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The Easiest Way To Take Up Journaling
Plus: very nutritious cookies!
The 10almonds Team
January 15, 2024
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Are you a night owl or a morning lark? Evolution has divided us into distinct chronotypes (before industrialization, it was beneficial to the species), but on average, it’s the morning people who live longer and more healthily. So if you can, get earlier nights and earlier mornings!
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Journaling is great for mental health, but it can feel pointless if you’re not sure where to begin.
Working from prompts not only makes things easier, but also has additional benefits, challenging us to examine things that might have gone unexamined
See today’s main feature for very useful resources!
Foods like peanuts, soy, vinegar, chocolate, citrus fruits, and caffeine (amongst others) have been linked to migraine. Too bad if you are prone to migraines and want a snack!
Today’s sponsor Amia are offering delicious cookies that are not only free from all common migraine triggers, but also all common allergens, and as a bonus, they have a bunch of brain-healthy ingredients too—See today’s sponsor section for details!
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
TED-Ed | How to make smart decisions more easily (5:16)
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖
✒️ MAIN FEATURE
Dear Diary…
It’s well-established that journaling is generally good for mental health. It’s not a magical panacea, as evidenced by The Diaries of Franz Kafka for example (that man was not in good mental health). But for most of us, putting our thoughts and feelings down on paper (or the digital equivalent) is a good step for tidying our mind.
And as it can be said: mental health is also just health.
But…
What to write about?
It’s about self-expression (even if only you will read it), and…
❝Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health, in non-clinical and clinical populations.
In the expressive writing paradigm, participants are asked to write about such events for 15–20 minutes on 3–5 occasions.
Those who do so generally have significantly better physical and psychological outcomes compared with those who write about neutral topics.❞
In other words, write about whatever moves you.
Working from prompts
If you read the advice above and thought “but I don’t know what moves me”, then fear not. It’s perfectly respectable to work from prompts, such as:
What last made you cry?
What last made you laugh?
What was a recent meaningful moment with family?
What is a serious mistake that you made and learned from?
If you could be remembered for just one thing, what would you want it to be?
In fact, sometimes working from prompts has extra benefits, precisely because it challenges us to examine things we might not otherwise think about.
If a prompt asks “What tends to bring you most joy recently?” and the question stumps you, then a) you now are prompted to look at what you can change to find more joy b) you probably wouldn’t have thought of this question—most depressed people don’t, and if you cannot remember recent joy, then well, we’re not here to diagnose, but let’s just say that’s a symptom.
A quick aside: if you or a loved one are prone to depressive episodes, here’s a good resource, by the way:
The Mental Health First-Aid That You’ll Hopefully Never Need
And in the event of the mental health worst case scenario:
The six prompts we gave earlier are just ideas that came to this writer’s mind, but they’re (ok, some bias here) very good ones. If you’d like more though, here’s a good resource:
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
While it’s not good to get stuck in ruminative negative thought spirals, it is good to have a safe outlet to express one’s negative thoughts/feelings:
Remember, your journal is (or ideally, should be) a place without censure. If you fear social consequences should your journal be read, then using an app with a good security policy and encryption options can be a good idea for journaling
Finch App is a good free option if it’s not too cutesy for your taste, because in terms of security:
It can’t leak your data because your data never leaves your phone (unless you manually back up your data and then you choose to put it somewhere unsafe)
It has an option to require passcode/biometrics etc to open the app
As a bonus, it also has very many optional journaling prompts, and also (optional) behavioral activation prompts, amongst more other offerings that we don’t have room to list here.
Take care!
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
Finally, Migraine-Friendly Food
Foods like peanuts, soy, vinegar, chocolate, citrus fruits, and caffeine (amongst others) have been linked to migraine. Too bad if you are prone to migraines and want a snack!
Amia's products fill that gap. They're made free from all common migraine triggers, and yes, they're also free from other nuts, dairy, and gluten.
Bonus: They're not just "the nothing cookie", though. Instead, they're packed with a nutritious blend of trigger-free oats and seeds, including hemp, flax, chia, and pumpkin... All known to have brain-healthy properties!
Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
🤫 A WORD TO THE WISE
 | Procrastination, and how to pay off the to-do list debtSometimes we procrastinate because we feel overwhelmed by the mountain of things we are supposed to be doing. Fortunately, there's a quicker way to get out of that cycle! |
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
The Osteoporosis Breakthrough: The Natural Way to Reverse Causes of Bone Loss and Build Strong Bones! – by Dr. Doug Lucas
"Osteoporosis" and "break" often don't go well together, but here they do. So, what's the breakthrough here?
There isn't one, honestly. But if we overlook the marketing choices and focus on the book itself, the content here is genuinely good:
The book offers a comprehensive multivector approach to combatting osteoporosis, e.g:
Diet
Exercise
Other lifestyle considerations
Supplements
Hormones
Drugs
The author considers drugs a good and important tool for some people with osteoporosis, but not most. The majority of people, he considers, will do better without drugs—by tackling things more holistically.
The advice here is sound and covers all reasonable angles without getting hung up on the idea of there being a single magical solution for all.
Bottom line: if you're looking for a book that's a one-stop-shop for strategies against osteoporosis, this is a good option.
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
Wishing you a peaceful Sunday,
The 10almonds Team