How to Start Journaling for Anxiety (Even If You Have Never Journaled Before)

If you’re wondering how to start journaling for anxiety, you’re in the right place—especially if you’re reading this at 2 AM because your brain won’t shut off.

Anxiety doesn’t wait for convenient times. It shows up when you’re trying to sleep, in the middle of important meetings, or right when you finally sit down to relax. Your thoughts race in circles, playing the same worries on repeat like a broken record.

Here’s the thing: I’m not going to promise that journaling will cure your anxiety. No honest guide should. But I can tell you this—getting those thoughts out of your head and onto paper (or your phone) is often the first step toward finding some calm.

Anxiety journaling is the practice of writing down your thoughts, worries, and feelings to externalize mental clutter and reduce the intensity of anxious thinking. Unlike traditional diary-keeping, anxiety journaling often uses structured prompts and evidence-based techniques to help you process difficult emotions.

Why Journaling Actually Helps with Anxiety

When you’re anxious, thoughts loop endlessly. Same worries, different hour. Journaling interrupts that loop.

Think of your brain like a browser with 47 tabs open. Each tab is a worry, a what-if, a worst-case scenario. Writing is like closing those tabs one by one. You’re not solving everything—just reducing the overwhelm so you can think clearly again.

Research supports this. A 2018 study published in JMIR Mental Health (Smyth et al.) found that participants who practiced positive affect journaling showed significantly lower anxiety and mental distress over 12 weeks compared to controls. More recent research from the University of Rochester Medical Center confirms that journaling helps manage anxiety by helping you prioritize problems, track symptoms, and identify triggers.

There’s also what psychologists call the “externalization effect”—the psychological benefit of moving thoughts from inside your head to outside, where you can observe them. When anxious thoughts stay in your head, they feel huge and urgent. The moment you write them down, something shifts. They become words on a page—still real, but somehow more manageable. You gain distance. And with distance comes perspective.

The Benefits of Daily Journaling for Anxiety

Regular anxiety journaling can help you:

• Identify patterns and triggers you might otherwise miss
• Process difficult emotions instead of suppressing them
• Challenge catastrophic thinking through written evidence
• Track your progress over time
• Build self-awareness about your mental states
• Create a sense of control in uncertain situations

What You Actually Need to Start an Anxiety Journal

Let’s clear up a common misconception: you don’t need a beautiful leather journal, perfect handwriting, or profound insights to journal for anxiety.

What you need:

• Any notebook, your phone’s notes app, or a journaling app
• 5-10 minutes
• A private space where no one will read your entries

What you don’t need:

• Perfect grammar or spelling
• Deep, philosophical musings
• Hours of free time
• A specific time of day (though consistency helps)
• Writing talent

The bar for entry is low. The barrier is usually in our heads—the belief that we need to do it “right.” But there’s no right way. There’s just doing it.

How to Start Journaling for Anxiety: 5 Prompts That Actually Work

Blank pages are paralyzing when your brain is already overwhelmed. That’s why I recommend starting with structured prompts rather than freewriting. Here are five journaling techniques for anxiety that actually help:

1. The Brain Dump

Prompt: “What’s on my mind right now?”

Just write. Stream of consciousness. Don’t edit, don’t judge, don’t worry about making sense. Get it all out—the big fears, the small annoyances, the random thoughts about whether you locked the door.

Why it works: Externalizes mental clutter. Once it’s on paper, it stops bouncing around your head. You might even notice that some worries look ridiculous once you see them written out.

Example:

“I can’t stop thinking about the presentation tomorrow. What if I forget everything? What if they ask questions I can’t answer? Also I need to call Mom back. And did I pay the electric bill? Everything feels like too much right now.”

2. The Worry Sort

Prompt: “What am I worried about? What can I actually control?”

List your worries. Then mark each one:

• C = I can control this (or at least influence it)
• N = No control

Focus your energy on the C items. The N items? Acknowledge them. Let them be. Remind yourself that worrying won’t change things you can’t control.

Why it works: Separates productive problem-solving from unproductive rumination. Anxiety often blurs the line between what we can and can’t influence. This exercise makes that line clear.

Example:

• Presentation going badly → C (I can practice more)
• Boss being in a bad mood → N (can’t control their emotions)
• Missing the deadline → C (I can ask for help or reprioritize)
• Economy affecting job security → N (worry won’t change macro trends)

3. The Evidence Collector (CBT Technique)

Prompt: “What’s my anxious thought? What evidence supports it? What evidence contradicts it?”

This is a mini CBT exercise, sometimes called a thought record. Your anxiety tells you stories—often catastrophic ones. This prompt helps you fact-check them instead of accepting them as truth.

Why it works: Challenges cognitive distortions. Anxiety makes everything feel certain and terrible. This exercise introduces doubt—helpful doubt—into your anxious narratives.

Example:

Anxious thought: “Everyone at work thinks I’m failing.”

Evidence for:

• Got critical feedback on one project last week

Evidence against:

• My last two performance reviews were positive
• My manager thanked me for handling the client issue last month
• Coworkers asked for my input on their projects (they wouldn’t if they thought I was incompetent)
• That critical feedback was about one specific presentation, not my entire job

4. The Micro-Gratitude Check

Prompt: “What’s one small thing that went okay today?”

Not looking for profound gratitude. Not asking you to pretend everything is fine. Just… one thing that wasn’t awful.

• The coffee was good
• Someone held the door for me
• I finished one task on my list
• My dog was happy to see me

Why it works: Shifts attention away from threat-scanning. Anxiety makes you hyper-focus on what’s wrong or what could go wrong. This doesn’t dismiss those concerns—it just balances them with what’s going okay. Even a little balance helps.

5. The Tomorrow Plan

Prompt: “What’s one small thing I can do tomorrow to feel a little less anxious?”

Emphasis on small. “Exercise for an hour” is intimidating. “Take a 5-minute walk” is doable.

Good answers:

• Text one friend
• Do one small task I’ve been avoiding
• Get outside for 10 minutes
• Go to bed 15 minutes earlier

Why it works: Gives you a sense of agency. Anxiety thrives on feeling helpless and out of control. Having even a tiny plan for tomorrow provides something concrete to hold onto.

Common Mistakes That Sabotage Anxiety Journaling

Even knowing how helpful journaling can be, it’s easy to sabotage your own practice. Here are the most common pitfalls—and I’ve hit every one of them.

Mistake 1: Expecting Instant Results

Journaling isn’t a panic button you press for immediate relief. It’s a practice that builds over time. Day one might feel awkward. Day three might feel pointless. But somewhere around week two or three, patterns start to emerge. You start noticing triggers. You catch catastrophic thoughts earlier.

The fix: Commit to two weeks before judging. Not two days. Two weeks.

Mistake 2: Only Journaling During Panic

If you only journal when you’re spiraling, your brain associates journaling with panic. Not helpful—you want journaling to feel like a neutral or even positive activity.

The fix: Journal on okay days too. Even just a few sentences. Make it routine, not crisis intervention.

Mistake 3: Re-Reading Anxious Entries Immediately

You just poured out all your worst fears. Now you read them back, see them all gathered in one place, and feel worse. Common mistake.

The fix: Write and close the journal. Give yourself at least 24-48 hours before re-reading, if you choose to re-read at all. Some people find reviewing helpful; others prefer to write and move on. Both are valid.

Mistake 4: Worrying About Privacy

If you’re afraid someone will find and read your journal, you won’t write honestly. You’ll self-censor the very thoughts you need to process.

The fix: Use a password-protected app (like Unwindly, which keeps everything on your device), keep a physical journal somewhere secure, or use a notes app with a passcode. Whatever makes you feel safe to be completely honest.

Mistake 5: Making It Complicated

You don’t need a 30-minute ritual with candles and meditation music. You don’t need fancy prompts every day. Sometimes “brain dump for 5 minutes” is all you need.

The fix: Start with the bare minimum. Complexity can come later—or never. Simple and consistent beats elaborate and abandoned.

How to Start Journaling for Anxiety: Your Step-by-Step Guide

The truth is, the “perfect time” to start is a myth anxiety loves to tell you. Start messy. Start small. Start now.

1. Choose your tool — Notebook, phone notes, or an app like Unwindly
2. Pick one prompt from the five above (I recommend the Brain Dump for day one)
3. Set a timer for 5 minutes
4. Write without editing — No fixing typos, no second-guessing
5. Close the journal when done — Don’t re-read yet
6. Do it again tomorrow — Same time if possible

That’s it. A few minutes today. Build from there.

When Journaling Isn’t Enough

I want to be clear: journaling is a tool, not a treatment. It can help with everyday anxiety—the racing thoughts, the 2 AM worries, the general overwhelm of modern life.

But if your anxiety is severe, persistent, or significantly impacting your daily functioning, please talk to a mental health professional. Journaling can complement therapy beautifully (many CBT therapists assign journaling exercises), but it shouldn’t replace professional support when you need it.

Resources:

• In crisis: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 (US)
• Finding a therapist: Psychology Today’s therapist finder
• Learn more: NIMH Anxiety Disorders Overview
• For ongoing support: Consider apps that combine journaling with CBT techniques

What Success Looks Like

Journaling for anxiety isn’t about becoming someone who never worries. That person doesn’t exist. It’s about building a practice that helps you:

• Get thoughts out of the endless loop
• Recognize anxious patterns before they spiral
• Respond to worry rather than just react
• Feel a little more in control

Some days, it’ll feel profound. Most days, it’ll just feel… fine. And that’s okay. Fine is enough. Consistent is better than perfect.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I journal for anxiety?

Aim for daily, even if it’s just 5 minutes. Consistency matters more than duration. If daily feels like too much, start with 3-4 times per week and build from there.

What should I write in an anxiety journal?

Start with one of the prompts above. The Brain Dump is great for beginners—just write whatever is on your mind without judgment. As you get comfortable, you can try more structured approaches like the Evidence Collector.

Does journaling help with panic attacks?

Journaling is most effective as a preventive practice, not during a panic attack (when you need grounding techniques instead). However, journaling after a panic attack can help you identify triggers and process what happened.

Is it better to journal in the morning or at night for anxiety?

Both work. Morning journaling can help you set intentions and process overnight worry. Evening journaling can help you decompress and prevent racing thoughts at bedtime. Try both and see what works for you.

Should I journal on paper or digitally?

Whatever feels safer and more convenient. Paper offers a tactile experience and no notifications. Digital apps offer privacy features (passcodes, encryption) and the ability to search your entries. Some people with anxiety prefer digital specifically for the privacy—no one can stumble across your phone app the way they might find a physical journal.

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Ready to start?

Whether you prefer paper or digital, the most important thing is to begin. If you’re looking for a structured approach, Unwindly is a private journaling app built specifically for anxiety and CBT-based thought work. Everything stays on your device—no cloud, no accounts, no one else can see your entries.

It includes structured prompts for anxiety (including all five from this article), thought records for challenging anxious thinking, and mood tracking to spot patterns over time.

Download Unwindly for iOS → Download Unwindly for Android →

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You’re not broken. Anxiety is hard, and you’re trying to manage it—that counts for something. Journaling won’t fix everything, but it’s a small step toward feeling a little more in control. And sometimes, that’s exactly where you need to start.