Journaling Ideas for Anxiety

May 9

If there is one thing that is recommended above all else when it comes to living with anxiety, it is using a journal. But it gets complicated and confusing when you aren’t sure how to use a journal. Do you write whatever you are thinking? Is it meant to be used as a diary? Do you write about gratitude or use writing prompts?

The answer is: yes to all of it! One thing that can help you decide is figure out what kind of anxiety you have, and how it is affecting you. Certain forms of journaling can help a lot with different issues relating to your anxiety.

Brain Dump for Generalized Anxiety

The first way to use journaling for anxiety is if you have generalized anxiety disorder. It might not be diagnosed officially, but if you tend to have an overwhelming amount of worry and anxiety that pops up out of nowhere and you can’t identify a trigger, you might have generalized anxiety.

For this form of anxiety, doing a brain dump or stream of consciousness style of journaling is a great place to start. This is where you get out your journal or notebook and just write about whatever is on your mind. Let your thoughts flow to the paper, bouncing around to different topics as often as you want to. For many people, their generalized anxiety is worsened by anxious thoughts, so when you write them down, it can provide a relaxing and freeing feeling.

Scripting for Anxiety About Your Future Plans

If your anxiety or panic has a specific trigger, especially when it comes to what you’re doing with your life and achieving your goals, then scripting is a great way to write in your journal. This is often used in law of attraction and manifesting, but you don’t need to have that as a goal or be spiritual to benefit from scripting. Scripting is a type of writing where you write down what you want to achieve, but as if you already have it. If you want to buy a house, you don’t write that you want to buy a house, but write a journal entry as if you already bought your dream home. Where is it? What is it like? How big is it? How do you feel now that you have it?

Daily Journaling for All Forms of Anxiety

Regardless of what type of anxiety you have, daily journaling is wonderful. This can be a little broad, but we are talking more about diary-style of journaling where you write about ally our thoughts and feelings. Some days this might be a brain dump, other days you might write about a specific experience you had that day. Journal prompts can help get you started and I have included several below: