| I've been journaling for over 10 years, and I can empathize with everything you're saying here. I wrote a short guide for effective journaling here[1], and plan on writing a lot more on the topic soon. I do have some thoughts about what you've written specifically though—I hope it's helpful. > I find it just ends up my going around in circles or getting frustrated, but I think that's just me It's not just you. Circular thinking or rumination is very common. I find journaling helpful in these instances because it is a lot easier for me to recognize that I'm ruminating when I write my thoughts down. When they're physically in front of me, you can see the looping. When it's ephemeral thoughtstuff in your head, it can be a lot harder to recognize. The trick (for me) is finding a way to escape that loop once I've recognized it. That's why I edit all my journal entries after an initial stream-of-consciousness braindump. There are a number of techniques you can play with to broaden your viewpoint—write down an interpretation of events that is the opposite of what you think, imagine the situation from a caring friend's perspective, etc. It's helpful to think of this as play, which brings me to my next thought. > whenever i sit down to think about anything and try and make sense of anything in my life, I really struggle ... i'm just overwhelmed. > It's also hard to do at the end of the day due to low energy. It is possible you have set too-high expectations for your journal entries. You will look at a majority of entries, immediately after writing them, and think, "What trash, I will never want to read this again." That's fine. You might be right—maybe it's worthless. But you'll be surprised at how frequently, a year later, you find that you were wrong. It is interesting to read those honest entries that are twisted and convoluted and just messed up. And you will make progress over time, if you're flexible with your mindset and open to change. Most entries will be ugly and definitely not revelatory. That's fine—it's the accumulation of observations that leads to breakthroughs. Putting too much pressure on the individual entries themselves can actually be counterproductive. > The trouble is there are so many things I can do for my mental health and improve myself ... when am i meant to get anything done after i finish work if I do all of these? This is a real problem. I don't love the narrative around "self-care" I'm frequently exposed to. Industry has a vested interest in making you feel like their solution is one you absolutely need to incorporate, to the point that self-care becomes yet another external imposition for many people. To be sure, all these things you list can be helpful, but getting in touch with yourself and deciding what you need and when you need it is most important. [1] https://www.indelibleapp.com/effective-journaling |