Intrigued by journaling? 🤔

I was too but like all these things I just didn’t make the time for it. Until recently.

My therapist has been nudging me towards it for a while but it took a Hubermanlab podcast on a very simple short term journaling protocol, based on the research of James Pennebaker, to finally get my focus. The podcast gives an excellent and quite in-depth overview of the protocol and how to complete it.

Having completed the suggested 4 session / 4 day protocol I am converted! The effect has been profound. And yes that seems like the perfect word.

After completing the protocol and getting so much out of it I have gone on to read into the concept. In my further reading I learned about how the practice can help us to integrate these difficult events and make sense of them in terms of our past present and future. I experienced this quite clearly and found it personally very helpful.

This isn’t some hippy-dippy, new fangled fad. This is a proper, science-backed tool, proven to improve both physical and mental wellbeing. The protocol is largely based on the work of James Pennebaker and this study:

Smyth JM, Pennebaker JW (2008). Exploring the boundary conditions of expressive

writing: In search of the right recipe. British Journal of Health Psychologyk.

2008;13:1-7

This paper on the subject is concise and gives a great overview:

https://www.va.gov/WHOLEHEALTHLIBRARY/docs/Therapeutic-Journaling.pdf **

Here’s a link the the Huberman Lab on the subject:

https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/a-science-supported-journaling-protocol-to-improve-mental-physical-health

** Please note I am not a doctor or a psychologist and if you are suffering from serious symptoms of any sort then I urge you to seek help. The protocol also advibes not to journal on any subject that you old find too difficult or emotional or any event that has happened in the last few weeks. Keep yourself safe and ask for help if you need it.