Mental Health Journaling Resources

Find helpful resources for using journaling to support mental health, including blog posts, journaling apps, recent research, podcasts, TED or TEDx Talks, and a sample journal entry.

Table of Contents

Blog Posts

Mental Health Journaling Apps

How We Feel
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A free emotional well-being journal designed to help users identify exactly what they are feeling rather than simply labeling themselves “good” or “bad.” Check-ins can reveal patterns between emotions, situations, sleep, activity, relationships, and other parts of everyday life.
Daylio Journal — Mood Tracker
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A simple mood and activity journal that can be used even when you do not feel like writing long entries. Tracking mood alongside activities can help reveal which routines, relationships, habits, or situations tend to improve or worsen your mental health.
MindDoc: Mental Health Support
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Combines mood tracking with questions about thoughts, emotions, symptoms, and everyday experiences. It is particularly useful for monitoring patterns related to depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and emotional well-being.
CBT Thought Diary
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A structured journal based on cognitive behavioral therapy. Instead of simply recording upsetting thoughts, it guides users through identifying what happened, recognizing the automatic thought, examining the emotional reaction, and developing a more balanced response.
Balm: CBT Thought Diary
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A guided CBT thought-record app for working through difficult situations and negative thinking. It helps users identify the situation, emotion, automatic thought, evidence, and a more realistic alternative interpretation.

Recent Research on Journaling and Mental Health

Expressive Writing May Reduce Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Over Time — Meta-Analysis
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A meta-analysis of 31 randomized studies involving more than 4,000 people found that expressive writing had a small but significant effect on depression, anxiety, and stress. Interestingly, benefits were often more noticeable at later follow-ups rather than immediately after writing, and writing sessions spaced 1–3 days apart appeared especially helpful.

Gratitude Journaling May Improve Resilience and Quality of Life
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A 2025 randomized controlled trial studied breast cancer patients who completed at least ten gratitude journal entries over three weeks. Those who journaled reported greater gratitude, resilience, and quality of life than participants in the control group.

Longer Gratitude Writing May Be More Helpful Than Simple Lists
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A randomized experiment involving 958 adults compared several forms of gratitude writing. Longer-form gratitude essays and letters generally produced greater improvements in subjective well-being than simply writing short gratitude lists, suggesting that how deeply you write may matter.

Podcasts About Mental Health Journaling

Speaking of Psychology — Expressive Writing Can Help Your Mental Health With James Pennebaker, PhD
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One of the strongest psychology-based discussions of expressive writing. Researcher James Pennebaker explains why writing about significant life experiences can help people organize thoughts, process emotions, and look at difficult experiences from a different perspective.
The Science of Journaling — 10% Happier With Dr. James Pennebaker
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A detailed discussion with one of the researchers most associated with expressive-writing research. It covers therapeutic journaling, overthinking, anxiety, stressful experiences, gratitude lists, how often to journal, and why writing can change the way we understand an experience.
Journaling for Your Mental Health — Savvy Psychologist
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Therapist Emma McAdam discusses journaling as a practical mental-health skill. The episode explores how writing can help people understand thoughts and emotions instead of allowing them to remain vague and overwhelming.
A Science-Supported Journaling Protocol to Improve Mental & Physical Health — Huberman Lab
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A long-form discussion of expressive writing and the research surrounding structured writing about stressful or traumatic experiences. It also distinguishes this approach from ordinary diary writing, gratitude journals, and morning notes.

TED & TEDx Talks About Mental Health Journaling

Mental Health, Journalling and Taking Control — Chesna Goel
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Focuses directly on anxiety and journaling. Goel discusses using writing to move overwhelming thoughts out of her head and onto paper so they could be examined more clearly.
How Writing Helps Improve Our Mental Health — Jueda Jarazi
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Explores writing as a form of emotional expression. The speaker describes using creative writing to work through difficult experiences and better understand her emotional life.
The Healing Power of Writing — Kerstin Pilz
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Focuses on expressive writing about grief, difficult memories, vulnerability, and negative emotions. It shows how writing can help someone put experiences into words instead of repeatedly carrying an unfinished story internally.
The Benefits of Journaling — Jennie Sherwood
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A simple personal introduction to journaling and its use for stress and emotional well-being. It is especially accessible for someone who wants to begin without turning journaling into another complicated self-improvement task.
The Mental Health Benefits of Storytelling — Laurel Braitman
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Explores how writing and sharing personal stories can help people make sense of emotionally demanding experiences. Although the talk focuses on healthcare workers, the underlying ideas about putting difficult experiences into words apply more broadly.