Did you know that keeping a journal can improve your mental health? There are days when you feel so happy that it seems like you can conquer the world, and other days when everything feels blocked and the entire world seems to be against you. It’s natural for your mood to change from time to time, so you need to adapt and prepare yourself to experience a variety of emotions. And it’s perfectly okay not to be okay sometimes. The benefits of journaling are many.
It’s important to understand that every emotional state affects how you behave and interact with those around you. Observing how your emotions influence your personal actions can help you avoid many mistakes you might otherwise make.
You might not always be able to express how you feel in every moment, but you can take steps to understand how each feeling and emotion affects your life and actions — and use that knowledge to your advantage.
What Are the Benefits of Journaling and Why Is It Important to Track Your Mood?
Have you ever noticed how you tend to make poor decisions when you’re angry, or how you can’t think clearly when sadness overwhelms you?
It’s natural that the way we think and the decisions we make are sometimes heavily influenced by our mood and emotional state.
That’s why it’s important to observe, track, and record information about our shifting moods and unstable emotional states.
One of the best ways to do this is by keeping a journal.
Journaling will help you better understand and manage your emotions.
In addition, you’ll be able to recognize the reasons that put you in a good mood, as well as know when and how to make sound, well-thought-out life decisions that are guided by logic rather than emotions.
You should make writing in your journal a core part of your morning rituals and routine.
This gives you time to reflect on how the people you meet, the places you visit, and the decisions you make throughout the day affect your entire life.
Tracking your mood is a helpful way to improve your mental health.
If you don’t control your emotions, they will end up controlling you — and that’s the beginning of making bad decisions in your life.
Below are the top 5 reasons to start recording your mood in your journal:
1. It Helps You Make Decisions
You won’t be able to fully understand or identify your needs unless you manage your emotions well.
Think about the last time you got angry and couldn’t keep your emotions and reactions under control.
Did you feel like you could make a proper decision in that moment?
Most likely not. And even if you did, it probably wasn’t the ideal decision and was full of flaws.
Similarly, when you’re exhausted, you often feel powerless to make any important or decisive choices.
This is where your mood journal comes in.
By recording your daily emotions, it helps you notice your patterns and discover the best ways and times to make better decisions.
2. It Helps You Express Your Emotions
If you’re someone who tends to overthink and worry about everything, it’s essential to express your emotions through writing.
Your journal acts as a safe container, giving you space to express your feelings without the heaviness or embarrassment of talking about them with others.
Trust me when I say: you don’t have to carry the weight of your emotions alone for another day.
You deserve relief, so give yourself the gift of self-expression through journaling.
3. Journaling as Therapy
One of the most important benefits of keeping a journal is that if you ever face a serious emotional trauma in your life, writing will become a fundamental part of your healing process.
Writing is a powerful tool to help you overcome such ordeals.
It will help you detach from the difficult emotional state tied to any situation you’re currently going through or have experienced in the past.
More importantly, this therapeutic process will help you understand yourself, your emotions, and your subconscious mind better.
It’s an essential part of the healing journey.
A study conducted by the University of Auckland found that people who wrote about their emotional feelings regarding past traumatic events healed faster than those who only wrote about their daily activities without mentioning their emotional pain.
It’s better for everyone to experience happiness, to let go of painful past experiences, and to try to understand them and their consequences. So, if you’re struggling to make sense of your trauma, I encourage you to start writing your way toward better emotional and mental health.
4. Journaling Helps You Identify Your Emotional Triggers
We all have emotional triggers — it’s part of being human.
When someone says something that sparks a strong emotional reaction in you, you tend to act based on those feelings in the moment.
Emotional triggers can take many forms: people, words, opinions, situations, or environmental factors that provoke intense emotional responses within us.
If you don’t keep a record to track when you experience these emotions and how you react each time, you’ll become a victim of your feelings — they’ll end up leading you irrationally.
The best solution is to use a daily journal to record the moments when you feel triggered. Notice what you felt and how you reacted.
As you write, you’ll begin to understand what triggers you and stirs your emotions.
You’ll also start to notice patterns between what you feel and how you behave.
5. Focusing on the Positive Side
When negative emotions take control, you end up stumbling through your decisions, most of which are negative and don’t help you move forward.
This is where mood journaling comes in.
The more you write, the more you’ll feel in control of your emotional state, and the less tension you’ll feel.
Negativity feeds on stress — don’t give it the chance to control you when the solution is in your hands.
Your journal provides an outlet for emotional release, helping your brain regulate emotions. When you face life’s hardships, you’ll be more inclined to find the positive side.
When you start to notice the changes that result from journaling your emotions daily, you’ll feel more empowered to influence your mood instead of letting your mood influence you.
These are the moments of positive energy when you’ll realize how much control you’ve gained over your reactions — reactions that once controlled you.
How to Write a Mood Journal
You can buy ready-made journals online.
However, I believe that making your own journal is even better and will help you connect more deeply with your inner self.
You can divide each page into three columns:
First column: The emotions you feel.
Second column: The possible reasons you think are affecting your mood.
Third column: The actions you took as a result of these feelings.
Whenever you notice a change in your mood, write it down in your journal.
And don’t wait to jot it down later — do it in the moment.
Also note what you were doing when the mood shift happened, and who you were with.
Record the thoughts or feelings that were going through your mind at that time as accurately as possible.
Tracking your mood through journaling will help you organize your thoughts better and give you a deeper understanding of the different emotions you experience.
I hope that journaling becomes a valuable addition to your daily life.
