Blog
Welcome to the blog page. This page includes articles about mental health and well-being.
Journaling as Free Therapy! Understanding the Neuroscience Behind the Power of Putting Thoughts to Paper
By Carolina Mueller/ April, 2026
Writing about our thoughts and feelings in a journal can feel really awkward. Our minds are skilled at coming up with reasons to procrastinate: “What if someone reads it?” or “How do I even start?” Journaling is often dismissed as a ‘hippie’ or ‘spiritual’ activity that isn’t suited to the overworked, highly anxious individual. However, clinical psychologists around the world now recommend journaling as a vital tool for self-reflection. While the practice is ancient, modern science is finally uncovering why it is so effective for our mental health. Studies indicate that journaling can be a successful stand-alone therapeutic tool, as well as an effective companion to standard talk therapies. It has been linked to improved physical and psychological health, including decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety. Beyond mood, journaling has been associated with improved working memory, better sleep, and increased emotional regulation. Why is journaling so helpful for emotions? The physical activity of using a pen to note down our thoughts impacts the areas of our brain responsible for processing and regulating emotions. Everyday emotions like sadness, anger, and anxiety are processed by the brain’s emotional center: the limbic system (specifically the amygdala). When we feel threatened, the amygdala sends distress signals to the hypothalamus, which triggers the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. This is our "fight or flight" response. Research shows that "affect labeling"—the act of putting feelings into words—reduces activity in the amygdala. By dumping our irritations into a journal, we reduce the intensity of these unwanted emotions. While modern life rarely requires us to flee from physical predators, our brains still trigger this hormonal stress response when we ruminate or obsess over everyday conflicts. As the saying goes: "By naming it, we are taming it." Engaging the "CEO" of the Brain While the emotional center calms down during expressive writing, the prefrontal cortex (the "CEO" of the brain) becomes more active. This area is responsible for reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making. By activating the prefrontal cortex, we use our logic to make sense of our emotional experiences. This "top-down" regulation allows us to process life events more effectively, which alleviates the cycle of worrying and ruminating. When we are highly distressed, the amygdala often goes into overdrive, effectively "hijacking" our logic. Simply thinking about our problems often leads to circular rumination, which can actually increase stress. However, the time investment and linguistic structure required for writing lead to deeper cognitive processing. This makes journaling one of the most accessible, effective, and free therapeutic tools available to everyone. Tips to Start Journaling 1) Write freely - it doesn’t even have to make sense! Just write whatever pops into your mind, there is no wrong way to journal 2) Set a small, manageable goal for yourself (e.g. a 5-minute journaling sessions, or 1-2 pages) 3) Using prompts can help to get started (“I feel grateful for…” or “An interesting conversation I had this week was…”) 4) Set a routine for journaling (e.g. before bedtime or while you drink your morning coffee) 5) Practice self-compassion if this is hard for you! This too is something to journal about
Why your mind has a mind of its own
By Carolina Mueller/ April, 2024/ Published by "I am Expat", original published Article here
Does your mind sometimes tell you you’re useless? That you’re uncool or unattractive? Maybe you’ve heard it telling you that you’re a bad friend, an average partner or a disappointing child? Sometimes, our minds can have a mind of their own. They are capable of cooking up countless criticisms of ourselves, leaving us feeling anxious, exhausted and overwhelmed. Loud, negative mind chatter can have a corrosive effect on our confidence and self-esteem. So what is going on here and how can we turn the volume down on these troubling thoughts? Believe it or not, what’s happening is that our mind is trying to problem-solve. To better explain this, let’s wind the clock back about 2,5 million years to the Stone Age. In this time, early humans were hunters and gatherers whose key priorities were to source food, find shelter and fend off predators. Failure to stay on top of these necessities could be fatal or result in being cast out from the tribe we belong to. Now fast forward to today’s world. Despite our best efforts, we humans largely remain those same tribal beings. Our survival instincts have transcended time and remain hardwired in us. As a result, our mind is on watch 24 / 7 - constantly scanning for danger and generating solutions to problems that could jeopardise our place in the tribe. Our contemporary life may allow us to live in solitude without the existential dangers that existed millennia ago. But our need to reap the social-emotional benefits of belonging to a community, or a tribe, remain. Experiencing a sense of belonging is intrinsic to our wellbeing. We feel good when we belong to something broader, whether that be a friendship group, workplace, sporting club or family network. So when we feel we might have behaved inappropriately in some way, our minds can quickly become our worst critic. “Why did I do that? What if people think that was weird? What if they no longer like me?” This is our mind’s alarm going off that our position in our community or tribe could be at risk. Overthinking, ruminating and replaying past situations is the mind’s way of analysing “the problem”, so it can pre-empt an effective solution. By replaying what we may have done wrong in a past situation, our mind is trying to ensure we don’t repeat this behaviour in the future. By beating us up, our mind is trying to make us a better person. In other words, it’s like an overprotective friend giving unhelpful advice. Alternatively, we may notice that our mind is worrying about future events, coming up with endless “what if” statements, each of which predict the worst. Notice, our mind is problem-solving again. This time it is trying to anticipate possible outcomes, so we are overly prepared for “the worst outcome”. It is trying to keep us safe. Our minds are always providing us with useful and important information about how to solve problems, but in times when we feel worried or stressed, our mind can become like a problem-solving machine in “overdrive”. When in overdrive, we may find ourselves stuck in our heads, beaten up by difficult thoughts and feelings and unable to engage with the world around us. We may spend hours debating whether these thoughts are true or not, meanwhile missing out on the here and now. Being hooked to the problem-solving machine can prevent us from focusing on what really matters to us, and this can come at a big cost. So what’s the solution to the problem-solving machine? The bad news is we can’t switch it off, because it has a deeply rooted, existential purpose. But the good news is we can learn to distance ourselves from it. We can learn to notice the internal chatter, acknowledge it and reduce the power it has over us. The first step is to notice when we are too dialled in to the problem-solving machine and to practise self-compassion as a primary response. I invite you to pay attention to your mind’s chatter, to notice when it starts to problem solve, and to remind yourself that your mind is just doing its primary evolutionary function which is to keep you safe. The next time you notice your mind telling you that you are uncool or unattractive, can you thank your mind for trying to protect you? Maybe you can reframe your relationship to your mind, remembering that it is not trying to harm you, it is simply trying to help you. Understanding that our minds have evolved to overthink and predict the worst can help to reduce the volume of that voice in your head. Life is full of inevitable challenges. It’s how we train our minds to respond to them that matters. If you want to learn more about your mind and how you can better distance yourself from unhelpful chatter, you can book an initial consultation.
