Burnout: How Journaling Helped Me Find My Way Back to Myself
Reading time: 4 minutes
Before we begin — a gentle but important note. This blog is not your doctor. Anything that calls for medical or psychiatric care deserves the attention of a qualified health professional. If you are going through intense distress or having thoughts of suicide, please reach out: in the UK, you can call the Samaritans at 116 123 (free, 24/7); in the US, call or text 988. Journaling can be a quiet companion on the way — but it is never a substitute for proper care.
My story: when everything went dark
I went through burnout. More precisely, I was the victim of workplace bullying.
I was depressed. I cried every evening. Every morning, my stomach ached at the thought of going to work and facing my manager. I could no longer eat — even though I had a stable salary that fed my family. I could no longer work the way I used to. There was no joy left in it, none at all. My days had turned completely dark. So dark that, at one point, I no longer wanted to go on living — even though I had a one-year-old child.
That was when I found journaling. Affirmations, manifestation, mindfulness. I needed a space of my own — somewhere to breathe, to calm down, to see my situation from a little distance. And then, slowly, to make a decision: to live, and to be fully, completely myself.
I began to read. I watched countless videos, opened countless books on personal growth. The bullying continued, day after day — and yet something inside me had quietly shifted. I had a moment of clarity.
The turning point
We do not live to please others. Not to make others happy, not to help others win. We do not have to constantly read the moods of people around us so as not to disturb them, or stay polite with someone who shows us no politeness at all. And we are not prisoners of a company. A job is not the only way to feed a family.
That realization changed everything. I decided to leave a situation that was not only going nowhere, but was making me seriously ill and deeply depressed. I chose to let go of that so-called "stability": I handed in my resignation. There was no question of continuing to exhaust myself for a company, under that person, any longer.
Because the truth is, so many of us are capable of far more than we think — when we believe it. When we learn to trust ourselves deeply and keep making progress, even tiny progress, we get there one day. We always do.
By then, alongside my job, I had already started creating content and selling on Amazon FBA. That helped me take the leap, too: I had seen that content could be monetized, and that Amazon could bring in a little extra — even if it wasn't enough to live on yet.
So I dared. I was afraid. I was not okay. But I wrote. I wrote it all down, and I wrote about what truly brought me joy — to find my way back to who I am, and who I want to become. That is how the 1% Better Diary was born: for everyone who is carrying something heavy.
Maybe you are burnt out and your self-esteem has quietly crumbled. Maybe you dream of building a business to leave a toxic situation behind. Or maybe you simply want to step out of a dark season and let a little more light into your life. Whoever you are — we are here.
5 benefits of journaling, confirmed by science
So many of today's struggles live inside us, more than around us. Introspection is one of the most powerful tools we have to work through them — and journaling helps us not only reflect, but act. Here is what the research says.
1. Gentler, steadier emotions. Putting feelings into words — what researchers call affect labeling — calms the amygdala, the part of the brain tied to stress and fear (Lieberman et al., UCLA, 2007). Writing down your anger or sadness is already the beginning of soothing it.
2. Support for your mental health. James Pennebaker's pioneering work on expressive writing shows that writing about difficult experiences, 15 to 20 minutes a day for just a few days, can ease symptoms of anxiety and depression — and even improve markers of physical health.
3. Clarity about who you really are. Writing frees up your working memory: when your worries rest on the page, your mind has room again to think, create, and decide (Klein & Boals, 2001). Often, it is only through writing that we discover what we truly think — and who we truly are.
4. Better follow-through on your goals. A study by psychologist Gail Matthews (Dominican University) found that people who write down their goals are significantly more likely to achieve them than those who keep them in their heads. Writing turns a vague wish into a quiet commitment.
5. A true ritual of self-care. Keeping a gratitude journal improves wellbeing, optimism, and even sleep quality (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). A few lines a day are enough to gently retrain the mind to notice what is going well.
What you write becomes real
Journaling will never replace a doctor or a therapist. But it gave me the space I needed to find myself again, to decide, and to rebuild my life — one percent at a time.
The 1% Better Diary and our products at Les Carnets Rituels are here to walk that path with you. Because what you write, little by little, takes shape in reality.
Take care of yourself. And if today feels heavy, write just one line. That is already a beginning.