7 ways journaling helps with stress and well‑being

HelenPsychologist, breathwork facilitator and passionate journaler

Last year I was stressed all the time. My phone was the first thing I touched in the morning and the last thing I touched at night.

A friend told me to try journaling for five minutes a day. I didn’t think it would do anything. Then I looked at the research.

Here’s what I found, in plain words.

Note: Read this BEFORE you reach for your phone tomorrow morning.

1. It lowers stress and anxiety

A woman in her forties calmly holding a cup of coffee

Day 10How are you, really?

Writing your thoughts down gets them out of your head and onto paper. That alone takes some of the pressure off.

In a 12-week study, adults wrote for 15 minutes, three times a week. They reported less distress and more well-being, and after one month they had fewer anxiety symptoms than people who didn’t write.

Published study · 2018Online Positive Affect Journaling in the Improvement of Mental Distress and Well-Being in General Medical Patients With Elevated Anxiety Symptoms: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled TrialSmyth, Johnson, Auer, Lehman, Talamo, SciamannaJMIR Mental Health 5(4):e11290, 2018DOI: 10.2196/11290

These studies looked at journaling and writing in general, not this journal. It isn’t a treatment or a replacement for medical care.

2. Doctors are being told to recommend it

A woman writing in The Inner Voice Journal

A 2022 review looked at 20 studies. People who journaled improved more on mental health tests than people who didn’t. The biggest difference was in anxiety.

The researchers told family doctors to consider recommending it, alongside regular care.

Published study · 2022Efficacy of journaling in the management of mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysisSohal, Singh, Dhillon, GillFamily Medicine and Community Health 10(1):e001154, 2022DOI: 10.1136/fmch-2021-001154

3. It replaces scrolling in the morning and before bed

A woman looking at her phone in a dark room at night

Morning: people who cut social media to about 30 minutes a day for three weeks felt less lonely and less depressed than people who scrolled as usual.

Night: people who wrote a to-do list for just 5 minutes before bed fell asleep faster than people who didn’t.

So I swapped the phone for the journal, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Same five minutes. Very different feeling.

Published study · 2018No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and DepressionHunt, Marx, Lipson, YoungJournal of Social and Clinical Psychology 37(10):751-768, 2018DOI: 10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751

Published study · 2018The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: A polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity listsScullin, Krueger, Ballard, Pruett, BliwiseJournal of Experimental Psychology: General 147(1):139-146, 2018DOI: 10.1037/xge0000374

4. It clears your head

A woman relaxing outdoors with a cup of coffee

When your mind is busy with worries, there’s less room for everything else.

People who wrote about their thoughts and feelings had better working memory weeks later, and fewer worries popping into their head.

Published study · 2001Expressive writing can increase working memory capacityKlein, BoalsJournal of Experimental Psychology: General 130(3):520-533, 2001DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.130.3.520

The Energy Audit page in The Inner Voice Journal

The journal’s Energy Audit page does exactly this: what drains you on one side, what fills you up on the other, then what to do less of and more of.

5. It’s good for your body, too

A woman walking through a sunlit garden path

Older adults who wrote about their feelings for a few days healed faster from a small skin wound: 76% were healed by day 11, compared with 42% who didn’t write.

In a study published in JAMA, patients with asthma or arthritis wrote for 20 minutes, 3 days in a row. Four months later, 47% had clearly improved, compared with 24%.

Published study · 2013Expressive Writing and Wound Healing in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled TrialKoschwanez, Kerse, Darragh, Jarrett, Booth, BroadbentPsychosomatic Medicine 75(6):581-590, 2013DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e31829b7b2e

Published study · 1999Effects of Writing About Stressful Experiences on Symptom Reduction in Patients With Asthma or Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Randomized TrialSmyth, Stone, Hurewitz, KaellJAMA 281(14):1304-1309, 1999DOI: 10.1001/jama.281.14.1304

6. Writing down what you’re grateful for makes you happier

An open page of The Inner Voice Journal showing the daily rhythm

People who wrote down what they were grateful for each week felt better about their lives and more optimistic about the week ahead.

And writing down three good things a day left people happier for six months.

Published study · 2003Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily LifeEmmons, McCulloughJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(2):377-389, 2003DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377

Published study · 2005Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of InterventionsSeligman, Steen, Park, PetersonAmerican Psychologist 60(5):410-421, 2005DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410

7. It only takes five minutes, with the right journal

The Inner Voice Journal in Sage beside a morning coffee

I’d quit journals before because I never knew what to write. The Inner Voice Journal fixed that: it asks you one question a day, 365 of them, so you’re never staring at a blank page. A few of my favorites:

Day 1What is your inner voice quietly telling you that you’ve been ignoring?
Day 4What would you do with a completely free Saturday?
Day 27What are you saying yes to that you actually want to say no to?
Day 92What are you pretending not to know?
Day 365What is your inner voice telling you now?

Every page has the same simple steps: something you’re grateful for, one thing to do today, a value for the day, and the question. No dates, so missing a week ruins nothing.