Why Journalling is Everywhere Right Now

This week I’ve added a free resource to my website: a journalling template designed to help you explore your thoughts and what they might be trying to tell you, encouraging self-reflection. You can click here to view it, and below I’ll explain why journalling has become such a go-to recommendation, often linked to mindfulness and self-exploration.

I’m going to start briefly with the brain, my favourite topic! In previous blog posts I’ve written about the default mode network (DMN), which is active when we’re not engaged in a specific task and our mind is free to wander. When there’s less structure, our thoughts can drift towards challenges or perceived negatives. This can look like rumination: for example, after a social event where you’ve been focused on conversation and connection, your mind later begins to replay moments: “Did I really say that?” or “What did they think when I did that?”

It’s helpful to remember that humans have a natural negativity bias and that we tend to notice and give more weight to negative information. One criticism can outweigh ten compliments. At the same time, something as simple as a stranger smiling at you on a bad day can shift your focus towards the positive. Our attention is powerful, and where it goes matters.

Another process that often shows up here is confirmation bias - our tendency to seek out or interpret information in ways that confirm what we already believe, including negative beliefs about ourselves. For example, I’ve often thought of myself as “not good at public speaking”. That belief creates fear and reinforces itself. Yet when I step back, I realise that I regularly run workshops, meet new people, and speak in public, which is essentially the same thing. When we begin to question these beliefs and move beyond fear, we create opportunities to form new conclusions about ourselves.

This is where journalling comes in.

Journalling is suggested frequently at the moment, and it can sometimes feel too simple to support mental awareness or help in difficult moments. But when we look at how it works, it becomes clearer why it can be so effective. Writing helps us slow our thinking down. We’re not just replaying thoughts in our heads; we’re forming sentences, choosing words, and creating structure. This alone can bring clarity to thoughts and emotions that previously felt overwhelming or tangled.

By writing, we begin to create a narrative around what’s challenging us. This can help regulate emotions, making thoughts feel more manageable and safer to confront. Journalling also supports metacognition which is the ability to notice and reflect on our own thinking and deepens self-awareness - helping us understand what’s going on and what action(s) we might need to take next.

Since the end of last year, I’ve been journalling three pages most days, as suggested in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I can’t say I’ve done this every single day - flexibility is important, as life doesn’t always allow for routines to be rigid. However, when I do journal, I notice that I become clearer about what needs my attention, what my priorities are, and how to organise my thoughts.

I also become more aware of what’s weighing on me emotionally, particularly things I assumed were already “finished”. Often we feel emotions intensely in the moment, and then less so as time passes but that doesn’t mean they’ve disappeared. Journalling offers a way to gently explore what’s still sitting beneath the surface, bringing awareness to thoughts and feelings that might otherwise go unnoticed.