How Journaling Can Help Reduce Stress at Bedtime
Stress comes from everywhere.
Worries arise in all areas of life and fretting about work, family, and obligations can become overwhelming.
Running everything through your mind without an outlet for stress can make it hard to sleep.
When you need to rest, your mind gets hyper-focused on stressful things making it hard to fall asleep.
During the day it can be easy to push worries down and think about other things but it’s much harder to distract ourselves when we are lying in bed trying to end our day.
There are a lot of ways to relieve stress and rid our minds of worries, one of the most effective is journaling.
Journaling works because it…
Focuses your thoughts
Is a creative outlet
Gets thoughts out of your head
Creates an opportunity for problem-solving
Journaling before bed can help reduce stress and make it easier to fall asleep.
Here’s why-
Journaling helps you get a handle on your thoughts
Journaling helps you focus your thoughts and get them out on paper. Instead of ruminating on the issues and stressing, journaling helps organize thoughts and process them.
It makes it easier to better understand the roots of your stress and focus your thoughts rather than continuously running them over in your mind.
Journaling uses a different part of the brain
The act of writing and journaling uses the creative side of your brain.
This can help ease stress.
Depending on the type of journaling you do it may help raise the dopamine (an important chemical messenger involved in reward, motivation, memory, attention, and even regulating body movements) in your brain chemistry reducing stress.
Journaling doesn’t have to be limited to writing. It can be as creative as you’d like including, but not limited to, coloring, doodling, writing poetry, or any other form of expression.
Journaling removes thoughts from your head
Writing things down tricks your brain into dumping them and leaving them on the page. Journaling can help get thoughts out of your head so your mind can wander on to something else.
Psychologically, your brain believes that the thoughts are categorized on the page and don’t need as much intense focus anymore so your mind can begin to relax.
Journaling triggers problem-solving
In the same way clearing your mind in the shower leads to epiphanies, journaling can trigger problem-solving.
Worrying about stress in your mind clutters it with negative thoughts and anxiety. The process of journaling triggers our natural problem-solving skills and makes it easier to find solutions.
Journaling before bed can help rid your mind of stress and leave your psyche feeling calm. This can help your mind shut down easily and drift into REM sleep where the mind and body can repair and heal.
Practice journaling before bedtime to help your mind release the worries of the day and prepare for a great night’s rest.
JOURNALING SUPPLIES I RECOMMEND
Even though you only need a pen and paper, here are some of my favorite journaling supplies if you want to check them out:
I like to use a few different notebooks for journaling but my favorite is this Leuchtturm1917 Softcover. I prefer the squared pages but you can also get the dot grid, lined, or blank formats.
If you would rather use a spiral binding, these notebooks are the best! I love that they come in a three-pack so I always have an extra one on hand. These are also a squared format but I think they are available in lined and dot-grid too.
To be honest, my go-to pen is a simple, classic black Bic but when I want something a little fancier I use either use these Muji Gel Pens or these Micron Sakura Pigma.
Get creative with your journaling and add some Washi Tape, Stickers, or if you’re artistic you can draw your own doodles.
Sometimes I like to add photos to my journaling and over the years I’ve tried a bunch of different printers. I started out using this Fujifilm Instax Mini but it wasn’t very practical to carry around all the time. Since the quality was so much better when I use my phone for pictures I decided to splurge on the Canon Ivy Mini Printer. It connects directly to my phone through the app and easily prints on 2x3 sticker photo paper that I can add right to my journal page instantly.
Be on the lookout for more on how journaling can help you manifest the life you’ve been dreaming of! Click here to join the Tribe and be In The Know
BEFORE YOU GO:
Here are a few more journaling posts you might like:
Printing Tips:
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!
I would love to hear your thoughts on how journaling has helped you. Let me know in the comments below.
THE ULTIMATE LIST OF PRODUCTS, APPS, TOOLS, AND RESOURCES I USE ON A DAILY BASIS
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