I’ve been in a writing slump.
It’s the end of the school year, and everything is just chaotic. I’m working and living out of my car (basically), there are coffee cups and various electronics chargers and baby wipes just everywhere.
It’s almost summer. Not that you’d know it in the northeast, with the endless days of rain and clouds. All the same, it feels like it’s a time to reset with a changing of the seasons. It's time to get in shape and eat right. Maybe, just maybe, live life at a slower pace?
With that in mind, I’ve been thinking of ways to organize my mental clutter.
At night, it’s tempting to scroll and giggle at cats jumping into the air like popcorn kernels- reacting to nothing and everything at once. This distraction keeps me from reviewing an endless mental to-do list and ruminating on what I could have done better as a parent, wife, or business owner.
But those thoughts don’t just disappear. They don’t stay “internal.” They settle into the body and hijack the nervous system. They spike cortisol and steal sleep. And sleep, especially for a mama, is rare currency. Precious and nonrefundable.
What can I do?
So what if I tracked them instead?
I tried this during the height of the COVID years. I tracked my moods using a bullet-journal style tracker. It highlighted emotional patterns that surprised me. And the act of naming what I was feeling? It didn’t fix everything. But it helped. It calmed my brain enough to stop spinning. And science backs that up- putting feelings into words has been shown to reduce amygdala activation and emotional intensity.³
Labeling my mood is not a cure. But it changes the experience and interrupts the swirl. It gives a name to the noise, and names have power.³
Sometimes I don’t even realize how intense my day was until I stop to write something down. That’s the power. Bringing what’s inside the mind out into the world, or even just onto the page. Giving language to our experience shifts the whole feedback loop. Research suggests that affect labeling, or simply naming how you feel, can dampen your brain’s threat response.³ Mindfulness and reflection, even in small doses, reduce cortisol and help us get better sleep.¹
When we track our internal states, we create data. But we don’t need spreadsheets, just tracking for even one minute a night can help us feel more prepared for tomorrow, or give ourselves grace for surviving today.
It’s mindfulness, yes. But it’s also psychology. Identifying our internal behaviors, those private, covert thoughts, can actually change how they function.⁴
This tracker gives a key that shows a rating scale of how the day went. Just an overall rating. You can also include where you are in your cycle or where the moon is in hers.
You can download the same tracker I’m using, right here. Join me if you want.
Sources
¹ Fisher, A. J., et al. (2023). The Mechanism of Mindfulness in Reducing Stress: Self-Awareness and Cortisol Regulation. Psychoneuroendocrinology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106331
² Dwyer, S. M., et al. (2023). Understanding the Relationship Between Tracking, Awareness, and Behavior Change in Mental Health. Digital Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.digih.2023.100034
³ Lieberman, M. D., et al. (2007). Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling Disrupts Amygdala Activity in Response to Affective Stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x
⁴ Cummings, A. R., & Reagan, B. (2009). Behavioral Conceptualization of Covert Verbal Behavior: A Review and Analysis. Behavioral Processes, 82(2), 192–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2009.06.004