place and a way to be expressed with greater understanding,
Clarity,
And of course,
Release.
The brain's emotional center is quiet after expressive writing.
Your cognitive control increases,
You feel lighter because you have given yourself,
Through the tool of writing,
A way for your mind to process what has happened,
Often with a sense of greater clarity,
A resolve for what you need to do to fix a problem and to feel better,
And an emotional release that is controlled,
And most of all,
Helpful and productive.
You may cry,
You may feel enraged as you write,
And a plethora of other emotions,
However,
After you finish writing,
Likely,
You feel emotional relief and greater calm.
It's incredibly therapeutic,
It is something you can do for yourself at any time.
The second type of journaling that we often hear about is gratitude journaling.
This is helpful at times when you may want to feel your authentic happiness.
It's also a powerful form of journaling when you have been feeling low affect or feeling numb.
You can journal about the small details that you are grateful for,
The sun shining,
A healthy lunch that you made yourself,
A simple and yet loving phone call with a family member,
And notice the feelings that arise as you do so.
This type of journaling activates the mid-prefrontal cortex and helps to regulate mood and motivation.
Writing something or several things that you are grateful for each day is a wonderful skill because you are teaching the brain to look for what is positive and good in your life.
The more specific you can be helps to anchor the memory you are recalling,
And the brain begins to build new emotional associations over time,
Attuning your nervous system into balance and helping you see beyond what challenges exist in your day.
A third form of journaling is called reflective reframing.
It's most helpful to use this type when life feels confusing and or challenging.
Reflective reframing is to write the facts of what happened,
What the experience meant,
What it revealed and taught you,
And one small call to action that will help you in a next,
Similar future moment.
This type of journaling strengthens the prefrontal regions that regulate emotional reactivity.
It builds the ability to pause,
To understand.
It restores resilience so that you can begin to see difficulties as challenges that you can overcome,
And this helps you respond to future stressors with greater mental resilience and a positive outlook.
A fourth type I call free association.
This is a type of expressive writing in which you write whatever comes to mind.
You put pen to paper,
Maybe you give yourself a set time,
Like 10 minutes on the clock,
And you write.
This is helpful when you are needing to understand your emotions,
What you are feeling,
And why you are feeling the way you feel.
As you write about your experiences,
Your thoughts,
Whatever comes to mind,
The exercise here is to simply emote,
To express your thoughts and feelings in a place of non-judgment,
To allow yourself to see and witness how your mind is working,
To give yourself presence to what's happening beneath the surface,
And what may be truly bothering you.
Free association is often used to simply express.
It's having a place to confide your innermost thoughts and feelings,
And often as you continue writing non-stop for that time,
You unearth important details about how your mind works,
What you may be lamenting or ruminating on,
And what's important to you in that moment.
Finally,
What I would call a fifth form of journaling is to use journal prompts.
These can be what are called sentence stems,
Which then prompt you to complete the sentence with a number of different endings,
Garnering the ability to go deeper in your self-reflection and understanding.
Journal prompts can be questions helping you to uncover and learn more about yourself.
If you've ever been sitting across from me in a session of therapy and or life coaching,
It's quite common for me to give you questions and journal prompts in which to help you be able to answer the questions you need in order to help yourself.
I invite you to try any or all of these types of journaling.
Notice how you begin to understand yourself better and to proactively create solutions,
Relief,
And greater resilience for future moments.
As you use these forms of journaling,
The brain learns to heal itself.
Journaling enhances self-awareness and aids in the practice of self-compassion and self-understanding,
All valuable skills for self-healing and self-knowledge.
Journaling is a quiet,
Reflective experience of honesty,
Adaptation,
Learning,
And the efficacy that arrives with being able to help yourself in the moment as you need it.
There are two final points I'd like to make on the benefit,
The helpfulness of journaling.
One is that journaling,
Especially through expressive writing,
Is a powerful tool for managing intense emotions,
The bigger emotions that we have.
Studies suggest that putting feelings into words may help with cognitive reappraisal,
Which is a process of reframing a situation to lessen its emotional impact.
This likely involves the prefrontal cortex,
The brain's control center for planning,
Decision-making,
And emotional control.
While more research is continuing on specific functions in the brain related to the positive benefits of journaling,
The act of writing about experiences appears to help connect emotions with rational thought.
This promotes better emotional regulation over time and helps you express your feelings with words.
And finally,
Journaling builds self-awareness.
It encourages introspection,
It helps us to understand our motivations,
Our values,
Our triggers,
And this self-knowledge is crucial for making healthy choices,
Building closer,
Stronger relationships,
And for self-reflection.
For example,
Reflecting on a conflict with a friend can help you understand your role in the situation and identify ways to communicate more effectively in the future.
If you would like my help with your journaling practice,
Please reach out to me.
Let me help.
Thank you.
I hope this was ever so helpful for you.
This is Dorothy Sonori Juno.
Namaste.
