Journalling is the act of writing (or drawing) your thoughts, feelings and exploration of scenarios in your life. Journalling is a beneficial way to get things off of your mind into a private space that’s just for you.
A few of the benefits of journalling for our mental health include:
Lower stress levels.
Increased self-awareness and self-understanding.
Research has shown that people who journal about their feelings, are more able to regulate their emotions. Read more here.
Reduces anxious and worrying thoughts - through expressing, exploring, debating, reframing and offloading them.
Helps identify goals and track progress of them.
Encourages self-reflection.
Improves memory.
Helps you to identify how you feel about things - naming and validating our feelings can reduce the hold they sometimes have over us.
Helps manage depression - Read more about that here.
The Whole Of Me
More than a regular journal, I created ‘The Whole of Me’ to provide a space for your self-reflection and personal development.
The first section of the book includes information and activities to try on a variety of topics, including:
Mind/body connection - mindful body scan
Thoughts
Feelings
Intention setting
Self-care
Breathing
Gratitude
Journalling
The second section includes space for your gratitude practice and another for you to journal.
Journal To The Moon
Utilising the moon’s energy for our emotional wellbeing and life goals is a theory that many people believe in - myself included.
When the moon is full, emotions can be heightened and it is a time to identify these and release anything in our lives that no longer serves our wellbeing. It is a time for forgiveness and letting go of grudges. All of which are beneficial for our peace of mind.
When the moon is new, it is a time for new beginnings. Time to set goals and sow the seeds of our intentions. To express gratitude for our blessings and use the moon’s energy to manifest the life that we want.
Moon energy is a theory and belief system - there is no scientific proof that these practices work. However, any practice which encourages reflection, intention/goal setting, gratitude and releasing emotions - is potentially beneficial for our mental health.
This journal has some information in full and new moon practices. The rest of it has prompted blank pages for your new moon and full moon practice. The dates are left blank for you to research the moon’s phase according to your time zone.
Gratitude Journal
Research has shown that a daily gratitude practice can strengthen neural pathways for gratitude in the brain. In time, this may result in more automatic grateful thoughts, than automatic negative ones. Furthermore, grateful people have been found to find more joy and happiness in life.
Regular gratitude practice is beneficial to both our physical and psychological wellbeing.
For this potentially life-changing practice to work, you need to do more than just aim to be more grateful. You need to shine your spotlight of attention on being grateful for circumstances, things, people and scenarios in your life.
This is where gratitude journals can be helpful. I created this journal, as a space for your personal gratitude practice.
The journal also includes credible research and evidence about the benefits of gratitude practice, inspirational quotations and tips for your personal gratitude practice.
The rest of the book has over 100 lined pages for your own gratitude lists.