How To Journal For Better Mental Health, From A Brain Plasticity Researcher

Suzuki’s upcoming book, Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion, is all about how stressors and setbacks can be used as positives, moving us forward towards more self-awareness and success down the line.

Emotions that we often perceive as negative—fear, worry, anger—after all, have lessons to teach us, too. And by recognizing them as instructive feelings, not just things to be swept under the rug, Suzuki says that you can learn a lot about yourself. “What is fear teaching me about what I value? What is worry telling me about my life and what is going right and what is going wrong and what my dream is? If I approach those emotions as protective and informative, I have a very different way of dealing with them,” she tells mbg.

Expressing gratitude for these emotions is one way to reframe your perspective on them. Suzuki, who keeps a daily gratitude journal, explains that she now includes setbacks as well as successes, and it’s switched her perspective on fear and anxiousness from “that thing I never wanted to have to that thing I needed.”