Interesting article about the relationship between journaling and emotional health: ? How Psychotherapy and Journaling Help - Psych Central News

“If you ask people who are really sad why they are writing in a journal, they are not likely to say it’s because they think this is a way to make themselves feel better,” Lieberman said.

“People don’t do this to intentionally overcome their negative feelings; it just seems to have that effect. Popular psychology says when you’re feeling down, just pick yourself up, but the world doesn’t work that way. If you know you’re trying to pick yourself up, it usually doesn’t work — self-deception is difficult.

“Because labeling your feelings doesn’t require you to want to feel better, it doesn’t have this problem.”

Link from Notebookism