FAMILY
Journaling can help emotions as we deal with pandemic psychologists say
Aug 4, 2020, 4:15 PM | Updated: May 5, 2022, 7:26 am
Brianna Moffett uses journaling to help her deal with the pandemic and commemorate this unprecedented time in history. Photo courtesy KSL-TV.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – As so many of us feel like things are beyond our control during this pandemic psychologists are offering a suggestion that can help. It’s as close as a journal or notebook and a pen.
Brianna Moffett of America Fork told KSL-TV how journaling helps her as she deals with the stress of raising a new baby in the middle of a pandemic. She had Harvey in the winter and has felt isolated between being shut in for winter and now the pandemic.
“I had a winter baby, which makes you a little bit shut-in for the winter, and then COVID happened,” she said. “I just feel like I’ve been a little bit isolated.”
Moffett has found relief and joy in journal writing and creating. She makes journals she sells in her Etsy shop, Flyleaf Bookbinding.
“Just like art, journaling is another way to talk about what you’re going through right now,” she said.
Bushman suggests these tips:
- Set aside time to do it each day.
- Avoid judging yourself harshly.
- Journal for yourself only: a free flow of ideas and honest feelings
“We’re talking about you having a safe space to feel whatever it is you need to feel, and transfer it from here [your mind] to somewhere else, so you can kind of get some distance from it,” Bushman said.
The point is to get the thoughts out of your head into something outside of yourself and your mind.
“You can record in your cell phone on a memo, if you wanted to. But there’s no need to do grammar, because your English teacher’s not going to see this,” he said.
Moffett said, “Sometimes, just drawing, putting things in that you find — pressing leaves, just anything — kind of helps you have that connection to yourself.”
“And sometimes just drawing and putting things that you find, pressing leaves, anything just kinda helps you have that connection to yourself and your journal. If you were going to write a page of your own novel what would that first page say?”
Another tip to help you get started, journal prompts to help with writers block. Something simple such as thoughts or words in a jar you can grab and expand on.
Moffet says, “I feel like this time is so unique, and especially being a mom now I want to be able to document what we are going through and be able to share that with Harvey when he’s older.”
