Why Using a Journal Can give you Courage

The world in the time of COVID 19 became a scary place. The (still) ongoing pandemic uprooted everyday life and changed the daily routines of everyone across the world.

Exactly how people coped with this world of lockdown and stay at home orders that governments dealing with the pandemic imposed will be something which is looked at by many researchers in the months and years to come.

In the meantime, it is evident that mental health and self-care have become huge topics of interest across social media, with everyone trying to find their own way of getting through the constant stream of anxiety-creating news reports each day.

One of the ways I coped is through more time journaling, now that I am permanently working at home and not having to commute to the office.

I have often journaled in the past about facing my fears and overcoming them, which led me to remember some research I came across about journaling and how it can be used to increase a courageous mindset.

What is Courage?

Courage is defined as having the ability to act in the face of a fearful situation. Typically for me, when I think about courage and courageous behaviour, extreme situations such as firefighters running into burning buildings often come to mind.

It is thought that courageous behaviour occurs in the presence of a courageous mindset which is clearly a requirement for anyone choosing to become a firefighter.

However, if courage is the ability to act in the face of fear, then more mundane situations such as having to remove a house spider also require the presence of a courageous mindset.

For some people, this may not be something that ever comes naturally to them, and they need a tool to help; this is where journaling can help.

The Research

In the first attempt of its kind American psychologists, Amanda Kramer and Richard Zinbarg set out to test whether courageous behaviour and a courageous mindset in people could be activated through reflecting on, and writing about, previous demonstrations of courage.

Writing was used as an intervention due to the known biological and emotional benefits of remembering previous positive events.

People often feel a greater sense of mastery over their own lives after remembering a previous time when something went well for them.

In the experiment, two groups of people were asked to write about a time when they either faced or avoided a situation that caused them fear.

One group wrote about previous experiences such as public speaking or having injections where they successfully faced their fear. The other group wrote about previous experiences where they avoided their fear, for example, not having injections or undertaking a public speaking event.

Both groups were then asked whether they would willingly undertake behaviours related to the fearful experience to test their explicit and implicit reactions in a series of questions.

As the researchers predicted, the group who wrote about previous courageous behaviour said they would engage in future courageous behaviour. This suggests a courageous mindset can be introduced through writing.

A test of whether the writing task made people more likely to show intentions of courageous behaviour was undertaken through a second experiment.

This time a control group were asked to write about their morning routine. They were included alongside the two groups who wrote either about successfully facing their fear or avoiding their fear. All three groups were then asked to speak about themselves in front of three judges. Finally, they were asked if they would be willing to return at a later date to complete a similar task.

As the researchers predicted, the group who wrote about previous courageous behaviour were more likely to volunteer to return to the laboratory to face their fears again at a later date than the group who wrote about avoiding a fear.

So Why Journal About Courage?

It is highly possible that everyone has a certain level of natural courage, which can be manipulated through writing about previous experiences of fear. This is potentially a good tool for those moments where you know you will need to be courageous at a future point in time. 

Journaling regularly about previous experiences of facing fear and being courageous may help ease daily anxiety and fear as we adjust to a new world. First dates, meeting the in-laws, driving tests and exams all spring to mind as potentially nerve-wracking events that require increased courage.

Making journaling about successfully facing previous fears a regular practice can become a valuable tool in our mental health toolbox for life. So next time you sit down to journal, start writing about a time when you’ve successfully faced a situation that caused you fear, and let courage do its job.

Kramer, A., & Zinbarg, R. (2019). Recalling courage: An initial test of a brief writing intervention to activate a ‘courageous mindset’ and courageous behavior. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 14(4), 528–537. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2018.1484943