The Journalling Techniques that Changed My Life

Summary

The video discusses how journaling can transform mental clarity, manage anxiety, and improve day-to-day life. The speaker shares personal struggles with mental health and drug addiction before discovering the power of journaling. They present nine impactful journaling techniques, ranging from mind-dumping and breaking obsessive thoughts to reflection exercises and lifestyle audits. The speaker highlights how these techniques, while not foolproof, have been life-changing, offering practical steps for mental clarity, decision-making, and setting life direction. The video ends with a preview of the speaker’s upcoming book, which integrates journaling exercises.

Takeaways

• 📝 Journaling is a powerful tool for managing mental health and gaining clarity, especially for dealing with anxiety and life challenges.
• 💭 The first journaling technique mentioned is a 'mind dump,' where every thought is written down to clear mental clutter and gain perspective.
• 🔄 Journaling can be used to break fixed mindsets by imagining whimsical things, focusing on making others happy, or observing new details in the environment.
• 🔍 Daily reflection questions like 'What drained me?' and 'What excited me?' can offer insights into lifestyle patterns and areas for improvement.
• 📊 Journaling for habit and lifestyle audits involves listing actions and evaluating them against your best and worst self to identify positive and negative behaviors.
• 🌧️ For handling bad events, journaling can help by objectively evaluating the event, assigning meaning, and reframing the situation as an opportunity for growth.
• 😰 Journaling can also alleviate anxieties by breaking them into specific fears, finding simple fixes, and determining realistic outcomes.
• 📝 Keeping a 'to-do' journal helps with prioritization by focusing on tasks that bring the most impact and are the most exciting or non-negotiable.
• ⏳ Decision-making through journaling involves defining the problem, listing options, and making quick intuitive choices, then reflecting on those decisions.
• 🎯 Journaling can help with finding life direction by asking what you wanted in the past, what you want now, and what you might want in the future, creating a clearer vision for growth.

Q & A

What prompted the speaker to start journaling?

The speaker began journaling after experiencing a chaotic period in their life, marked by a suicide attempt, drug abuse, and family issues. They felt an urge to type out all their thoughts, which helped them achieve mental clarity.

How did journaling help the speaker with their mental health?

Journaling allowed the speaker to see their thoughts on paper, which made them seem less overwhelming. It quieted their 'bully overhead' and provided a tool for long-term problem-solving.

What are some specific journaling techniques the speaker recommends?

The speaker recommends several techniques: journaling for clarity (mind dumps), breaking obsessive mindsets, daily reflections, habits and lifestyle audits, dealing with bad events, managing anxiety, making to-do lists, decision-making, and finding life direction.

How does the speaker describe 'journaling for clarity'?

Journaling for clarity involves writing down every thought you have, either in one session or throughout the day. The goal is to declutter your mind by transferring thoughts onto paper.

What exercises does the speaker suggest for breaking obsessive mindsets?

The speaker recommends three exercises: imagining six impossible things, thinking of how to make someone else happy, and noticing something new in your immediate environment. These help shift focus away from obsessive thoughts.

What is the purpose of 'journaling for daily reflections'?

This technique involves answering specific questions daily, such as what excited or drained you, what you learned, and what you're grateful for. It helps identify patterns in your behavior and mindset.

How does 'journaling for habits and lifestyle audits' work?

This technique involves listing your daily actions and categorizing them as behaviors of your 'worst' or 'best' self. It helps you audit your habits and assess whether your actions are aligned with the person you want to be.

What is the 'fears, fixes, and outcomes' technique for managing anxiety?

This method involves dividing your anxiety into three columns: identifying fears, brainstorming fixes or solutions, and predicting the likely outcome to avoid catastrophizing.

How does the speaker recommend journaling for decision-making?

The speaker suggests clearly defining the problem, listing options, and asking yourself questions like 'What would I choose if I had to decide in 60 seconds?' This approach helps tap into your intuition.

How does 'journaling for life direction' work?

This technique involves asking yourself what you wanted five years ago, what you want now, and what you want in five years. It helps clarify your life direction by looking at your desires over time.

Outlines

00:00

😬 Struggling with Anxiety and Depression? Let's Talk Journaling

The speaker starts by sharing how many of us have googled common phrases like 'Why am I anxious?' or 'How to stop panicking?' and introduces journaling as a solution often recommended. They aim to explain how journaling can improve mental clarity and reduce anxiety. To do this, they first share a personal story about their life before they began journaling, warning the audience of heavy topics such as suicide, drug abuse, and family issues. The scene is set in 2009, a turbulent time in the speaker’s life, marked by significant mental health struggles and family problems.

05:01

💥 A Life in Chaos: Drugs, Divorce, and Despair

The speaker paints a vivid picture of their chaotic life at 18, dealing with a suicide attempt, bipolar disorder, drug addiction, and family financial problems. They describe their daily struggles, including their method of waking up by doing drugs immediately, losing weight and friends, and being expelled from university for selling drugs. This portion of the story serves to highlight the depths of their struggles before finding a way out through journaling.

10:02

📖 Discovering Journaling: A Path to Mental Clarity

At 19, the speaker explains how their life was a mess until they had an urge to start journaling. By typing out every thought, they found relief and clarity, allowing their mind to quiet down for the first time in a long time. The speaker emphasizes how journaling became a lifelong practice, drastically changing their life for the better. They highlight that the next part of the video will explore nine journaling techniques they've discovered over 12 years.

📝 Technique 1: Journaling for Clarity

The first technique is a mind dump, where you write every thought as it comes, either in a single session or by jotting down thoughts throughout the day. The speaker prefers to handwrite in a notebook three times a week. This technique is designed to declutter the mind and bring more mental clarity.

🤯 Technique 2: Breaking Your Mindset

This technique helps break obsessive thinking using exercises like 'Imagine Six Impossible Things' (a whimsical exercise), 'How can I make someone else happy?' (focusing on others), and 'What's something in my immediate environment I've never noticed?' (drawing attention to the present). These exercises help shift focus and reduce fixations.

💭 Technique 3: Daily Reflections

The speaker introduces reflection-based journaling, asking questions like: What excited me? What drained me? What did I learn? These questions help to analyze daily experiences, making patterns (e.g., energy drains like alcohol or social media) more apparent. Daily reflections bring self-awareness and foster personal growth.

📊 Technique 4: Habits and Lifestyle Audit

This harsh but effective journaling method divides a page into three columns: actions, the worst version of yourself, and the best version. The speaker explains how listing daily actions and categorizing them as either positive or negative helps track your progress and push you toward self-improvement. Though harsh, it’s recommended for those seeking a motivational boost.

🌪️ Technique 5: Journaling for When Bad Things Happen

When life throws challenges, the speaker recommends using four key questions to process bad events: What happened objectively? What did I make it mean? How would I comfort a friend in this situation? How is this the best thing that has happened to me? These questions help reframe negative experiences and foster resilience.

😟 Technique 6: Journaling for Anxieties

This technique addresses anxiety by dividing a page into three columns: fears, fixes, and outcomes you’d bet on. By breaking down anxieties into smaller fears and creating practical strategies to address them, the speaker illustrates how to manage overwhelming thoughts and reduce catastrophizing. This helps them recognize irrational fears, like their partner getting into a car accident.

📚 Personal Milestone: My First Book on Mental Clarity

The speaker pauses to share an exciting milestone: the release of their book, which includes journaling exercises at the end of each chapter. The book is described as a 'chaotic guide to mental clarity,' and they encourage viewers to pre-order it. This segment provides a personal and promotional moment within the video.

✔️ Technique 7: Journaling for To-Do Lists and Direction

For this technique, the speaker creates a scattered to-do list and then prioritizes it with questions like 'What is non-negotiable?' and 'What would make everything else easier?' Inspired by Tim Ferriss, they use these questions to narrow down the most impactful tasks and increase productivity.

🧠 Technique 8: Journaling for Decision-Making

The speaker offers journaling as a tool for decision-making by defining the problem, listing options, and timing yourself to make a quick decision based on intuition. This method helps break through fear and indecision, giving clarity on difficult choices.

🚀 Technique 9: Journaling for Life Direction

The final technique uses a graph metaphor to track life direction. The speaker suggests reflecting on what you wanted five years ago, what you want now, and what you want in five years to identify your trajectory. The exercise helps set clearer goals and plan a future where you aim to succeed without fear of failure.

🙏 Conclusion: Final Thoughts on Journaling

The speaker concludes by reiterating their belief in the transformative power of journaling and thanking viewers for watching. They promote their book once more and encourage people to subscribe to the channel if they found the video helpful.

Keywords

💡Journaling

Journaling is the practice of writing down thoughts, emotions, and reflections to gain mental clarity and insight. In the video, it is presented as a transformative tool for dealing with stress, anxiety, and life challenges. The speaker emphasizes how journaling helped him process his chaotic emotions and navigate difficult life experiences, making it a key method for self-improvement and mental health.

💡Mental Clarity

Mental clarity refers to a state where thoughts are clear and organized. The video highlights journaling as a technique for achieving mental clarity by getting chaotic thoughts out of one’s mind and onto paper. This process helps the speaker make sense of overwhelming emotions and reduce the 'mental noise' that often accompanies anxiety and stress.

💡Anxiety

Anxiety is a feeling of worry, fear, or unease, often about uncertain outcomes. The speaker in the video talks about how he frequently experiences anxiety and how journaling helps him cope with it. Through specific journaling techniques, he addresses his anxieties by breaking them down into fears, possible solutions, and likely outcomes, making it a critical concept for understanding the therapeutic role of journaling.

💡Mind Dump

A mind dump is a journaling technique where one writes down every thought as it comes to mind. The purpose is to clear mental clutter and achieve better focus. In the video, this technique is one of the first methods the speaker used to manage his chaotic mental state, helping him temporarily silence his inner turmoil and providing immediate relief.

💡Breaking Mindset

Breaking mindset involves shifting obsessive or fixed thoughts through creative exercises. The speaker discusses several methods for breaking negative mental patterns, such as imagining whimsical scenarios or performing acts of kindness. These techniques help disrupt unhealthy thought loops, encouraging a more flexible and positive mindset.

💡Gratitude Journaling

Gratitude journaling involves reflecting on positive aspects of life, such as what you are thankful for. In the video, the speaker includes gratitude as a key part of his daily reflection journal, asking questions like ‘What are 10 things I'm grateful for?’ This practice helps shift focus from negative to positive, contributing to emotional well-being.

💡Lifestyle Audit

A lifestyle audit is a self-assessment technique where one evaluates their daily habits and actions to identify areas for improvement. In the video, the speaker describes how he uses journaling to track his actions and score them against his ideal self, helping him understand whether his behaviors align with his goals. This method is used to motivate personal growth and better decision-making.

💡Cognitive Distortions

Cognitive distortions are irrational, negative thought patterns that contribute to anxiety and depression. The speaker references them when discussing how journaling helps him separate objective events from the negative meanings he assigns to them. By challenging these distortions, he is able to view situations more rationally and compassionately.

💡Catastrophizing

Catastrophizing is a cognitive distortion where one assumes the worst possible outcome in a situation. The speaker mentions his tendency to catastrophize, like fearing that his partner will die in a car accident. Journaling helps him confront these irrational fears by forcing him to realistically assess the odds and outcomes, reducing anxiety.

💡Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is the process of finding solutions to difficult or complex issues. The speaker emphasizes that journaling is a problem-solving tool, helping him organize his thoughts, define problems clearly, and explore possible solutions. By writing out his decisions and reflecting on different scenarios, he is able to make better choices and overcome obstacles in his life.

Highlights

Introduction to the common struggles with anxiety, sadness, and panic that lead people to seek solutions.

The question posed: How do you journal for mental clarity, direction, anxiety, and when bad things happen?

Personal story of the speaker: An emotional account of struggles in 2009, including a suicide attempt, bipolar disorder diagnosis, drug addiction, and family issues.

Journaling introduced as a key tool: How the speaker started typing out thoughts and found immediate relief from overwhelming emotions.

First journaling technique: Mind dump journaling for clarity, where you write every single thought as it comes to you.

Breaking mindset techniques: Includes whimsical exercises like imagining impossible things and focusing on making others happy.

Daily reflections journaling: Using specific questions like 'What excited me?' and 'What drained me of energy?' to gain self-awareness.

Habits and lifestyle audit: A method of evaluating daily actions to identify whether they align with the best or worst version of oneself.

Journaling for when bad things happen: Using questions to objectively analyze events, separate them from emotional responses, and reframe them positively.

Journaling for anxiety: Dividing fears into categories, creating strategies to address them, and making realistic predictions to counter catastrophizing.

Personal anecdote about anxiety: The speaker shares an example of worrying about a partner's safety and how journaling helps manage this anxiety.

Journaling for decision-making: Defining the problem, listing options, making a quick intuitive choice, and imagining an easy solution.

Journaling for life direction: Using past desires to predict future direction and reflecting on what you would do if you couldn’t fail.

Announcement of the speaker's book: A mental health guide featuring journaling exercises, with a playful metaphor involving a houseboat and an octopus.

Closing thoughts: The speaker emphasizes the transformative power of journaling and encourages the audience to try the techniques.

Transcripts

if you're anything like me you've

probably googled such classics as

why am i so anxious can't stop feeling

sad and who can forget

how to stop panicking oh god oh god oh

god you know

the hits and if you have googled this

then you've probably come across advice

that just says

journal but how do you actually do it

that is the question that i'm going to

attempt to answer in this video

how do you journal how do you journal

better for mental clarity for more

direction for your anxieties for when

bad things happen to make your

day-to-day life better but to answer

those questions i've got to pay you a

picture of who i was before i journaled

and a quick warning this story gets a

bit heavy

so if you don't want to hear stuff about

suicide drug abuse or family drama just

skip to

this time here cast your mind back to

2009 it was a simpler time we had skinny

jeans dubstep and fluoro shirts with

gigantic

fonts on them now picture me i was a

young 18 year old with a bleach blonde

rat's tail

unfortunately for me at the time it felt

like my whole world was crumbling

it wasn't anything too out of the

ordinary but it all happened at once

i had a really hectic suicide attempt

when i drove

my mother's car headfirst into a tree i

was diagnosed with bipolar disorder i

had a close call with an overdose and my

parents were finalizing a messy divorce

meanwhile they were also going through

some pretty gnarly financial drama so

the house got repossessed by the bank

people always say drugs aren't the

answer

but holy hell they really were they were

for me in that moment and so i found

myself at 18 with a pretty hectic drug

problem i was

so determined to be high all the time

that i would do these things where i put

out a line and my alarm would go off in

the morning to wake me up and i would do

the line

and then turn off my alarm i lost weight

i lost friends and

to support my drug habit i obviously had

to sell drugs so i ended up getting

kicked out of uni for that

here's where journaling enters the story

so not too long after my 19th birthday i

was just

a freaking mess i was stressed i was

chaotic and

for whatever reason i had this urge to

sit down at a computer one day

and i just decided that i would type out

every single thought that was in my head

and so i did it and the thoughts

magically traveled from my head through

my fingers and onto the page in front of

me and it was so bizarre man once i

saw the words in front of me they didn't

look as

scary and my bully overhead finally went

quiet

for about two days and that's when i

realized that journaling was a

practice that i would have to do for

life fast forward 12 years of constant

journaling and it really has changed me

it's been my number one go-to tool for

any problem-solving in my life ever and

over these years i have come across and

come up with

all sorts of techniques various

questions and exercises that you can use

in your life quick disclaimer before we

get to these techniques i'm no expert

i'm just a dude with the youtube channel

who loves to journal i make a video on

all of the techniques i talk about here

but for now this is a pretty fast and

dense overview

this is just what's worked for me so

take the good stuff leave the bad stuff

and

let's go the nine journaling techniques

that changed my life

journaling for clarity this is the first

ever journaling technique i tried which

is basically a mind dump where you write

every single thought as you have it and

there are two ways to do this you can

either sit down in one session and try

write out every thought that you're

having or you can keep a notebook with

you and every time you have a new

thought just jot it down

personally i hand write mine in this

cheap notebook i usually fill out one

page and i'll do this maybe three times

a week

journaling for breaking your mindset i

find sometimes that i get fixated on

something and i get really obsessive

about one thing

and it gets to the point where i can't

think about other stuff so i use the

following three exercises to

break that imagine six impossible things

this is from the author lewis carroll

things like imagine a camel and his best

friend skating over an exploding pigeon

something about indulging in whimsy just

makes me really happy the second one i

use is how can i make someone else happy

right now this is really cool because

you immediately get out of that mindset

of serving yourself and you start

serving someone else and it can be

basic like just telling a friend you

love them or if that's way too intimate

just sending them a weird meme

another one to break out of your mindset

is what's something in my immediate

environment that i have never

noticed i've never noticed the square

sail there that's cool

something new the purpose of this

question is if you're stuck in the past

or the future it immediately draws you

to the present

journaling for daily reflections this is

the most common type of journaling you

might have seen like gratitude journals

stuff like that wherein you reflect on

your day using a specific set of

questions

the questions i like are what excited me

what drained me of energy what did i

learn

what are 10 things i'm grateful for and

how did i push the needle forward

if you do these five questions most days

for a month you will learn so much about

yourself

for me the biggest lessons came from

number two what drained me of energy

after a month of saying the exact same

two things alcohol and social media i

was like huh

i wonder what i need to change it's

stuff you already know or at least

suspect but when it's staring at you on

the page consistently you're like ah

yep message received journaling for

habits and lifestyle audit

this is for anybody who's in a phase in

their life where they are going for big

improvements where they want to get

better and level up

i will say with a bit of a caveat that

this is pretty harsh but when i'm in the

mood to be harsh on myself this is the

technique that i use

i divide my page into three columns and

at the first column i put actions

and on the second and third column i'll

put the worst version of myself and the

best possible version of myself

so i might write these out like lazy

self-indulgent cruel alcoholic slob

and funny and fun sober dude with

limitless creativity someone like that

they might sound corny but you know

push through you got this at the end of

your day in the first column you'll put

every single thing that you did that day

what you ate who you hung out with what

work you did list them all down there

and then in the second and third column

decide whether that thing gave you a

point in the negative or the positive

column so for example

i drank 10 beers that would be a point

in the negative column but if i worked

on

like a video like this that would be a

point in the positive column then you

add all the points and give yourself a

score and whichever identity one is the

direction that your life is moving

toward like i said it's a bit harsh and

it's obviously exploiting a false binary

like this doesn't actually exist

but if you are looking for maybe an

extra push and you kind of respond a

little bit well to

that type of reinforcement i'd recommend

it journaling for when bad things happen

my god bad things just happen sometimes

don't they it's just

shitty you just expect life to go this

way and then bang it's going this way

and you're like oh

oh no it's inevitable so it's good to

have tools these are the four questions

that i use

what happened objectively what did i

make it mean how would i comfort a

friend i loved if this happened to them

and my favorite journaling question of

all time how is this the best thing that

has ever happened to me

i think that last one's from tom bilyeu

what i like about these four questions

is it reminds me of that quote from

hamlet there is nothing either good or

bad but thinking makes it so by

separating the objective events of a bad

thing with the meaning that we have

instinctively assigned it we can start

to get a pretty glimpse into our

cognitive distortions then we can

override our tendencies to beat

ourselves up by treating us like a

friend that we love and give ourselves a

little bit of compassion in this

situation then finally by framing

this bad thing as the best thing that's

ever happened to us we get to use that

thinking that hamlet talked about to

make an objective event which we felt

was bad

good this isn't to deny that it sucked

by the way

i'm sure it did and does whatever it is

so

acknowledge that too journaling for

anxieties i'm a pretty anxious dude

just in general i freak out a lot this

is a technique where you divide your

page into three columns again

and you write fears fixes and the

outcome that i would bet on

so let's say you're anxious about

putting your art online

something which is totally normal to be

anxious about what you want to do in the

first column is dissect your anxiety

into its constituent fears

on the surface it might just feel like

fear but when you divide it it's things

like i'm worried people will tell me

it's bad

i'm worried no one's gonna look at it

then in your fixes you want to write a

really basic strategy to overcome those

fears so if you're worried people might

call it bad you might say well my

strategy is to turn off comments until

i've posted my 20th piece these

strategies don't have to be perfect all

we're trying to do is look at the

anxieties and realize that they

are just anxieties now in the third

column the outcome you'd bet on this is

to eliminate catastrophizing

so something that happens to me every

time my partner leaves the house

every time felicity like gets in the car

i immediately think that she is gonna

get into a car accident and die but i

know that this is just me

catastrophizing and i know that this is

just my anxiety and the way that i get

around this

is by having that third column the

outcome that i would bet on

the odds of a car crash are so low that

i wouldn't bet on them so why does my

head even entertain the idea

it's just anxiety plus no amount of

rehearsing tragedy will ever make you

ready for it so

you know there's that too before i

continue the list i do just want to say

something really exciting i just got my

first copy of my book

this is what it looks like and the

reason that i wanted to show you in this

video is well firstly i got this last

week

and secondly every single chapter ends

with a journaling exercise essentially

it's a chaotic guide to mental clarity

says it up there wherein we examine

brain function using this metaphor of a

houseboat here's an octopus a bunch of

people cool zoo

and these pages are journaling exercises

hence the relevance anyway it is

available for pre-order comes out in

october i'll leave the links in the

description

so i'm just so excited and mentioning

journaling just made me want to chuck

this in there

back to the video journaling for your

to-do list and direction

i start this with a full page where and

i put in all these dot points and i

basically make a scattered list of all

my various obligations and all the

things that i'd like to do from here i

ordered this list with a couple of

questions

what is non-negotiable what is exciting

then i use a couple of questions that i

got from tim ferriss what on my list if

done would make everything else easier

what of these if the opportunity was

taken away from me would i fight to get

back

which really helps with what you should

say yes and no to and the iconic pareto

question what 20

of activities are producing 80 of the

results from here i can usually get a

full page of a list down to about maybe

less than 15 points and that's really

cool journaling for decision making

what is the decision slash problem

clearly define it i can't remember who

said it but a problem well defined as a

problem half solved what are the options

and are they mutually exclusive so you

can't be in two countries at once but

you can do two projects at once

so really analyze what the actual

options are if i had to make this

decision in 60 seconds what would i

choose

i'll actually put on a timer and i'll

write out my decision

what i love about this question is it

helps me tap into my intuition

because i find that i usually know the

answer to a lot of these questions but

i'm too scared to tell myself for some

reason

i don't know there's always some sort of

fear in the way but with that timer

ticking down i'm like no it's this it's

got to be this

oh a million bucks then with that 60

second decision i asked could i live

with this outcome and then i'd check on

another tim ferriss question actually

which is what would this look like if it

were easy

finally journaling for direction in life

this is a technique that i came up with

after thinking about high school

mathematics

if you think about a graph like a basic

x y graph if you only have one point on

it you don't know a direction that a

line would go

it could pivot on that point it could be

headed down it could be curved but if

you put in a second point you have a

relationship you have a direction and

the more points you put in the clearer

that direction is

in journaling terms these points are

asking yourself what do you want and if

you look at the x-axis it's asking

yourself what did you want at various

times in your life so the actual

questions are what did i want five years

ago what do i want now

and what do i think i want in five years

time just like in a graph you can work

out your actual direction when you look

forward into the life that you're trying

to make

i find i know it's a cliche and i know

it's corny but man

this final question will help so much if

it's used correctly

if i knew i couldn't fail what would i

do so yeah those are my favorite

journaling techniques that i've come up

with over the past 12 years

if you were interested in the book

there's a pre-order link in the

description joshua ginsberg called it

the most important and accessible mental

health book in a generation

no pressure book aside i really hope

that this video has helped you let me

know what you thought subscribe if

you're new

other than that have a gorgeous day

catch