Self-care is very important for one’s mental health. It can present itself in many different forms.  It can be something very simple like writing in a journal. Journaling is said to be a great way of relieving stress and anxiety which makes it a great act of self-care.

Why journaling is an act of self-care?

In its simplest form self-care is the little things we do for ourselves that help keeps us mentally healthy. Self-care is all about trying to listen to your feelings and trying to understand what it is you need so that you can better care for yourself. Self-care can be different for everyone. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for another. Furthermore, it’s important to remember that with self-care it’s not important what it looks like but what it does for you. Journaling is considered one of the best acts of self-care and it has helped me tremendously.

My experience with journaling

For many years I kept hearing that journaling helps with stress and anxiety and was a great tool for self-care. But every time, I would dismiss the possibility that it could actually help me. Until recently, I decided to give journaling a try. You might wonder what changed. I will tell you.
I was feeling very overwhelmed with all kinds of feelings and was starting to think that there was nothing that could help me. That is until I remembered what people around me kept telling me. At that moment I decided to give journaling a chance. I can honestly say that starting a journal was the best act of self-care and I have never felt better.

But as you could imagine I was not that good at first. I didn’t realize that the best thing for me was just to write down every feeling and exactly how I was feeling it. And after a while, journaling started getting easier and I realized I was becoming less and less stressed about all the things that used to drive me crazy. As I was reviewing my past entries, I started to notice patterns and triggers. That has helped me immensely in finding what causes me stress and anxiety and figuring out how to better tackle issues as they arise.

Journaling is also a very helpful way of organizing your activities whether they be work-related kind or just day-to-day tasks. That is another use of journaling that has helped me with my self-care. How you might ask. Well, writing down all my tasks and activities means I don’t need to stress about remembering everything I need to do on that day. Therefore, my mind and body are more relaxed, and going through the day is a lot easier than when I wasn’t writing a journal.

From this process  Being enough was born. I wanted to create something to facilitate and create a space for this conversation and serve as a tool of introspection for others.

Being enough: A guided journal for slowing down, rethinking how we live, how we buy, and what we consume.

Inside you will find prompts to help you to have these inner conversations with yourself.

As I said before, self-care can come through a lot of different things for a lot of different people. For me, it comes from journaling, and I have never felt better. I have a better understanding of the things that trigger my anxiety and stress and I have been working towards better tackling stressful situations. In my humble opinion, self-care is something everyone should invest in, and it doesn’t always need to cost a lot of money.

 

Creator of the slow living and sustainability blog: She is Awake and NGO founder.

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