Start Journaling to Support Recovery From Burnout

It pains me to say that I, a psychologist who recommends journaling to others to support their health, did not use it myself until I was severely burned out. Back then, I was great at taking care of others but not so great at taking care of myself. Having learned my lesson, I am here to share the benefits of this therapeutic tool and help you devise a journal practice to support your health and well-being.

People have recorded life events through words and pictures for thousands of years. It isn’t anything new. Some of you probably even kept a diary when you were younger. Maybe it even had a padlock to ensure that nobody got in. Unlike that diary, therapeutic journaling focuses on processes: the feelings, thoughts, sensations, and meaning that underlie personal events. It is considered to be a holistic therapy because it involves the physical (movement), the mental (thought processes), the emotional (noticing and expressing one's feelings), and the spiritual (finding meaning) (Snyder, 2018).

How Does Journaling Help?

Research has identified benefits of journaling including:

• reflect on, analyse, and gain insights into our life events and relationships.
• achieve deeper self-analysis.
• process traumatic events, especially when combined with meditation.
• greater awareness of the positive aspects of stressful events.
• explore causes and find solutions to our life difficulties.
• adjust to life transitions and challenges.
• increase self-reliance.
• improve immune system responses.
• get in touch with our feelings.
• uncover the actions, values and beliefs that make up our life patterns.

Journaling provided all of the above for me. (Lent, 2009; Petrie et al., 2004; Rancour & Brauer, 2003; Schneider & Stone, 1998; Sealy, 2012; Snyder, 2018; Ullrich & Lutgendorf, 2002)

A word of caution: Research into journaling as a therapeutic technique is sparse, and the evidence and recommendations are primarily anecdotal. More research is needed to bring grater confidence to our understanding of the journaling's therapeutic qualities.

Set Up Your Journal Practice

Step 1: Find Your Why. Knowing your why from the outset can support you with taking action and sticking to your plan. It can also help support acceptance when it gets difficult, add meaning, and support the end goal (e.g., healing). Answer the following question: What is important about journaling for you? What does engaging in this action mean to you?

For me, it was about accountability to the healing process. I had ignored myself for too long and became a jumbled mess. Journaling was the unravelling of the mess and the discovery of myself.

Step 2: Find Your Style. Snyder (2018) shares three styles of journaling:

• Free-flowing. This style involves writing or typing quickly, allowing words to fall onto the page without paying attention to grammar, punctuation, or spelling (Cortright, 2008). Once the entry is finished, you read it aloud and jot down any insights gained.
• Topical or focused. This style focuses on a particular event or situation. You write about the feelings, thoughts, and sensations associated with it. There may be specific questions to answer.
• Creative journaling. This includes using mediums such as drawing, poetry, storytelling, painting, scrapbooking, songwriting, etc.

For a while, I typed and uploaded my entries to a blog. I then turned to video recording, and I often combined my journal writing with meditation to help support greater insight and a calmer nervous system. More recently, I turned to drawing to process my feelings. Now it is your turn: What style(s) do you want to try?

Step 3: Set Up Your Practice.

• Where to do it? Think of a place where you feel comfortable. This could be at home, out in nature, or with a certain person or pet.
• When to do it? Carve out a time when you are more likely to engage in this action. It may be when you have time to yourself (e.g., on the train home from work). I encourage you to experiment with different times to find the best fit.
• How often to do it? Engage in journaling regularly and consistently but with a frequency that is realistic for you. Weekly was my sweet spot. Find the frequency that you can stick to.
• How long? For me, a session lasted as long as I needed to process whatever I was dealing with. Sometimes, that would be 20 minutes and other times 2 hours. Set a realistic goal—one you can achieve consistently.
• When to start or stop? This is really up to you. Snyder (2018) reports that some people start journaling to get through a difficult time; once that passes, they stop. Others continue it long after healing. (This is me.) To help decide, ask yourself, Do I still get value (your why) out of this? If your answer is yes, continue with it.

Step 4: Give it a go. There are plenty of journal prompts out there, so if you need some help getting going, do a quick internet search and see what sticks out to you. Otherwise, start with your experience, whether it be what you are feeling, thinking, or sensing, or something that happened to you, and explore from there.

Burnout Essential Reads

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I hope journaling brings you what it did me: an avenue of support in a time of great need.

Take care of you.

To find a therapist, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.