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One of my favorite ways to manage my emotions is by journaling. There are so many ways to do it, so let me tell you how to journal your emotions.

How to Journal for Emotional Health

First of all, journaling is one of my go-to tools for emotional health.

And writing for just 15 minutes a day in a journal has been shown to improve mental health.

One of the reasons is that I use journaling is to have dedicated time where I’m connecting with myself.

Since I’m a very sensitive person, I also tend to be a bit of a people pleaser. On top of that, I’ve struggled with codependency…

All to say that if you resonate with any of that, journaling is a very good way to have focused time or you’re just connecting with your own self and nobody else.

I use it in several different ways to help me manage my emotions. So, let’s go into exactly how to journal your emotions.

#1 Journaling for Overthinking

If you ever find yourself stuck in your own thoughts, journaling is a great way to get out of your head.

When I find myself over thinking, I’ll write anything and everything that comes to mind, even if it’s incomplete sentences or doesn’t make sense.

The point is to just get all of your thoughts out and clear out your brain, so you can have more of a calm mind.

Generally I’ll do this for 3 pages, or for 15 minutes, which ever comes first.

So, if you find yourself overthinking, give journaling a try.

#2 Journaling for Emotional Dumping

The next way I use journaling is to do a technique I call emotional dumping.

So, you know those moments when you just feel completely overwhelmed by your emotions? Well, journaling can help with that.

When I feel like I need to vent, but want to do it by myself, I’ll let it all spill out onto the page.

I’ll describe the feeling and get really emo about it, going as deep into my emotion as I can.

Doing this is a good way to validate your own emotions. And when you validate them, it helps you move into acceptance, then into inner peace.

So, if you’re overwhelmed and need to let it out, a journal is a great place to do that. I’ll usually write for as long as I need to.

#3 Journaling to Process Emotions

Another way you can use journaling is to help you figure out why you’re feeling what you’re feeling.

This is different than an emotional dump because you’ll ask yourself questions about your emotions, a technique I call digging.

You’ll write out the who, what, when, where, why and how of your upsetting emotion.

The more detail the better because it can help you see the situation from different perspectives. Once you’ve detailed it out, you’ll ask yourself, WHY, over and over again.

So, for example you’d write, I’m feeling stressed. Then, you’d write WHY am I feeling stressed? Because I don’t feel like my partner is listening to me. WHY is it upsetting if your partner doesn’t listen to me? Because it makes me feel like I don’t matter to them. What happens if you don’t matter to them? Then I’ll be all alone. What happens if you’re alone, then no one will love me. So, you could say, I’m feeling upset because when my partner ignores me, it makes me feel like they don’t love me.

Whatever your emotional upset is, just keep asking yourself questions about it. You’ll find a big list of questions to help you process right here.

Conclusion

So, that’s how to journal your emotions!

Journaling can help you get clear about what your emotion is telling you, so then you’ll know if you need to do something about it.