How journaling boosts mental health after job loss
After job loss is a stressful time. Strengthen your mental health through journaling.
After job loss can be a confusing, turbulent time. It’s easy to feel hopeless.
One way to find hope during transition is to journal. I’ve found journaling can help me get to the root of the issue, so I can unearth what is blocking my hope.
If journaling can help me, I know it can help you. Let me share one story.
In September 2002, I received a white chef’s jacket at a business meeting. Afraid I’d splatter spaghetti sauce while cooking, I decided to keep it pristine.
So I put it away in my closet. And left it there.
As time passed, whenever I looked at it, I got a bad feeling.
Eventually, I gave the jacket to a friend who had attended culinary school. I was certain when I looked into my closet and did not see the jacket, that I would feel happy.
But I did not.
Surprised, I decided to journal about it. Right. That. Minute.
Way more than a jacket
I raced to find my pen and journal. As I wrote, I realized I received the jacket when my life was “normal.” Within a few months, I came down with an illness and missed three weeks of work. My job was eliminated on March 28,2003–one week shy of my 13th work anniversary. And one week later, I was diagnosed with a worrisome medical condition. The jacket made me feel uncomfortable when I saw it in my closet. Yet, I felt agitated when I did not. It was way more than a white chef’s jacket. It represented my life–as I once knew it. I needed to grieve that loss.
I would not have figured that out if I had not taken time to write. It just revealed itself. I had never attached all that significance to the jacket.
Taking time to journal can help you figure out what is really bothering you, whether you lost your job yesterday or a decade ago.
The science behind journaling
Psychotherapist and journaling expert Maud Purcell explained why journaling helps to Fast Company. She is quoted as saying “The act of writing accesses the left brain, which is analytical and rational. While our left brain is occupied, our right brain is free to create and intuit. In this way, writing removes mental blocks and allows us to use all of our brain for deeper self-exploration.”
Writing about the jacket gave me hope. Finally, I knew what was really troubling me. It wasn’t a mystery anymore or a dark cloud hanging over me (or in my closet). I thought I had worked through the grief of losing my job, but residue remained.
I could now begin to move forward.
Whenever you start to feel ill at ease during your job loss transition, grab your journal. Like me, you may not know the root issue. But the very act of writing can reveal things to you about yourself, others and the world around you. And that insight can strengthen your mental health. Two of my friends in treatment for mental health issues began journaling as part of their treatment plan. Writing became one of their tools to maintain good mental health and recovery.
Losing your job can strain your mental reserves. Some pain may lurk hidden until you shine the light.
Journaling can improve your mental health, as well as your physical health and spiritual health. Add this tool to your arsenal to regain your confidence and find your hope after job loss.
A pin for you
