Claudia Torres

Dr. Jason Dew

ENGL1302

January 29, 2023

Journaling and Mental Wellness draft

Introduction

Many people live their daily lives stressed. Whether it be their jobs, school, relationships

around them, or their anxious mentality. Having a simple, budget-friendly way of

releasing stress would be an excellent form of minimizing anxiety, enjoying a better

mood, and enhancing an overall calm mindset. Journaling could be a possible solution.

Journaling every day for 10-15 minutes could help people improve their mentality by

providing a tool for self-reflection and self-therapy. Conducting this experiment and

incorporating existing research would strengthen proof that journaling is a considerable

way to destress.

Background

Journaling has been a known method many people use to self-reflect and soothe their

anxious emotions. The act of writing down one's feelings, thoughts, worries, and things

they're grateful for can really help someone see situations from a different perspective.

Journaling can also be seen as favorable since it's so private. It is a way of having private

conversations with oneself without having the fear of receiving judgment from others.
Moreover, it can help anxious thoughts by allowing people to go over all the things in

their lives and pinpoint the possible cause of the stressors. Just releasing inner thoughts

and worries can be immensely relieving by not keeping it all bottled inside. Journaling

has even been proven to help as a form of therapy for people who have gone through

traumatic events. “If a client is being treated for a trauma they experienced, they would

write a trauma narrative about a difficult experience for the purpose of cognitive

processing.” Lastly, journaling can also be used to track one's own progress in whatever it

may be. Whether it be towards a goal in life or mentality, journaling has been shown to be

beneficial in the long term. There have been various studies that prove journaling to be

helpful in mental well-being. In a research paper by Callie Koziol, they did their own

experiment where they got a group of people to journal and surveyed them before and

after for results. They also had a one-on-one interview with a professional, Katie Moore,

who provides therapy for teenagers. Dr.Moore explained how journaling could be used in

whatever way a person needs, whether it be if someone wants to cope with their traumatic

experiences, gain more awareness, or have anxiety or depression. “This increases then

individual's emotional awareness and allows them to respond to their emotions rather

than react”

Personal Experiment

Objectives

So, does journaling actually help encourage mental wellness? The goal of this personal
experiment was to try and reinforce just that. It was used to determine whether writing in

a physical journal for the course of five days for 10-15 minutes would show improvement

in anxious behaviors and mentalities. There is only one participant. This participant has a

history of anxiety and very frequent nervous tics. Moreover, they also have various

environmental and health stressors. It is preferable to get someone with factors like these

to get the best outcome. After all previous research, It is inferred that journaling would

help reduce the participant's high stress and anxiety levels.

Procedure

Every day for the span of 5 days, the participant wrote in a physical journal with a pen

and paper for 10-15 minutes. They would write about what stresses them, what they are

grateful for, their goals, and goal tracking. The participant was also asked to use a survey

questionnaire to measure their current stress level at the time. Using the PSS scale, they

were able to calculate their stress levels. “The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) measures the

degree to which situations in your life are perceived as stressful. The series of questions

have been designed to assess how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded you feel

your life to be, as well as a direct questione about your current level of experienced

stress.” After answering the questions on the site, it was concluded that out of a possible

score of 40, the participant got a 29 which is considered “high.”

Outcomes/Results
After the 5 days, it was concluded that the consistent journaling every day for 10-15

minutes was seen to be beneficial. The participant reported to have felt improvement in

their daily lives. They stated that the act of journaling and having that tool to self-reflect

made them realize what's good and not just wrong in their lives, making them see things

in a different light. “Being able to see what stresses me really helps to see what I need to

change around me.” Furthermore, in goal tracking, keeping track of the progress they've

made in any aspect also causes relief to know they have things on track and in order.

Discussion

Limitations

Since the population of the experiment was 1, it is hard to know how reliable the

experiment is. Having a larger population of different people and stress levels with

different stressors would have made the experiment much more valid. Another issue

would be the duration of this experiment. In this personal experiment, the span was 5

days, but how for long is it beneficial? Having a longer experiment of maybe 1-2 weeks

would answer the question: How permanent is using journaling to cope?

Conclusion

Through this personal experiment and pre-existing research, it’s consistent that journaling

through any medium is advantageous. It is a very simple, cost-effective way of

expressing oneself and having an outlet. Though it may not be as effective for everyone,
it is a way frequently recommended by regular people and professionals that has been

shown to help lower stress and anxiety over and over again. It is not meant to be used as a

fix, but as a way to cope. If anyone is feeling stressed, it’s worth a shot to give it a try;

there's nothing to lose!

 Works Cited

- Journaling’s Impact on Mental Health,

www.uwlax.edu/globalassets/offices-services/urc/jur-online/pdf/2021/koziol.callie.

eng.pdf. Accessed 01 Feb. 2024.

- Smyth J, Johnson J, Auer B, Lehman E, Talamo G, Sciamanna C

Online Positive Affect Journaling in the Improvement of Mental Distress and Well-Being

in General Medical Patients With Elevated Anxiety Symptoms: A Preliminary

Randomized Controlled Trial

JMIR Ment Health 2018;5(4):e11290

URL: https://mental.jmir.org/2018/4/e11290

DOI: 10.2196/11290

-Stress and Anxiety Reduction Due to Writing Diaries, Journals, E,

commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1217&context=honors. Accessed 01

Feb. 2024.

-“Test Your Stress: Be Mindful.” Be Mindful - Online Mindfulness Program - by

Wellmind Health,
www.bemindfulonline.com/test-your-stress#:~:text=The%20Perceived%20Stress%20Sca

le%20(PSS)%20measures%20the%20degree%20to%20which,current%20level%20of%2

0experienced%20stress. Accessed 01 Feb. 2024.