I recently started to journal again, and I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

The concept is simple enough—open a notebook or word doc or whatever device you prefer, then write down whatever’s on your mind—but there are a lot of reasons people might avoid journaling:

• I’m not a writer.
• I don’t have time.
• What if someone else reads it?
• My problems aren’t important enough to be documented.

These are all legitimate reasons to keep your thoughts to yourself, but there are benefits to unloading on an inanimate object:

• No one else will read it—you don’t even have to—so it doesn’t matter how it’s written.
• It can take as little as five minutes to jot down a troubling concern.
• This one is a little trickier (see my story below) but only you know your living situation and your level of privacy. A password-protected file might be a better option if you have family or roommates who snoop.
• If it’s bothering you, it’s worth writing about.

For those of you who regularly journal, you already know all this. And for a long time, I did too. I journaled the full three years I lived in Mexico, originally to document my time there, but it turned into a safe space for me as my life grew more difficult. I continued after I moved back to the US and while I went through a divorce (something I haven’t been shy about sharing) but stopped soon after moving in with my now-husband.

Over the years I’ve sometimes felt the itch to get back to it, so this year I made it one of my goals. On the first day I wrote eight pages. EIGHT. Since then I’ve maxed out at two or three, and most days it’s only one page. I don’t journal every day, but I try to at least once a week.

I know how helpful it can be to get the junk out of my head. It frees up space to think about things I want to think about instead of things that frustrate me. That extra mental space gives my brain the room to noodle on other, often more important issues. I’ve even resolved a few issues after writing them down.

Here’s another thing I’m trying to do differently: I’m allowing myself to use the space in my journal for whatever I want. If I get ideas for the book I’m writing, or a marketing idea, or some other project that’s been on my mind—I write it down. It’s okay if every entry isn’t complaining or simply documenting my day. In fact, I’d rather it doesn’t. (Again, see the Book of Good.)

I’m a rule follower. Everything in my life has its place and I like that. But giving myself this freedom has been liberating. Best of all, I’m not carrying that junk around in my head. Sure, I think about it from time to time, but it’s not weighing on me the way it used to.

To recap, scribbling down your thoughts with no intention to read them, share them, or even think about them again can be really, really cathartic. By documenting your concerns, you’re affirming that your thoughts are valid but they don’t need to dominate your life.

My middle school trauma: a girl I thought was my friend read my journal when she was at my house, then told people at school some of the more embarrassing details. I denied it and said she was just trying to get attention, and fortunately for me it died down quickly.