Free writing: journaling to help you clear anxiety

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In this week’s podcast we’re responding to a question about journaling to help anxiety:

“I have listened to your podcast on changing or overcoming negative thoughts a few times now. You mention journaling as a good tool. Do you have any suggestions on what to write in the journal?”

No Rules Journaling

Don’t try and make your writing structured, or grammatically correct. Write for you and you alone. Just sit down and let your words and worries flow onto the page in all their chaotic randomness!

The idea is to externalise your thoughts. To get them out of your head and onto the paper so you can clear some space in your head to then consider your thoughts and start taking steps to help yourself feel comfortable with them.

This is called stream of consciousness writing. Free of expectations, of formality and constraint even of lines and margins. Let yourself scribble.

2 Questions to Help You Get Started

If you find yourself staring at a blank page and feeling a bit overwhelmed with where to start, you could begin by asking yourself the simple question: “How do I feel?” And then start writing down how you feel. That will lead you to releasing thoughts and feelings from your mind onto the page.

And when you are done writing about how you feel you can move on to processing your feelings by asking yourself: "What do I need?

And to answer that with self kindness. You don’t have to know any big answers, but a simple supportive answer may come.

For a deeper exploration of journaling for anxiety relief, please listen to the full podcast here:

For clearing anxious thoughts you uncover in your writing we recommend EFT Tapping for Anxiety Relief - our step-by-step download will show you everything you need to know to start overcoming anxious or negative thoughts.