Mental health professionals have long touted the benefits of keeping a journal. Writing down your thoughts with pen and paper—not in the notes app on your phone—helps you externalize feelings you may have pent up. Learn how keeping a journal can benefit your mental health, and choose a journal or notebook from Sugarboo that will encourage you to maintain the practice.

Gets You Out of Your Head

Do you have unpleasant moments on repeat in your head? Perhaps you ruminate on a disagreeable experience, or you over-analyze a comment someone made that hurt your feelings. The longer those moments stay in your head, the harder it will be to eject them.

Writing down your feelings in a physical journal or notebook helps to remove those thoughts and ideas from your head. When you put those feelings to paper, you can actually process them instead of simply playing the memories ad infinitum.

Creates a Helpful Routine

You’ll reap exponential benefits from journaling if you make a habit of doing it every day. Creating a self-care routine that includes introspective journaling reduces the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

If you’re dealing with negative routines, like dwelling on past experiences, replace them with positive ones. Soon, you’ll reroute the neural pathways that have been giving you trouble. You’ll get into the habit of analyzing your negative feelings and tackling the root causes of them head-on.

Normalizes Self-Care

Self-care isn’t all bath bombs and scented candles—though they certainly do help. To take better care of yourself, you have to address your mental health concerns instead of simply distracting yourself from them.

Treat yourself to an artisan journal in a design that makes you smile, and pick up a pencil or pen that allows you to write smoothly. You’ll be doing a lot of introspective work within those pages, so make the writing experience as pleasant as possible.

Helps You Identify Goals

It’s easy to get stuck in your own head if you’re not in the habit of externalizing your feelings on paper. You may think, “I want to get better”—but that’s not a specific or actionable goal.

Writing your goals on paper and seeing the words on the page helps you narrow down what you can do to achieve them. Getting better is a simple start; fill the page with why you want to get better, and how you can work toward that goal.

If you find yourself stuck in a mental health rut, consider the many mental health benefits of keeping a journal. Let those blank pages inspire you to fill them with details about your feelings and steps you can take to start feeling markedly better!