JOURNALING AS A TOOL FOR BURNOUT PREVENTION & RECOVERY
How can Journaling help you prevent, or recover from Burnout - and how are you supposed to even do it anyway?
Is Journaling one of those things you hear ‘wellness’ folk talking about all the time, but you secretly don’t actually get what it is or why it’s supposed to help you feel better at all?
Maybe you HAVE tried it before, and it felt embarrassing and uncomfortable, and just plain awkward.
I’m here to tell you that it’s totally okay to be weirded out by journaling. If sitting down and pouring your heart out onto an empty page doesn’t feel natural to you, that’s okay! There are actually LOADS of different kinds of journaling, so many in fact that I’m pretty confident there’s one out there for you.
So why bother to find the style that works for you in the first place? Here are a few reasons why journaling can help you feel better.
It helps you to get thoughts, worries, and anxieties out of your head and onto a page. Just the act of writing this stuff down on paper helps to make sense of it, whereas in your head it just floats around, repeating on a loop.
It releases and reduces stress. Writing about stressful things actually helps you to complete the stress cycle and release the hold that stress has on your body, as well as your mind.
It helps you to learn the lessons. So often we have these grand revelations in our heads, but the next time we’re faced with a triggering situation we completely forget them. Writing it down helps things to stick in your mind. It’s why we were all supposed to take notes in high school (I know, I can’t remember what trigonometry is either…)
It helps you to build a relationship with yourself! This is one of the cornerstones of Burnout Prevention and Recovery for me. Whatever your style of journaling, think of it as correspondence with your soul.
So if you want to give it a go but you don’t know where to start, take a look at this list and see if there’s something here that tickles your fancy enough to give it a try.
And if at first you don’t succeed, give yourself a break and try something else!
Free writing
This is writing without a purpose or set goal in mind. Just sitting down with your pen and paper and seeing what flows. Some people have great self discoveries and end up going on literary adventures with this style of journaling, others end up writing an account of their day, or dumping the contents of their brain on the page.
Morning pages
This practice comes from ‘The Artists’ Way’, a book by Julia Cameron, written to help people with artistic creative recovery. It’s one of the first steps on this creative ‘spiritual path’ and consists of establishing a daily practice of immediately sitting down to write three pages (usually ‘free writing’ style) first thing in the morning, before your mind becomes distracted. The intention is to clear your mind and give you a fresh clean canvas to start your day.
Reflecting with Prompts
I love using Journaling Prompts. Prompts pose a question, or give a direction, that sets you off on your journaling for the session. Using prompts, whether they are given to you, or whether you give them to yourself, allows you to bring structure to your journaling, to ask yourself a question and explore the answer on the page. You can use prompts to set you off writing sentences and paragraphs, or you can use them to inspire lists, bullet points, mind maps or drawings.
I regularly share journaling prompts for Burnout Recovery and Burnout Prevention in my Facebook group!
Bullet journaling
I love to look at this kind of journaling, but I don’t have the patience or skill to do it myself! I content myself with enjoying looking at other peoples’ masterpieces. Dotted paper journals allow for beautiful lettering and your own template designs. Search the #bulletjournal hashtag on Instagram for inspiration!
Lists!
Journaling doesn’t have to be long, lengthy paragraphs of flowing thoughts and flowery feelings. Journaling can be bullet points! Lists! Random words that come into your head! Whatever works for you. Some awesome list based journaling prompts I love to use are writing ten things that you’re grateful for, or five things that you love about yourself.
Spider diagrams/mind maps
There’s such a huge benefit to be had from getting everything out of your head and onto the page. Brain dump on the pages of your journal and see what this inspires. This is also a brilliant technique for goal setting, or problem solving. Write the key word or phrase in the centre of your page and allow yourself to explore it.
Drawing/doodling
Journaling does not have to be writing! If you are a creative soul, let yourself draw. Draw shapes, draw scenes, draw comics - whatever lets you get lost in the flow. If drawing is mindful and enjoyable for you, you’ll benefit massively from this practice.
Planning/Calendar
I am a huge fan of Planners (have I mentioned this before?) and I use mine ever day as both an opportunity for reflection and for keeping myself balanced. Using a Daily or Weekly Planner to monitor how much work you’re doing, how much time you’re making for self-care and rest, and to note down little wins and moments you’ve enjoyed, can bring structure to your life and to your thoughts.
Gratitude journaling
This simple daily practice of writing down three things you are grateful for before bed each day can make a huge difference to how you feel day to day. Gratitude is a skill that it’s so important to develop, as it means that we are training ourselves to appreciate the present moment. Every ‘someday’ goal we have is a future present moment, so practicing gratitude for where we are right now builds the skills we need to truly appreciate every moment in the future.
One line a day
Does the prospect of ‘journaling’ feel overwhelming? Start with a commitment to write just one line a day! There are lovely journals out there designed for this very practice, and these become a brilliant tool for reflection when the date comes around again each year. By writing just one line a day, we’re building a practice that allows us to connect with the present moment, and appreciate how far we’ve come.
Scrapbooking
Another great creative practice! If you love stickers, tape, photos, highlighter pens, cutting things out of magazines, saving train tickets and more - this could be the journaling practice for you! I love Scrapbooking at the start of the year, creating a mood board, or a ‘vision board’ for my year and using this as a way of setting goals and intentions for the year ahead.
Writing by hand
It has been scientifically proven that writing things down by hand helps us to process them. This is why we were supposed to take all of those notes in school - oops! If it works for you, writing by hand is a practice that can help you to process thoughts, feelings and emotions, as well as gaining clarity and reaching conclusions.
Typing/using an app
If writing by hand doesn’t work for you - don’t worry. There’s still plenty of benefits to be had by journaling digitally. Again, the practice of getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper (or into a Google or Notes doc) helps to make sense of them. And as always, there is, of course, an app for that! Apps like Daylio are designed specifically for you to be able to keep a record of your day - either using emojis and habit tracking, or expanding and writing notes yourself.
Workbooks and Worksheets
There are loads of brilliant workbooks out there that might work for you if you have a specific issue you’re trying to address through journaling and you want guidance. I got a huge benefit out of working my way through the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Workbook, so whatever your particular issue I recommend giving these a go if you need a helping hand.
Voice notes - or just talking to yourself!
Sometimes writing just isn’t going to work for certain people, and that’s okay. In that case I’d suggest recording voice notes, or even just talking out loud to yourself. Getting thoughts out of your head, challenging negative inner critic nonsense, or repeating affirmations can help to get you out of your head and into the present moment, much the same way that journaling does.
So go on, give it a go and see if it works for you.
I hope that there’s at least one practice on this list that inspires you!
If you have found a way to journal that works for you, that I haven’t included here, I’d love to hear from you so I can share it with others.
If you have any questions about journaling for Burnout Prevention or Burnout Recovery, drop me an email or a DM on social media any time! And remember, I’m always happy to chat about stress and Burnout in a free 30 minute consultation call.
Mx
