I have been an intermittent journaller for most of my life. Tried it in many forms. Never quite made it stick. Until I stopped trying to do it the right way and found a version that takes less than six minutes a day and has made a genuine difference to my sleep, my mood, and my mornings.
Why journaling works for a recovering brain
Journaling is not just self-expression. There is a neurological case for it that is particularly relevant to concussion recovery.
Writing about thoughts and emotions activates the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for rational processing and perspective, and reduces activity in the amygdala, the brain's threat-detection centre. The act of putting something into words creates a small but meaningful shift from feeling overwhelmed by something to having a relationship with it. Researchers call this affect labelling, and it is one of the reasons therapists ask people to journal between sessions.
For a brain managing post-concussion cognitive load, journaling also serves as an external memory system. You do not have to hold everything in your head. Writing it down creates a record, reduces the cognitive load of trying to remember, and gives you a reference point when memory is unreliable. Many people in concussion recovery find tracking their symptoms, energy levels, and daily experience in a journal helps them identify patterns they would otherwise miss.
There is also a sleep dimension. Offloading thoughts onto paper before bed, particularly unresolved worries or things on tomorrow's mental list, has been shown to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep and improve sleep quality. A racing mind at bedtime is one of the most common complaints in concussion recovery. A five-minute journal before sleep is one of the cheapest and simplest interventions available.
Types of journaling worth knowing about
- Health journaling: tracking specific symptoms daily, rating pain, energy, mood, or cognitive function on a simple scale. Useful for identifying what is helping and what is not, and for conversations with clinicians.
- Gratitude journaling: writing a short list each day of things you are grateful for. Has a specific evidence base around mood regulation and shifting attentional bias toward the positive over time.
- Action journaling: recording what happened, what you did, what you noticed. Useful for memory and for processing experiences.
- Creative journaling: keeping a journal nearby to capture thoughts, ideas, or observations as they arise throughout the day. No structure required.
- Expressive journaling: writing freely about what is bothering you, with no intention of keeping it. Anne Hathaway once described grabbing a piece of paper when she is anxious, scrawling everything down, and then burning it. Something about the physicality of releasing it, especially for things you do not need to keep, has its own logic.
Making it stick
The most common reason journaling does not stick is that people try to do too much. A daily practice that takes five minutes and happens every day is infinitely more valuable than an elaborate ritual that happens three times a week.
- Create a dedicated space. Same spot, same time, everything already set up. Reducing friction is the key to consistency.
- Make it pleasant. A pen you like writing with, a candle if that helps, music in the background: small things that make the ritual feel like something rather than a task.
- Start with a single question. "What is on my mind right now?" or "What am I grateful for today?" is enough. You do not need prompts for every session.
- Decide what you want from it. Is it sleep? Processing emotions? Memory support? Symptom tracking? Being clear on the purpose helps you choose the format and stick with it.
- Let it evolve. Your journaling practice does not need to look the same every day or follow a fixed format. Experiment. What works in one season of recovery might not work in another. And it does not have to be words at all: drawing your thoughts or feelings, sketching what is in your head, or using colour and shape to express what you cannot quite articulate is just as valid. The point is the processing, not the form.
I confess I have been an intermittent journaller throughout my life. I tried many different forms over the years but never quite made it work. I originally did not even like the feeling of actually writing. Until recently, when I found a routine that fits the phase of life I am in.
Here is what my current routine looks like: every morning I wake up, light a candle, pull an oracle card with a mantra for the day, and note it in my journal along with one, two, or three sentences about whatever is on my mind. Then I move into my meditation. Every evening I light my candle again and write "Today I am grateful for..." and bullet-list whatever has come up that day. The whole thing takes less than five to six minutes. Sometimes longer if there is a lot to feel grateful about.
The two things it has genuinely shifted: getting to sleep, and how I wake up. The evening gratitude practice gives me a few minutes to reflect and process before I close the day, instead of numbing with screens. I sleep better. I wake up in a better mood. Those two things alone make it worth doing.
I also want to mention the Anne Hathaway approach for the days when something is really bothering you: grab a piece of paper, write everything down without filtering it, and then get rid of it. Burn it if you have the means, or tear it up, or put it in the recycling. There is something in the physical act of releasing it that a digital journal cannot replicate. For the things you need to process but do not need to keep, this is worth trying.
The main thing I would say is: do not try to do it perfectly. An imperfect five minutes every day will change things. A perfect journal that you write in three times and then abandon will not.