Best digital journals for your mental health journey

Whether you’re eight or 80, journalling can be a great way to make sense of your world. While the pandemic had us downloading meditation and even social media detox apps, digital journalling—pen to paper 2.0—is a powerful tool for continued self-discovery.

For some, it can be more natural to have an iPad in hand than a physical journal, and this crop of digital journalling apps serve as the handy, interactive medium to capture dreams and process feelings.

“Journalling is a means of communication between both our conscious minds and unconscious psyche. As we allow for the chatty mind to quieten and allow our hands to free-flow without filtering and judgement, pretty potent truths may pour out,” says Stephanie Chaunte Leong.

Leong explains that when we remain present with our writing, we “drop into a flow state, which may feel similar to meditation. These are different pathways to the same destination, meeting ourselves at a deeper level.”

Benefits of journalling

Maximillian Chen, clinical psychologist at Annabelle Psychology and part of WhiteCoat’s tele-health mental wellness team describes mindfulness as, “a state in which we are aware of where we are, what we are doing, and how we are feeling, without being overly reactive and overwhelmed. It’s an ability that we humans all have and need to practise so as to engage in it more easily and intentionally.” 

For Chen, all good stress management strategies tend to incorporate an element of mindfulness. “Journalling has also been suggested by research studies to improve mood and overall wellbeing, lower anxiety, and may even provide some benefits to our physical health. Writing about ourselves, our thoughts, emotions and behaviours builds self-awareness and personal growth, and can help us analyse our sources of stress as well.” 

“As we go through our days, our thoughts might become dimly perceived or disorganised. Journalling can help us to become more aware of our judgements, fears, worries, hopes, and thoughts,” explains the psychologist. “The act of writing them out also helps us to fully articulate and organise our thoughts, allowing us to make better sense of them. As we record down our experiences and thoughts, they can be experienced with less emotional pull.” The key is then using these thought patterns as data, to understand how they relate to external situations and behaviours. 

“When we journal for only ourselves, without any filtering, or having it be performative, such as sharing it on social media, we remove some internal blocks which then allows us to come into contact with our psyche/soul/unconscious,” says Leong.

Best digital journal apps for iPad

If you find a notebook too limiting, consider the multi-functional iPad, which enables you to not only take charge of your productivity and goals, but aid in digital journalling and doodling.

“Journalling approaches can be varied. They range from structured to unstructured, specific to general, visual, verbal or mixed. Different journalling approaches lend themselves better to different goals. Through periodic check-ins on our ‘whys’ and adjusting where needed, we can achieve our own ‘best’ approach through experiments and practice over time,” says Chen. “Let go of your perfectionistic tendencies and expectations. At its core, journalling is an act of self-care.”