A Gentle Guide to Journalling: A Soft Start to Supporting Your Mind
Journalling can be a useful technique to add to your self-care toolbox
If the word journalling makes you picture perfectly curated notebooks or 5 a.m. routines, take a deep breath - that’s not what we’re doing here. Journalling can be incredibly supportive for mental clarity, stress relief, emotional processing, and overall self-awareness, but it doesn’t need to be aesthetic, structured, or time-consuming to work.
Think of it as a quiet conversation with yourself - one that asks nothing fancy from you except honesty and a few minutes of your day.
Why Journalling Helps (In a Real, Evidence-Backed Way)
Journalling has been researched for decades, especially in the form of expressive writing. Studies show small (but meaningful) benefits for:
Reducing stress and emotional overwhelm
Lowering anxiety
Processing difficult experiences
Improving overall mental clarity
Supporting therapy work
Increasing self-awareness and emotional regulation
It’s not magic, but it is a gentle, low-effort tool that many people find grounding…especially when life feels noisy.
✨ My 30-Day Journalling Experiment (And What Actually Happened) ✨
I recently gave myself a 30-day challenge to see what journalling could do for my mind and my energy. Nothing fancy. Nothing aesthetic. Just a simple routine designed for tired mornings and bedtime brain fog.
Here’s exactly what I did - and it took 15 minutes total each day.
☀️ Morning: The 5-Minute Brain Unload
Every morning, the routine was the same:
Wake up.
Make coffee (absolutely no thinking happens before this. Non-negotiable).
Sit down for 5 minutes (using the timer on my phone) and unload whatever was in my brain.
This was literally a “Brain Unload”: thoughts, feelings, worries, what I needed to do, what I didn’t want to do, little anxieties, random mental clutter. Messy, unfiltered, and surprisingly freeing.
Then I grabbed two highlighters.
One colour for emotional thoughts
One colour for actionable thoughts
Seeing that separation on the page was eye-opening - I realised how often I was mentally carrying things that weren’t actually to-dos, just feelings. And that clarity alone reduced a lot of background stress.
🎯 The ‘Daily Focus’
Right under that, I wrote three short prompts:
Today I intend to…
(Usually three intentions for the day - small, human, achievable.)What could distract me today?
(Just one word or a quick sentence. Keeping it real.)One small thing that would make me feel accomplished?
(Something tiny. Something kind.)
This whole morning page took about 10 minutes and set me up beautifully; especially on busy workdays.
🌙 Evening: The 5-Minute Reflection
Just before bed, right before settling in with a good book, I took another 5 minutes and answered four prompts:
What drained my energy today?
What gave me energy?
One thing I did well?
One thing I can let go of before bed?
One line each. Sometimes just one word.
It gave me a sense of closure; a soft full stop at the end of the day, and it made my evenings feel calmer and more intentional.
🌼 My Takeaway After 30 Days
After the first week, I noticed something surprising: I felt clearer. Initially, most of my morning thoughts were emotional rather than actionable, but by the end of the 30 days that had shifted - almost without me trying. I naturally started thinking more about what I could do in response to how I was feeling, rather than getting stuck in the emotion itself.
It felt more constructive, and it didn’t require effort or forcing; it just… happened.
Did I journal every single day? At the beginning, yes (the novelty of a new project definitely helped). But eventually it became a practice I used more intentionally - especially on days with more demands, rather than on my quieter days. And that was completely fine.
Will I keep going? Absolutely. I got a lot from this, and it’s now something I reach for as a gentle way to reset, reflect, and support myself.
✍️ Different Ways You Can Journal (Find Your Fit)
If my 30-day method resonates, feel free to borrow it exactly or adapt it. But here some are other options:
Brain Dump Journalling: an unfiltered unload of thoughts
Expressive Writing: writing deeply about feelings/events
Gratitude Journalling: 1–3 small things you appreciate
Prompt Journalling: short guided questions
One-Line-a-Day Journalling: the lowest-pressure option imaginable
There’s no “right” way. Only the way that feels gentle, doable, and supportive.
🌱 A Low-Effort Way to Start (No Journal Needed)
If you want to try something simple without buying a journal, I made a one-page printable you can download and print. It mirrors the spirit of my 30-day experiment - quick, low-pressure, and easy to repeat.
Download your journalling starter page 👇
⚠️ A Kind But Clear Disclaimer
Journalling can be a helpful adjunct to wellbeing - a gentle companion to support you through busy seasons, emotional clutter, or daily overwhelm.
But it is not a substitute for professional mental health care.
Everything in this article (and the printable) is for inspirational and informational purposes only. If you’re struggling or feeling emotionally unsafe, please reach out to your GP, psychologist, counsellor, or another qualified health professional. Support is available, and you deserve it.